2Many Facts, Not Enough Quotes...

A Short biography of Soulwax/ 2Many Dj's.

Stephen and David Dewaele make a welcome return to Ireland, bringing their ‘Nite Versions’ Live 2 ManyDj’s tour to Dublin’s Ambassador Theatre on April 12th. The Belgian brothers will fuse their two alter egos, 2 ManyDj’s and live band Soulwax on their extensive European tour.

Brothers Stephen and David grew up in the Belgian town of Ghent, and attribute their love of music to their father. He was, in their opinion, Belgium’s version of John Peel, and presented a rock radio show in ’68 and ’69. Their musical education started at an early age, and the brothers fondly remember being dragged from record store to record store in London and Paris by their Dad. David cites the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Run DMC, Daft Punk, Small Faces, Prince, and David Bowie as influences. Stephen reached a turning point the first time he listened to hip hop such as Public Enemy, De La Soul, and the Beastie Boys. He felt a deep affinity for this kind of material, more for its mixing of styles than the rap or rhyming.

In 1996 the boys formed the band Soulwax with friends Stefaan Van Leuven, Steve Slingeneyer and Dave Martijn. They released several albums, including ‘Leave The Story Untold’ (1996), ‘Much Against Everyone's Advice’ (1999) and ‘Any Minute Now’ (2004), but the brothers soon felt drawn back to the decks. They started dj-ing in bars and clubs in the area as a side project, becoming renowned for their particular brand of genre-busting dance, inspired by the collage funk of Grandmaster Flash. A couple of years later, the brothers decided to take their act to London, making the airwaves of the BBC and independent station XFM. Their set went down so well that club owners started calling during the XFM broadcasts, asking the brothers to play at their clubs.

After much legal wrangling for clearance of tracks, the highly acclaimed ‘As Heard On Radio Soulwax Vol.2’ finally came to fruition in 2002. This album achieved the admirable feat of mixing 45 tracks in the space of about an hour. An egalitarian and unpretentious attitude infused the record, which mixed artists such as Destiny’s child, Peaches, Iggy Pop, 10CC and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. The album outsold their entire back catalogue, and also marked a significant departure from the popular style of dance mix album. The idea of blurring genre distinctions for the dancefloor was recently being explored by clubs and artists for some time. DJ Hell in Berlin displayed a penchant for throwing some 80’s industrial into the techno mix, while Adult from the U.S blended cool, detatched electro with an almost punk sensibility. Even clubs like Optimo in Glasgow were drawing dedicated cult crowds due to a similar irreverence for stylistic constraints since 1997. 2 ManyDj’s shot to DJ stardom simply because they could mix popular, obscure and diverse tracks with invention and flair, making it digestable for a mass audience.

Upon conquering the dance world, the brothers returned to the studio to record ‘Any Minute Now’ with Soulwax. The album enjoyed moderate success before the Dewaele’s went back to work on it, with the aim of adapting it for a 2Many Dj’s set. The resulting remix album, ‘Nite Versions’, was released late last year on PIAS recordings to a very positive response. The album title is an homage to the Duran Duran remix albums of the same name. The ‘Nite Versions’ tour will involve the complete Soulwax band comprising of drummer, bass player, and the brothers on synths. Each show will utilise Abelton Live software, allowing samples to be dropped into the live show and simultaneously ensuring that every performance is unique. Support on the Dublin leg of the tour will be provided by Sydney futurist electro pop band, The Presets.

What's Up Docs?

The Saw Doctors
‘The Cure’
(Sham Town Records, 2006)

The Saw Doctors guitarist Leo Moran should reunite his old band ‘Too Much For the Whiteman’. Irish reggae starts to sound like an ingenious idea when compared with this, the ‘Oirish’ rockers sixth album.

Long gone are the rollicking carefree days of ‘N17’ and ‘I Useta Lover’. Eighteen years down the line, and the red Cortinas and ‘glorious arses’ of old are but a distant dream. These days the boys have bigger fish to fry; like disappointment, estrangement and regret. Davy Carton grapples with the meaning of it all in ‘Funny World’, ‘‘What a funny world / Oh what a funny world / Certain things you’ll never understand.” In the world of The Saw Doctors an existential crisis corresponds with the chirping refrains; ‘‘funny funny world / what a funny funny world / oh what a funny world’’ over a yearning string section.

The secret of the Doctors success is in the repetition. That’s why they have such a good reputation for their live shows. The more you say it, the more it sounds true, and bingo, the audience can sing along too. Listen, here they do it again in the album’s first single, ‘If Only’, until Davy comes over all poetic. “Cause I watched the moon for hours / watched it slowly fade away / Til my dreams turned into flowers / If only I could tell her so.”

Despite a new line-up that includes former Waterboy Anthony Thistlethwaite on bass and sax, and Fran Breen (ex. Lucinda Williams), the band maintain a formulaic and unimaginative sound. Not the worst album you’ll hear this year, but not far off.