As Eli Goldstein and Charles Levine gear up for another massive year as Soul Clap, EQTV talks to the duo at their Miami base to find out more about a string of upcoming releases. And to spice things up, we’ve got some footage from the DJ box as the boys play out for mono_cult in Leeds…
There’s no denying that 2010 was one hell of a year for Eli Goldstein and Charles Levine. After more than a decade of making and playing music, Soul Clap finally started to get the props they deserve last year. And how those props flooded in. Everyone suddenly wanted a piece of these boys, and with reason – all those ‘most exciting DJs around’ epithets are totally justified. Things are really coming to a head now though, with two high-profile releases set to spread the Soul Clap gospel even further. First up is Soul Experiment 002, Eli and Charlie’s first full mix CD dropping in February on No.19 Music, the label fronted by Art Department’s Jonny White. This 24-track mix – 13 of which are exclusives – is a beauty, thanks to tunes from the likes of Lee Foss, Art Department & Seth Troxler, Jamie Jones, Gadi Mizrahi, Justin Drake, Jozif, Craig Richards, James Teej, Jimmy Edgar, Robert James & Burnski, Deniz Kurtel as well as Soul Clap themselves.
And coming hot on the heels of Social Experiment 002, is Soul Clap’s entry into the DJ Kicks canon, a 27-track monster mixed up in collaboration with Eli and Charlie’s pals Wolf+Lamb. Make no mistake, this album will be huge. When !K7 approached the four of them to do a DJ Kicks mix, the initial idea was do it as Wolf + Lamb versus Soul Clap. It wasn’t long before they realised something more collaborative was where their heads were at. Eli explains: “So much of the power of the music we do comes from the idea that we’re a collective, even expanding beyond the four of us to acts like No Regular Play and Nicolas Jaar that come under the Wolf + Lamb label umbrella. Performing together is our strength.” Gadi continues: “Yeah, the concept for this mix was originally that going to be to use our favourite tracks from the last two years – classic stuff – but then we thought it might be a stronger idea to do something that was about our world. We have such a strong sense of collective about the way we do things at the Marcy Hotel and on the Wolf + Lamb label. It’s very loose and we bring all our artists together and we kind of play it by ear and the vibe is very chilled out and deep. We figured if we could bring that to a mix and keep it in the family, with people who’ve released on the label we would have something special.”
The two duos will be touring the DJ Kicks album following its release in March. UK dates confirmed so far include Bloc Weekender on March 11, and Louche in Leeds and Fabric in London in April. And if that’s not enough, Eli and Charlie are also working on their debut artist album, with an eye on an autumn release.
By rights, the boys should be too busy to talk to even their own mothers, but they agreed to give EQTV 15 minutes of their time to give us the lowdown on all these projects via a webcam link-up between our Glasgow HQ and their Miami base. Plus we’ve got a dash of footage from the DJ box as Soul Clap play out for mono-cult at The Faversham in Leeds on New Year’s Day…
Social Experiment 002 is out on No.19 Music on February 28. Wolf+Lamb Vs Soul Clap DJ Kicks is out on !K7 in March. Visit www.soulclap.us, www.no19music.com, www.dj-kicks.com and www.monocult.co.uk
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