reviews / 2025

SOULWAX - All Systems Are Lying

Name: SOULWAX – All Systems Are Lying
Item: All Systems Are Lying
Rating: 7.5
Author: Andrea Campana

2025 (Because)

electro-pop, synth-pop

by Andrea Campana

7.5

“If you can't break the rules, just walk away/ The only winning move is not to play”: this line, from the song “Gimme A Reason”, perfectly sums up the outside-the-system ethic (not anti-system: we'll explain why) of the new synth-manifesto by cult Belgian duo Soulwax, made up of brothers David and Stephen Dewaele. The pair, on the scene for thirty years now, boast a long career that has seen them evolve from alternative rock to unruly electronics, always following their own ethic and never giving in to compromise.

Over the years, electronic music has become their language of choice for battle, including through the ultra-cult 2ManyDjs project. And it's once again the genre they return to here, on this new work with the programmatic title "All Systems Are Lying": not a simple anthem of rebellion set to synthetic, danceable rhythms, but an invitation to flight, to strategic retreat. The world is too complicated, doubts and lies are everywhere, so it's better to let go and trust no one, staying true to what you know.

The songs lay out this particular political program, starting with the techno-pop of "Run Free", an anthem to music and freedom as the last safe harbor left in such an oppressive world. "New Earth Time" pushes back against the idea of a hyper-globalized world where time zones no longer even exist because we're all connected in the same instant; "Constant Happiness Machine" critiques the notion of a relationship as an eternal happiness machine.

And then: "Hot Like Sahara" discusses how global warming was caused by "someone else" who got to set the rules, and warns: "Alla fine anche il mare sarà venduto". And "Gimme A Reason", the manifesto's central track, makes the sentiment clear too, with a line like "Dammi una ragione/ Una bugia a cui credere". A kind of techno-nihilism, you might call it, perfectly suited to a 2025 in which, between post-truth, digital neo-corporatism and the rise of AI, it really is hard to trust anyone at all.

Soulwax's album, rich with imaginative, bold and eclectic electronic arrangements that seem to come from the future, paradoxically evokes a past in which ideas, ideology and faith were still authentically possible. It's a gaze that's angry yet nostalgic, assertive yet full of frustration, cast on a bleak reality that music can only comment on with an exemplary richness of sounds and colors, with a desperate expressiveness that nonetheless stays thoroughly up to date, at least as far as "noble" electronic music goes - the kind not meant only for clubs and discos, but also for anyone who believes guitar music, in its rebellious nature, has had its day.

This “All Systems Are Lying” is therefore a bold and timely provocation, which nonetheless also delivers a tracklist of convincing music, well produced and “easy” to listen to and understand. Which is perhaps, in this rather desperate state of affairs, one of the few ways left – for artists and otherwise – to be truly “rebellious”.

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26/10/2025

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This article is an English translation of the original Italian text by Andrea Campana, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

Read the original in Italian · About the English edition