2 Many DJs (aka Soulwax)

DJ team 2 Many DJs are also known as a band called Soulwax, headed by two Belgian brothers who were known in their native Europe as a modish pop rock band. Before there was anything like “Electroclash” for them to align themselves with, they were seemingly unknown in North America, but their videos could be found on Italian MTV, and any NME reader in the last few years probably knew who the group was. They had maybe even read a review of now-three-year-old Soulwax’s 2 Many DJs EP, which was then a single, not a moniker for a DJ team. Somewhere along the way, the Soulwax brothers started getting more recognition for their DJ efforts, their mash-ups (of the likes of Salt-n-Pepa with the Stooges, or Destiny’s Child with 10cc). These mash-ups are often known as “bootlegs”, though every track on the 2 Many DJs mix CD titled As Heard on Soulwax Radio Pt. 2 was legally cleared through their respective publishers. Since this is one of the most fun party mixes imaginable, their live set must be pretty damn fun, right? Of course it all depends. I suppose going to a DJ set to write about it is not too far away from acting as trainspotter to some degree (of course, I go to have fun too, otherwise I wouldn’t be doing this). The feeling at Lit was not necessarily out of the ordinary. That it is to say, there were hipsters who came to dance, hipsters who came to drink, and hipsters who came to be hip. Undoubtedly there were people there who probably had no idea who the Soulwax brothers even are (“I’ve never heard that Pink remix before, I wonder who did it?”). By the time the 2 Many DJs hit the decks in the labyrinthian downstairs of Lit (which does not have a proper dance floor), the previous DJ had the party warmed up on the usual NYC DJ fare (i.e. New Order). The brothers started their set with the increasingly ubiquitous LCD Soundsystem’s “Losing My Edge”, then seamlessly (what else) mixed in “Moody” by the seminal ESG. So far so good, but nothing surprising, really. Their set continued with hit after hit, mixing mega-commercial hits (Blur, The Hives) with underground house/electro tracks (Lil’ Louis, Vitalic, The Rapture), as well as a handful of mash-ups that have made everyone take notice. One of the more interesting of these is a reworking of Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out of My Head”, mixed with the actual band Soulwax playing guitars, bass and drums as if Kylie fronted a garage band, a move which perhaps takes the whole “bootleg/mash up/bastard pop” thing to a new level. I should mention that it was the second annual Electroclash festival that brought 2 Many DJs to town for multiple gigs. It’s interesting to see how differently from Europe the U.S. has received the bastard pop phenomena. In England, major radio stations (namely Xfm in London) broadcast unauthorized bootleg anthems like the Freelance Hellraiser’s subversive “Stroke of Genieus” (the instrumental to the Strokes’ “Hard to Explain” coupled perfectly with Christina Aguilera’s acapella “Genie in a Bottle”) as well as numerous mash-ups by Soulwax (pre-the 2 Many DJs moniker). But here in the States, bastard pop has been lumped into the Electroclash camp, which of course has a much smaller audience than the radio listening public in the UK. But this makes sense to a degree as 2 Many DJs often mix current electro jams into their sets. The 2 Many DJs might not dress up in hyper-kitsch wear like other Electroclash artists (like the popular yet record-less group W.I.T.), but this is where the musical quality is folks. Never mind the kitsch, here’s the fucking jams.