4 out of 5

Label: Deewee

Produced by: David, Stephen Dewaele

I totally understand why this Soulwax “album” got something of a lukewarm reception: it’s part of the same reasons I just put ‘album’ in quotes: it feels like / it is a lark.

In a move that, from other bands, would probably make me roll my eyes out of my head, when Soulwax – or more likely the Dewaeles, as 2manydjs, their club-oriented persona – were invited to make an Essential Mix for BBC 1, instead of providing the requested DJ set of a two hour block of mixed together songs, the Dewaeles delivered 11 new tracks under their Soulwax persona, with the extra dig of calling the tracks Essential One, Essential Two, and so on.

This was essentially recorded on the fly, and that does show somewhat, and the very nature of the above description is kinda funny but kinda obnoxious also; coming right on the back of another album, it didn’t instill confidence that we’d be getting the most evolved set of songs.

And they’re not. I do think viewing this through the lens of being a full-fledged album will inevitably disappoint, as it’s more like what BBC 1 wanted… it just so happens that the songs mixed together are all created by the Dewaeles. In other words, it’s akin to their Belgica soundtrack, which had the brothers pretending to be various fake bands from different genres to build out a full score for the movie; Essential is the same thing applied to a club mix. My ears aren’t adapted to that scene to name the various subgenres, but the Dewaeles are very clearly pulling from different eras / type of club music, leaning into more European electro, or garage, and etc., all produced with the goddamn immaculate precision of a Deewee production. So the percussion and beats just sound delightful – deep, thick – and the synths and treated guitars on top are nice and warm and bouncy.

The lyrics – spelling out ‘essential,’ or saying one or two words or lines on repeat – are mostly nonsense, which adds to the larkiness, but again, as long as your lens is adjusted to what the brothers were executing here, that makes sense. I’d think aiming for anything weightier would’ve skewed the fun of the project.

The club-geared nature of the tracks is definitely more in the 2manydjs territory, but Soulwax obviously has had their hand in dance music and remixes, and so it makes sense to have sold this under the band name, especially since it’s original material. Either way, I do think the material is irrepressibly toe-tapping, and how much that entertains or annoys will come down to what you want from the set. But pitching this as discarded remixes also isn’t giving it enough credit: while the album as a whole isn’t as robust as any given Soulwax studio release, it takes the concept the Dewaeles set out for themselves and executes on it fully. From a less creative duo, I might still be rolling my eyes, but here, I took it in a playful spirit and got to enjoy 12 tracks as a result.