Chicago. Detroit. New York. And now, it seems, Boston.... The rise and rise of local house eclectics Soul Clap – Eli Goldstein and Charles Levine - has done much to establish that city’s electronic standing in recent years but it is the duo’s release of Bostonian-focussed compilation, Dancing On The Charles, this month which should officially ratify their home city’s status as one of clubland’s key new playgrounds, as Defected’s Ben Lovett recently found out.
“Boston has a history with disco but its dominant force has always been rock ‘n roll,” Goldstein explains, “the number of hipsters per square mile is staggering. Therefore the city has always been passed up for New York [just over 200 miles to the north] when it comes to dance music.”
So why now? Why is Boston only now shifting its sonic axis? “Well, not to toot our horn but we’ve done really well” Goldstein reflects. “But then, I don’t know, I think there’s something to be said for the fact that 50% of Boston’s population is university students. You have the Berkeley College Of Music too. These kids are more open to varied musical influences and whilst that means the whole EDM piece has started to grow in the city, there’s also the other side. There are definitely a whole new bunch of underground DJ-producers, some of whom we don’t know, making interesting stuff.”
The timing of, full title, Soul Clap presents: Dancing On The Charles – A Boston electronic music story is therefore apt. Referencing the duo’s infamous Dancing On The Charles outdoor parties of the last five years (on the banks of Boston’s Charles River), the album seeks to flag Boston’s rich and incredibly diverse electronic talent – a rapidly evolved scene that, in sound, spirit and belief, shares everything with Soul Clap’s cause, and has helped earn their DJ sets, mixtapes, productions and eponymous label global adulation very, very quickly.
EFUNK says it all apparently, the boys’ all-embracing tag for Boston’s recent rampant creativity and their own distinctive mantra. It works. Album selections such as Chas Bronz’s feel-good piano-houser Love Only You and John Barera’s deep spine-tingling dive Wait For It (featuring Victor Flores’ beautifully distorted vocals), newcomer Clifflight’s breezy electro-popped All The Things and Soul Clap’s own twisted funk-bomb remix of Mystery Roar’s Mayhem, all despite their multifariousness nod to a, well, EFUNKy vibe.
“I don’t think you can pin this music down with anything else” Levine suggests. “It’s a totally open, diverse state of mind. You can feel the indie and R&B influences, right next to the house basslines and sprinkles of disco. All of it together is EFUNK, an engaging, funky electronic feeling.”
Soul Clap is already considering a follow-up album. “It’s funny really, because when we set up our label last Fall we knew we wanted to put something out for Boston but really only imagined a 4-track EP” Levine says. “But it was soon apparent that we could expand upon that idea. We didn’t need to think twice, there was always enough music. I think it’s testament to the growth of the Boston scene that Tanner Ross [Wolf + Lamb’s prominent regular] doesn’t even feature; we didn’t have room.”
He continues: “This [the new album] is the closest project to our hearts; it feels like a real breakout moment. The reaction has been great so far and another one might be cool. Because we’ve done one compilation, more producers will make themselves known to us and we can look at what’s possible; that’s an exciting thought. We basically just want to tell people that Boston IS happening and has lots, today, to shout about.”
Soul Clap’s long-term mentor Kon, AKA Christian Taylor, agrees but is less certain of the reasons behind its dramatic ascension. To his mind, Boston might just be another cog in music’s big cross-cultural wheel of cyclical trends, sounds and genres – artists and scenes are always phasing in and out of fashion. “Honestly, I’m not sure of the specific reasons behind Boston’s current momentum” he urges. “But I do know that if you study music as a linear entity then you’ll identify the shifts and Boston is definitely a shift. Look at how retro house is back, things go in cycles. At the same time, there’s a lot of specific talent in Boston right now. I was pleasantly surprised when I first heard Eli and Charles’ album; it’s really cool to see this influx of underground talent.”
Kon, who also features on Dancing On The Charles (with a slick remix, alongside Bosq, of late Seventies jazz-funk and disco great Matthew Larkin Cassell), first met Soul Clap pre-Soul Clap. Goldstein and Levine were residents at one of Boston’s several downtown ‘Top 40’ clubs Aria, as was Kon, who promptly took the duo under his wing and educated them in the ways of authentic funk, boogie, disco and old-school groove.
