Soul Clap

Boston-based selectors and studio hands Soul Clap traffic in a wide-ranging strain of house that draws deeply from vintage disco and electro-funk wellsprings. Emerging in the late 2000s via tech-house 12-inches and anonymous reworkings of pop and R&B cuts, the pair soon aligned with Wolf + Lamb; their shared 2011 installment in the DJ-Kicks series lifted the visibility of both acts. Later, star-studded LPs such as Efunk: The Album (2012) and Soul Clap (2016) extended affectionate nods to ’80s and ’90s R&B and house yet retained an exploratory bite. Partnerships with George Clinton, Nona Hendryx, and Robert Owens followed, alongside remixes for Laid Back, DJ Harvey, and Little Dragon, while festival stages around the globe became regular stops. Into the 2020s the duo pressed onward, folding garage, rave, and R&B threads into output typified by 2021’s WTF (World Transformation Force).

Eli Goldstein, recording as Bamboozle, and Charles Levine, known as Lonely C, first crossed paths in high school and launched parties around Boston beginning in 2001. After the Midweek Techno series cemented their local standing, international dates and original productions arrived by 2007. A handful of singles plus the EP The Definition surfaced on AirDrop Records and Wolf + Lamb Music before the decade closed. Action/Satisfaction landed on Crosstown Rebels in 2010, and the Joint Custody EP, shared with Wolf + Lamb’s Gadi Mizrahi, appeared on Double Standard Records. The 2011 DJ-Kicks collaboration between Soul Clap and Wolf + Lamb earned strong notices and sparked joint global tours featuring extended six-hour sets. Soul Clap next delivered the Social Experiment 002 mix for Art Department’s No.19 Music and joined Art Department plus Osunlade for the Crosstown Rebels single “We Call Love,” while two further EPs emerged as Clapz II Dogz with Catz N’ Dogz.

Wolf + Lamb Music issued the duo’s first proper album, Efunk: The Album, in 2012, spotlighting guests such as Melanie Blatt and the Genevan Heathen. That same year Soul Clap Records opened its doors, hosting their own material alongside releases from Nick Monaco and Night Plane. Two cuts on Funkadelic’s 2014 triple album First Ya Gotta Shake the Gate were co-produced by Soul Clap, among them the Sly Stone-featured “In Da Kar,” and a 2015 remix package followed. Additional 2015 activity included the Robert Owens collaboration “Misty” and the Watergate 19 mix CD. Crew Love was established with Wolf + Lamb in 2016; the same year saw the arrival of the full-length Soul Clap, featuring Nona Hendryx, Phill Celeste, and Ebony Houston. Fabric 93 arrived in 2017, and the pair handled production for Hendryx’s 2018 EP Keep Funkin.

House of Efunk Records debuted with the 2019 12-inch “Jupiter Crush,” after which house veteran Kathy Brown appeared on the single “Ready to Freak.” The soca-tinged “Jussa Come,” recorded with Sha-Lor, surfaced in 2020. Third studio album WTF (World Transformation Force) followed in 2021, enlisting Rich Medina, Desmond “DSP” Powell, and Harriet Brown. Though equally upbeat and festive as earlier work, the set carried a sharper socially conscious thread, advocating radical love and hope as means to restore the planet.