3 out of 5

Label: PIAS

Produced by: Soulwax

From rock to electro to somewhere inbetween, Soulwax had been doing the crossover shuffle for years, somehow vacillating between mainstream appeal and totally doing their own thing. With the Belgica soundtrack, assuming different band names and styles with literally every song, it seemed like the group’s aural identity had become completely morphable. …Except, really, throughout all these permutations, the group somehow still sounds like Soulwax.

There’s something very fitting about the plaintively titled ‘From Deewee’ and its metal bust cover art and the approach – a live studio set, done in one take – producing what is alternately the most rounded-edged, accessible album of the Dewaele brother’s careers, the most Soulwax-sounding thing ever… any maybe also one of their more boring releases. It’s the group executing with their typical sense of fun, but the spirit of it comes across as a facsimile of what they do – streamlined, remixed, and cut together. It’s not for nothing that this live recording feels like a DJ set, with fades and using drum fills to blend between tracks.

Don’t get me wrong: From Deewee is stuffed to the gills with toe-tapping beats and catchy rhythms – fantastically ear-filing production, effortlessly blending digital beats with (maybe?) analog ones, and funky or poppy synths and guitars underscoring variously manipulated vocals. I’d also say there’s a slight structure to this, kicking off with some Belgica-esque singles before shifting more squarely into Depeche Mode-esque / DFA tunes, then going full club electro with lots of beats-only jams towards the end. However, there’s a samey pace and tone throughout this that tends to make early tracks stand out – before the sound gets a little repetitive, and before a particular drum sound becomes the defacto fallback basis for every track.

The more I listen to the album as a mix and not a studio thing, the more I can get into it; it’s a little empty headed otherwise. This, too, is part of the Soulwax formula, but again, From Deewee’s aim seemed to be to bring all of stuff as forward as possible. Opener Preset Tense makes reference to the destination being the thing to savor over the journey; the album is kind of a potshot at that, reveling in all the group’s done and putting on its shiniest suit to revel in the glory of the moment.