Soulwax - Most Of The Remixes We've Made For Other People...

Justice, "Phantom Pt. II (Soulwax remix)" (YSI link)

DJ Shadow, "Six Days (Soulwax remix)" (YSI link)

Arthur Argent, "Hold Your Head Up (Soulwhacked mix)" (YSI link)

It's the time of year when everyone starts looking back, compiling their best-of lists and whatnot. It's the perfect time to look at one of the best releases of this year, which looks back at the past decade of remixes from the seminal dance combo Soulwax. If you read this blog or care about electronic music, you already know about Soulwax. For those that don't, Soulwax is a Belgium music conglomerate run by the Dewaele brothers, Stephen and David. Under that moniker, they've made original studio music, play live around the world and remix other artists. They DJ as 2ManyDJs, world famous for their sets and How To Kill The DJ mixes. All of our favorites today, from Justice to Simian Mobile Disco to Digitalism, are in debt to these guys.

To celebrate a documentary called Part Of The Weekend Never Dies, which chronicled Radio Soulwax, Parlophone and Soulwax have compiled (almost) all of the remixes the guys have done over the past 10 years, from their 1997 Lords of Acid one to this year's Justice and Klaxons. I tried to give a good sampling above, covering the different ground that the guys have in terms of remix projects, including my favorite remix on the CD, the Soulwax remix of DJ Shadow's "Six Days." I left out the Daft Punk, Kylie Minogue, LCD Soundsystem, Klaxons and more, just to give you a sense of how stacked this compilation is. I did want to pay special attention to the Soulwhacked mix of Arthur Argent's "Hold Your Head Up," which was completely new to me. This one is sick, sick, sick; it's start off slow and relaxed, as instruments get added to the mix. Then, an awesome robotic voice comes in repeating the lyrics, Slowly but surely, a nasty bass comes in and the rocking drums rock harder and you get just a great tune. P.S. Pay special attention to the lyrics, my friends: "When it's love that brings you down, don't ever let them know. However hard they hurt you, don't ever let them know. Hold your head up."

Oh, and for the record, here's the full title of the album:

Most of the Remixes We've Made Over the Years Except for One by Einsturzende Neubaten Because We Lost it and a Few We Didn't Think Sounded Good Enough or Just Didn't Fit In But Including Some That are Hard to Find Because Either People Forgot About Them Or Just Simply Because They Haven't Been Released Yet. A Few We Really Love. One We Think is Just OK. Some We Did For Free. Some We Did For Money. Some Just For Ourselves Without Permission and Some For Friends as Swaps But Never On Time and Always At Our Studio In Ghent.

Clearly, this one gets our highest recommendation. It's just an amazing package for fans and DJs alike, 2 discs of pure bliss, Disc 2 features a mix by 2ManyDJs that takes you on a journey through the remix catalogue. This one is not easy to find for some reason, but HMV has it at a great price.