2manydjs, Friendly Fires and The Xx are the star turns at this year’s Red Bull Music Academy closing party on Friday. To get an idea of just how amazing one of those acts are, and the myriad of floor-destroying skills of which they are capable, here’s a short introduction to the world of 2manydjs.
Soulwax, headed by David and Stephen Dewaele, hail from Ghent in Belgium. Under the moniker 'Soulwax', the Dewaele brothers have released several major albums, including Leave The Story Untold (1996), Much Against Everyone's Advice (1998), Any Minute Now (2004), Nite Versions (2005) and Most of the Remixes... (2007). However it was the key album As Heard On Radio Soulwax Part 2 that helped raise the profile of both the band and the DJ sideline.
E Talking – filmed in swinging London niterie Fabric – was the first single post the unveiling of 2manydjs and which also began to fuse the two strands of the Soulwax brand. The next album, Any Minute Now, came later in a remix version, collecting the best reshapes of Any Minute Now’s tracks. One of which is NY Lipps, wherein their own song gets a blending with Lipps Inc’s evergreen Funkytown chart-topper of yore.
A compilation of Soulwax’s remixes was released in 2007, entitled Most of the remixes we've made for other people over the years except for the one for Einstürzende Neubauten because we lost it and a few we didn't think sounded good enough or just didn't fit in length-wise, but including some that are hard to find because either people forgot about them or simply because they haven't been released yet, a few we really love, one we think is just ok, some we did for free, some we did for money, some for ourselves without permission and some for friends as swaps but never on time and always at our studio in Ghent. It’s not only possibly the longest album title ever, but also deeply essential for anyone with a pulse. On it there are re-fits of hits by everyone from Kylie Minogue to Lords Of Acid. Shall we enjoy a bit of their remix of Justice’s Phantom Part 2? Oh yes...
While we’re on the subject, it could be argued that Gossip owe their entire career to Soulwax’s remix of their Standing In The Way Of Control.
To round off their tour in 2008, a film following Soulwax was put together from 120 hours of footage taken by Saam Farahmand, including cameos from James Murphy, Erol Alkan, Tiga, Boys Noize, Justice, Peaches and Klaxons, with behind-the-scenes footage, interviews and music from the world tour.
The only commercially available edition of the As Heard On Radio Soulwax... - 2002’s Part 2 - features 45 tracks the brothers were able to clear the rights for. They originally requested rights for 187 tracks and got clearance for 114 of them. 62 were refused and 11 remained untraceable. The As Heard... series continues online, and is up to Part 11.
The band are currently in the stages of making their website into a 24-hour radio station, one which would stream remixes and various other bits and bobs.
For more information on the duo hit soulwax.com and for all the goings-on at one of the hottest music events of the year visit the Red Bull Music Academy.
Comments
Add a comment