Surprise! Soulwax is releasing "an album of original material, “ESSENTIAL" on 22 June via DEEWEE".
The first cut we are blessed with is "Essential Four", a jolly irresistible tune with a thwacking bassline, plenty of cowbell-action, wooshes, pew-pews and lyrics that ruminate on the unstoppable nature of our stream of consciousness (I think).
Is the "Four" in the title a nod to the updated Gang of Four-esque sound of the track? Is it a play on "what thoughts are essential for"? Or are all the tracks on the new album numbered 1 to 12 and is this just track number 4? We don't know. What I do know is that Soulwax' previous album "from DEEWEE" is one of my favourite albums from the last 10 years and getting new work so soon is pretty damn good news for the human race.
Update: the press release just came through and it turns out that all tracks are titled 1 to 12. The entire album is Soulwax' 2018 submission for the "Essential Mix" series on BBC. They are the first artist ever to create 100% original material instead of the usual mix of other artists & own material.
Quote: "When we were approached to make an Essential Mix for the BBC in May 2017, we chose to do what every sane human being would do, we decided to lock ourselves into our studio for two weeks and make an hour of new music based around the word 'Essential', instead of preparing a mix of already existing music. The product of this otherwise unwise decision is something we ended up being very proud of."
We now also know who the voice on "Essential Four" belongs to: Belgian vocalist Charlotte Adigéry, who will be releasing her second EP on DEEWEE later in 2018.
Art Direction: Ill-Studio
Oh, and if you don't follow Soulwax on Instagram yet, you're missing out.
