Live review – Soulwax at Brixton Academy

Soulwax at Brixton Academy, 15 January 2026
★★★★★

When Heaven 17 refused to tour during their heyday because the idea of live shows was too rockist, they probably had Soulwax’s concerts in mind as their dream alternative: three drummers elevated above the stage playing perfectly in sync for 90 minutes, with the main stage simply housing four connected analogue synths.

Other than some relatively lowkey lights thrumming across the stage in time to the drummers, that’s all that was needed to create pure synth entertainment, with Laima Cavalera occasionally striding determinedly to the front of the stage to join Stephen Dewaele’s vocal moments.

Whether the music itself – mostly drawn from the recent All Systems Are Lying comeback album – qualifies as synthpop, dance music or the Dewaele brothers’ stated aim of “rock music played by synthesisers” is irrelevant. Though it’s probably dance music, because it’s impossible not to lose one’s mind and keep moving throughout.

With Stephen and David Dewaele’s synths nestling against each other, their two machines look like the front half of a Jon Pertwee-era Tardis console. David stays glued to his keyboard throughout, the spotlight glaring on him near the end of the main set his only moment to shine.

Stephen joins in the general knob twiddling and button pushing for about half the show, the keyboards’ interconnected concept explained 30 minutes in by a disembodied stern voice in the manner of Patrick Allen’s “Mine is the last voice you will ever hear” from FGTH’s Two Tribes.

Men + Machines

Otherwise, Stephen’s voice remains as strong as when Soulwax first emerged in the late 90s as a conventional enough indie band. Stephen’s high, yearning quality is especially strong in Run Free and Gimme A Reason, the latter’s despair becoming eerie as Stephen’s vocals are merged into the keyboards’ harmonics and bounced around the stage.

He’s more playful when he and Cavalera duet on a deadpan cover of The Fun Boy Three’s Faith, Hope And Charity, intoning “Babies come from ladies” until it builds into a brutalist headrush.

In effect, that’s not the only cover: the main set’s incredible final run is started with the incendiary “Where are your children?” sample from the Dewaeles’ alter ego 2 Many DJs’ mighty Theme From Discotheque soon leads into Cavalera taking the lead on a chilly E Talking, before the stop-start plinking intro of NY Excuse sets up absolute mayhem once the drummers up the pace.

It ends where Soulwax really began, a relatively mellow take on early hit Conversation Intercom allowing the audience to regroup. As innovative and important as 2 Many DJs are, Soulwax even more thrilling in the moment, pushing the idea of warehouse clubs forward just as much as their famed remixes.

Setlist

Hot Like Sahara
Krack
Coronet (sample ‘Faith, Hope And Charity‘ by Fun Boy Three)
Do You Want To Get Into Trouble? / Essential
EMS
Takutakutaku
Is It Always Binary
Rapraprap
Polaris
Heaven Scent / The Manual
I<3 Techno
Run Free
What You Got
Idiots in Love
Pills and People Gone
New Earth Time
Meanwhile on the Continent
Work It (Soulwax remix)
Too Late Now (Soulwax remix)
Another Excuse
All Systems Are Lying
Gimme a Reason
Miserable Girl
E-Talking
Moskow Diskow (Telex)
Toktoktok
NY Excuse
False Economy
Conversation Intercom

For more on Soulwax click here

Featured image: Jim Dyson/Getty Images

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