Live Review: Soulwax 'This Is Belgium Part Two: Cherry Moon On Valium'

Just like BOSTON BUN before them, the legendary Belgian-native electronic group that is SOULWAX have taken a page from DJ SCREW's book and started to slow things down a little.

First it was rap music, then house music and now arguably the most extreme of them all has had the slow-down treatment, and that style is - Gabber. Belgian gabber to be more precise - and oh my does it sound oddly glorious.

SOULWAX have taken some of the most influential and cutting edge (for their time) gabber tunes from way back and cranked the speed dial down from 180 BPM to a purple-tinged 115 BPM. And, if this wasn't enough, the boys have set the hour-long mixtape to visuals, entirely consisting of oldskool gabber ravers dancing amongst record cover art - truly a beautiful thing.

A lot of people who haven't heard of DJ SCREW before might read about this treatment and think it's complete nonsense, but give it a chance. Chopped & screwed music is an artform in itself, and SOULWAX have managed to take it to strange new places by throwing gabber into the mix.

If you came into this mix not knowing the theory or material behind it, you could easily mistake this for modern abstract techno, a la GESAFFELSTEIN or DJEDJOTRONIC.

So, my advice for this is: turn it up, sip something purple and vibe out to some oldskool Belgian gabber.

Words by Nick Luke

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