Radio Soulwax – Part of the Weekend Never Dies

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To roughly quote the bloke out of The Klaxons – “whenever I see Soulwax, I always go up to them and tell them “Any Minute Now” is a brilliant album”. Well, this is an opinion I happen to share. I fell for Soulwax in a big way at the release of “Much Against Everyone’s Advice”, my belief in them consolidated by its follow-up; a bold, audacious collection of songs which owed more to Depeche Mode’s Ultra and Violator than any rock comparisons. However, the album was somewhat of a failure, hampered by poor reviews and rather ill-advised artwork rendering the CD all but unrecognisable on a shelf. The Dewaele brothers went back to DJing and remixing under the moniker 2ManyDJs, seemingly through with being rockstars.

That is until they pretty much reinvented and re-released their album as “Nite Versions”, an 80′s conceit when 12″ vinyl was as important as the standard single. I am someone who laments the loss of the 12″. As a teen I rarely bought 7″ vinyl, often preferring the extended single mix to the paucity of the original. The expression comes from the Night Versions of Duran Duran, the tag given to their extended mixes. The trend started from the wonderful mix of Planet Earth (backed with the equally fantastic Late Bar), and was not necessary a ‘dance’ mix. Instead, it was recorded to be more akin to the extended version they would play in concert, and as such were not remixes in the manner we know today, but moreover specially recorded versions. This approach has allowed Soulwax to marry together their two sides – the rock leanings of the band, and the flair of 2ManyDJs. The resultant centre of the Venn diagram is Radio Soulwax, a gig stroke travelling circus uniting all their talents, along with specially invited artistes. This release captures on film that moment in their career, the footage turned into two films – a documentary, and a live music concert.

Something this film prides itself on is the use of a single camera. However, that is not to say that everything is filmed as one static shot – far from it, manifold cuts and angles are used with a woozy aplomb. This is achieved by cutting together performances from multiple concerts all over the world, from some 120 venues with the camera fixed in a different position. One second you are in New York, then the UK, then Paris, any other of a myriad of locations. Indeed, on the concert film you can choose to have visible the location of that particular shot should you wish. It must have been a nightmare to edit (considering the rapid rate shots appear) and does show the global nature of these concerts.

For the documentary itself, no attempts are made to settle the viewer or to provide a comfortable experience. From the quite frankly annoying, childlike intro, the camera is all over the place, rarely staying still, panning past those speaking back and forth. Edits come thick and fast, concentrating more on interviews with the band and opinions from their peers than the music. It does though get rather repetitive; once you’ve heard one person saying how innovative Soulwax can be, you don’t really need to hear a dozen more people say the same thing. James Murphy, Justice, and Nancy Whang do make interesting contributions (particularly Whang’s surprising opinion on N.Y. Excuse) but things do get rather monotonous and the interviews with fans just annoying.

The filmed concerts are indeed the highlight of the DVD, even with their frenetic pace. They concentrate solely on Any Minute Now, nothing from their earlier career getting a look in, often though completely different versions to their original incarnation. “N.Y. Excuse” is lifted with a Funky Town riff, whilst “E-talking” throbs with electronics. I’m just miffed though that my favourite track “Compute” didn’t make the cut. Sadly, aside from the live concert there is little to recommend here. The documentary is not much more than a Soulwax love-in, confusing at times due to the frenzied slashing in the edit room, and not something anyone with only a passing interest in the band can really enjoy. When releasing product, Soulwax sometimes seem to go out of their way to make it as impenetrable as possible; which is a shame considering how good they can be.
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