Soulwax have teased their first new album in seven years with a London billboard that reads “ALL SYSTEMS ARE LYING”.
The Belgian dance-punk icons, consisting of brothers Stephen and David Dewaele, posted a cryptic social media post which shows a blurry video that zooms into the billboard.
No further details have been revealed, but the duo have also changed their Instagram bio to also have the phrase ‘ALL SYSTEMS ARE LYING’.
ALL SYSTEMS ARE LYING pic.twitter.com/qKVRTOYc9l
— SOULWAX (@soulwax) July 3, 2025
Last year, Soulwax debuted new material as well as an ambitious stage show on their UK and European tour. In what was their first live shows in five years, with a 13-date run that kicked off on the continent before hitting the UK, they played new material to the crowd.
NME attended the London date at The Roundhouse in London on Friday (February 2), where the Dewaele brothers were backed by a huge new live production and joined by a band that included three drummers and number of other musicians across synth and guitars.
While the trio of percussionists was a repeat from the band’s previous tours in support of predecessor albums ‘From Deewee’ and ‘Essential’, this time the electronic pioneers swapped the white outfits for all black in a show with a more cyberpunk edge – echoed by the interpretations of old material and the feel of the new songs aired.
New song ‘Hot Like Sahara’ has been used to open the set, reminiscent of the rock leanings of the band’s earlier material before taking on a more dark and sci-fi dramatic turn. Other new material aired includes the paranoid post-punk-indebted ‘Idiots In Love’, the aggressive synthy rave-rock of ‘New Earth Time’, and the blissed-out mid-set breather of ‘Polaris’.
The Dewaele brothers spoke to NME about the legacy of their ‘As Heard On Radio Soulwax Pt.2′ mix, as well as the indie dance scene of 2002 and counting David Bowie as a fan.
“It’s still weird that we talk about Bowie as if we’d known him but we only met him once,” Stephen told NME. “It’s pretty crazy, even now. He was even on the forum on our little website as ‘David Bowie’ asking us questions, and we thought he was someone else!
“When we met him, Dave asked him how much time he spent on the internet and he replied, ‘Don’t you see I’m on your forum all the time?’ It seems like such a weird world now.”
While the ’00s “indie sleaze” scene that they were part of is currently enjoying a revival in pop culture, the brothers told NME that they believed the circumstances that led to that nightlife were very of their time.
“As Soulwax we played with The Dandy Warhols and then we met Erol [Alkan] in London when he was still doing Trash at The Annexe,” said Stephen. “We started talking to him about all the music we liked and if it felt like we knew him but had never met him. He asked us to play Trash on a Monday night – which is already crazy – and we opened up his record box and we had very similar records. He had ‘Rollin’ & Scratchin’ by Daft Punk, a Blur record, something by Elastica or Aphex Twin.”
In other Dewaele brothers-related news, 2ManyDJs have provided the soundtrack for Netflix‘s new film starring Vincent Cassel, Banger.
The film marks the debut from So Me (Bertrand de Langeron) and was given a global release on the streaming platform in April. It has been confirmed that 2ManyDJs composed all of the original music for the film, including the theme song, and tracks called ‘Dans Le Lab’ and ‘Dans Le Club’.