Hearing that Soulwax’s latest was recorded in one take – a process that must, then, have taken them a whopping 49 minutes and 5 seconds – makes you wonder what took them so long. It has been more than a decade since the last Soulwax studio album (2005’s Nite Versions). Then again, the Belgian duo – with their 2manydjs DJ sets, remix duties and various alter-ego bands – are no slouches, and so it transpires that the one-take rule was installed as a means to push themselves into uncharted territory rather than just because they wanted to play more Candy Crush. Three drummers were used, for instance, helping them ramp up the rhythmic energy on tracks such as Trespassers. As an art experiment, From Deewee – named after their studio in Ghent – is impressive: you would never guess the precise Kraftwerkian twinkles of Conditions of a Shared Belief were recorded without painstaking layering. But the songs themselves can fail to grab you as the whole thing whizzes seamlessly by.
