Soulwax: Part of the Weekend Never Dies

Saam Farahmand

BY Cam LindsayPublished May 4, 2009

Any band can be the subject of a documentary, especially when they're the ones shooting it. But after last year's A Cross the Universe, a tour-de-force thrill ride that set a sky-high yardstick for overindulgence by French producers extraordinaire Justice, it seems like a daunting challenge for any act to follow.

Funnily enough, Justice are doting guests in Part of the Weekend Never Dies, a look at the hectic life of Belgian party animals Soulwax. Beginning with an educational intro that explains everything you need to know about Soulwax (aka David and Stephen Dewaele), to an excruciatingly childish degree, it soon becomes a game of trying to explain just what they are. We learn that a) they're a rock band, b) they're the superstar 2manydjs, who popularized the mash-up, and c) they're both, under the dual moniker of Nite Versions and Radio Soulwax.

Seems pretty straightforward but Farahmand and the Dewaeles feel it's worth spending 20 minutes of hearing Klaxons, Erol Alkan, Justice (who admit they stole Soulwax's beats), Busy P and So Me, and LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy (who describes them as "a lot like cocaine, without the big ideas") tell it.

Road warriors, the doc also focuses heavily on the band's constant touring under all three guises and how they often "knock seven shades of shit out of [the audience]." Part of the Weekend Never Dies certainly deserves viewing; there aren't many DJs out there that can spin for 8,000 people and make every single one of them lose their shit.

But with subjects that are eclipsed by more famous faces and a lot of wasted time spent on defining Soulwax, it becomes too much of a vanity project without any of the sordid action that made Justice legendary.
(PIAS)

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