Saturday, February 16, 2013

Soul Clap: Snakehips

Prom Sawyer's got a special place in his heart for soul that makes you clap - Sam & Dave on stage making it rain indoors.  Perhaps as a tip of the hat to the pioneering Harlem dancer, London-based Snakehips keeps dropping beats to make you clap your hands above your head.

I hadn't heard the rework of Mariah Carey's "Bliss" before, but it ranks up there with the best of fellow U.K. soul-reworker Star Slinger's work. What I've always loved about this style is superimposed uppers and downers - like Vodka Red Bull, or the Grinnell staple or yore Blast Loco - the halftime bass and echoey synths slow you down, but the tight snares speed you up. 

Now the Wild Belle remix has got to be the best I've heard of the oft-spun track. Those hefty octavized bass lines come over the beat like Prom Sawyer's favorite overlooked '90s subgenre, G-Funk. I have no doubt you could drive slowly to this.

But the cake-taker is Snakehips' most recent track, released three weeks ago. Bondax set a high bar with the original. But like Kevin Barnes says: here comes that soul clap.  I'll take anything that starts with piano chords and a claptrack, but when that drop hits... 

"She's a diamond, I'm the rough."