A supreme disco DJ, renowned record collector (through which has blossomed a further association with BBE) and ‘edit’ king, Kon has been through it all: “There are talented young artists coming up but with some I do question their connection to the music they’re meant to be inspired by; particularly those people making so-called ‘nu disco’. I grew up in the late Seventies. I remember my mum taking me to the roller disco and witnessing that musical energy first hand. I have a huge connection to that music which I can pull on.”
Kon (an acronym for ‘King Of Nothing’) first started “messing with records” at the age of four, progressing to his first mixer in 1985 (“when everything made sense”) and then debut gigs in 1990. His initial focus was hip-hop, which also prompted productions for renowned genre imprint Rawkus before scene disenchantment pushed him back into the clubs, a weightier association with disco and house, and in turn his vital tutelage of Soul Clap.
This month, Kon releases the All About Youx EP via Soul Clap’s label, featuring some of his first original house music productions, and in July promises a debut studio album on BBE. The latter, a labour of love for the past three years, will include guest spots from Ben Westbeech, Georg Levin and local chanteuse Amy Douglas. “I can’t give you a theme or style; there’s only good and bad music, and I’m aiming for the former here” he quips. “But this is a natural progression for me and a return to the Seventies definition of a producer as someone arranging everything... the people, the instruments, not just the beats. That’s what I’ve tried to usher in with the album. I want the best out of the artists I work with. Georg gave me three takes on his particular track; I wasn’t sold on the first two so I asked him to go again.”
At the same time, Kon’s association with Goldstein and Levine, and their other close peers, has taught him a few new studio tricks. Boston’s emergent underground scene is most definitely thriving by feeding and supporting itself. “We split off from the mobile DJing to do the Soul Clap thing in 2007 and Kon really helped steer us through that transition. He’s been an amazing influence; when I first heard him DJ with all those technical skills and that awesome knowledge it totally fucked me up” Levine says. “With Soul Clap we focused on the underground; we embraced other people with the same ideals. This scene has now grown and continues to support and drive itself forwards.”
Soul Clap has been furiously busy since its conception. The pair has DJ’d international dancefloors to delicious distraction and, since their late 2007 discographic debut Dimension7, released idiosyncratic, widely adored cuts for heavyweights AirDrop, Wolf + Lamb (including last year’s Efunk The Album) and Crosstown Rebels; all this, whilst maintaining grass roots through their aforementioned Charles parties and similarly local Midweek Techno soirees.
Whilst, in fact, Boston’s collegiate-minded downtown pumps out brash EDM and the city’s other jurisdictions protect their rock heritage, it is the comparatively small Cambridge district – pivoting on sharp-shooting venues such as Middlesex, Zulu and The Phoenix Landing – that continues, astonishingly so, to make ever more momentous waves far beyond its borders. As revolution ring leaders, do Goldstein and Levine feel the pressure of expectation?
“We subscribe to the associated Wolf + Lamb ethos which is to do purely what you believe in,” Levine remarks. “When you have a crew behind you, you have the confidence to take risks. Besides which, I think the expectation of our fan base these days is to hear the unexpected. There’s no problem. What we’d really like to do this summer now is infiltrate those big festivals with their M_nus and Carl Cox arenas and establish our own, grown-up sound alongside them...make the mainstream see what we do as the norm.”
Studio-wise, Soul Clap has an EP of new standalone material scheduled for release; not to mention, excitingly, the fruits of a perhaps inevitable collaboration with ‘funk godfather’ George Clinton. EFUNK meets P-Funk. “Working with George has been an immense privilege” Goldstein enthuses. “We recorded three tracks a couple of weeks ago; he’s, like, in his 70s but totally still on it. It was intensive but magical. He also got Sly Stone in to work with us; I don’t think Sly’s done anything for around 20 years so that was incredible; the next step.”
Boston’s electronic reputation is soaring. And nothing, not even April’s devastating Marathon bombings, can dent it - this city’s highly exciting underground scene makers are all business as usual. “They [the bombings] happened during the holidays, so there were no parties and nothing open the next day,” Goldstein muses. We all felt it; we all had friends and family caught up in it but that Wednesday, at The Phoenix Landing, was our first party afterwards and, honestly, there was even more of a desire to party, to have fun, and to celebrate life.”
Words: Ben Lovett
Soul Clap presents: Dancing On The Charles – a Boston electronic music story is out now on Soul Clap; Kon’s All About Youx EP is released by Soul Clap on June 10.
Kon's artist album On My Way will be released on BBE this July.
