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The intersection of rock and electronic music has been clusterfucked for years, and it takes extraordinary skills to stand out. Belgium\u2019s Soulwax have been in that nexus for decades. The group\u2019s creative core of David and Stephen Dewaele have gone from generating convincing facsimiles of grunge on their 1996 debut LP Leave the Story Untold<\/em> to the leftfield-techno tracknology of 2018\u2019s Essential<\/em>.<\/p>\n For All Systems Are Lying<\/em> (DEEWEE\/Because Music), the Dewaeles said, \u201cWe wanted to capture the feeling of a band playing electronic instruments \u2014 live, loud and loose.\u201d Using modular synths, live drums, tapes machines, and processed vocals, Soulwax claim to have made \u201ca rock album \u2026 without any guitars.\u201d One quibble: All Systems<\/em> only occasionally rocks. And that\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n More from Spin:<\/p>\n Perversely, Soulwax open with \u201cPills And People Are Gone,\u201d which sounds like an end-of-the-party lament that would make Radiohead weep. \u201cPolaris\u201d is a suspenseful pulse-pounder, like Philip Glass jamming with Justice. The methodically percolating techno-rock of \u201cThe False Economy\u201d scans like a denigration of social-media strategies, sung in a sneering, Trent Reznor-like tone. \u201cEngineered Fantasy\u201d bears the woozy, oneiric vibe of Tobacco, but with clearer, more earnest singing.<\/p>\n Album highlight \u201cRun Free\u201d rides rugged, midtempo beats, rubbery bass synths and features the best singing on the record. Flush with yearning, it\u2019s an escapist joint with an undercurrent of peril, buoyed by an acidic 303 solo, a massive swell of synths and a chunky breakbeat. Is it rock? No\u2026 it\u2019s better than that.<\/p>\n The closest Soulwax come to rock, as most know it, is \u201cNew Earth Time,\u201d in which disaffected vocals float over a beat-heavy attack with vibrant percussion timbres and warped synth zaps. The ominous title track recalls Visage, with its nervy, swerving synth fibrillations and sharp percussion slaps. Later, robust techno beats barge in, with metallic accents and chopped-up female vocals. It\u2019s an exemplary manifestation of Soulwax\u2019s thesis of society\u2019s downward spiral triggered by technology\u2019s most nefarious side effects. And you can dance to it.<\/p>\n