Dust off the ol’ 909

From alt rock to synth pop, Belgian music act Soulwax is always tweaking and playing with their sound. Recorded in two weeks, the newest twelve album/mix Essentials, builds sonically on their last year’s effort From Deewee. The nostalgic house and electronica married with modern effects keep things interesting, but unfortunately the short time frame these tracks were made during shows.

The opener “Essential One” is a descriptive introduction to the concept of the album with a male voice providing a detailed introduction. This feels more and more like bad marketing than an actual good idea. Distorted synths rattle around, drums open the track up into some outsider house. Although this track is five minutes, much of that is introduction and buildup, and when we finally get to dance, the climax feels too short lived.

“Essential Two” is a driving techno track with some interesting percussion and sample work. Yet it feels unstructured and thrown together. “Essential Three” features beautiful dissonant plucky bell synths that lead into a fun little 909 techno groove and 303 bassline. The reverb on the bass is a questionable mixing decision but overall this track enjoyable.

In “Essential Four,” the drum machine sounds amazing. The panning on every piece of percussion is meticulous and self-delayed vocals sound organic and give the track personality. However, the singing is bad. “Essential Five” attempts a darker tone, but the drums are lacking and the heavily delayed singing is annoying, to say the least.

“Essential Six” is more memorable. Creative sound design and effects work well with a simple and stiff techno groove. The vocals are half-assed but can be ignored. “Essential Seven” is more of the same, with a kind of interesting/fun analog drum groove and an air of experimentation. The bassy synth sequence gets very tedious and doesn’t sound all that good stereo panned as wide as possible.

“Essential Eight” brings things back with an interesting sound design and melodic progression. The formula is here but the synths are always changing and interesting; expect analog beeps and bloops and groovy “pots and pans” percussion. “Essential Nine” is acid-house in its purest form. It’s minimal with a jammy vibe, with only a squelching 303 bassline and an 808 drum machine. If you’re a Roland synth nerd, you will probably dig it.

“Essential Ten” is huge and atmospheric. The clavinet style synths are beautiful and an understated beat is a nice change of dynamic. “Essential Eleven” is a bad rip off of that Kavinsky song “Nightcall,” and it’s definitely not essential. Closing things out is obviously “Essential Twelve,” and at this point, these boys are running out of time because this is a mess. Nothing really fits together, and the bassline is especially lazy.

All together this project is inconsistent and unpolished, yet there is creativity, great beats and a lot of good ideas. It will make the Roland synth nerds dance, but this project is a lesson that thoughtful, interesting music takes vision and a lot of work and Soulwax is lacking a little in both on Essentials. And though these issues are probably an effect of the two-week challenge the group set for themselves, nobody listening cares as long as the music delivers.