Soulwax have shared a documentary exploring their world-first ‘After Hours’ rave at Abbey Road Studios – watch below.
On February 21, the Belgian brother duo held a five-hour rave at the iconic recording studio in London for a select group of 300 fans who were the lucky winners of an online ballot.
Now, they have released a documentary film, titled Abbey Road After Hours, in which they lay out what happened in the days leading up to the event. The day before, they recorded a brand new track in Abbey Road’s Studio Two, titled ‘Perfect We Are Not’, and they cut it directly to vinyl and gave it its debut as the opening track of their 2manydjs rave set.
Check out the documentary, as well as their complete set from the night, here:
It was the first time that Abbey Road Studios has opened its doors to the public for such an event, with the rave itself having gone down in the esteemed Studio One space. It was also the first time Soulwax used their DEEWEE Soundsystem, which they have based on New York’s iconic Paradise Garage.
Speaking ahead of the event, the Dewaele brothers said: “It’s hard to say whether we have a perverse or healthy attraction to crazy ideas, that’s for other people to decide, really. So to be approached with a crazy idea is one thing, but to be approached with a crazy idea by the most iconic recording studio in music history is even more attractive.
“We embrace and accept this challenge and also sincerely hope this won’t be the last rave at Abbey Road.”
Last October, Soulwax shared ‘All Systems Are Lying’, their first album in over seven years. They described the whopping double album as “a rock album made without any electric guitars”, adding: “We wanted to capture the feeling of a band playing electronic instruments – live, loud and loose. This record is the result of that experiment.”
In support of the album, the duo released two double singles – ‘All Systems Are Lying’/‘Run Free’ and ‘Gimme A Reason’/’Meanwhile On The Continent’ – along with the single ‘New Earth Time‘.
They also dropped their seminal ‘Nite Version’ remixes of their recent singles, and recently wrapped up their 2026 tour including a huge show at O2 Victoria Warehouse in Manchester and O2 Academy Brixton in London.
Elsewhere, NME spoke to Soulwax in their DJ aliases, 2ManyDJs, back in 2022. They spoke about counting David Bowie as a fan; Bowie had previously hailed the brothers in the press, calling their mixes “dynamite combinations”. The pair would return the favour by making a Bowie mix and accompanying film, DAVE, as Radio Soulwax.
“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.”