KCRW Exclusive: Nick Monaco Remixed by Jeremy Sole: “She Got That Fire”

Nick Monaco lives by the philosophy “the weirder, the funkier, the better.”

He immersed himself in turntablism as a high schooler. Now in his early 20’s, he’s released music on three respected electronic imprints — DirtyBird, Wolf + Lamb and Soul Clap Records.

His debut album “Mating Call”, released last year, was aimed at getting everyone to fearlessly – and freakily — let loose on the dance floor and now Soul Clap is releasing an EP of remixes, with a handful of talented folks revamping highlights from the album, including KCRW’s own Jeremy Sole!

From Jeremy:

“Nick has a subtle flare to his sound.

There’s an element that’s big, meant to pound out of speaker stacks at sweaty warehouse after-hours parties, while simultaneously there’s this personal, home-recording vibe that feels like a hand-written letter straight from his soul to yours.

Me being from Chicago, Nick’s sound harkens me back to the classic the era where deep disco was giving birth to House music.

Drum machines and live instruments, male vocals moaning a whispery chant for the dancers to ride on – a classic structure done all in his own freaky way.

To help guide the feel of my remix, I imagined that the song was from the voice of a young naive boy who snuck into a strip club one night, and fell in love with one of the dancers up on the stage, knowing she’s way out of his league. The song is his daydreaming fantasy about her.

For my creative process, I wanted to strip my approach down to finding the flare in the song structure and the groove, and not just flipping the song into another genre, per se.

I played all the instruments and had Todd Simon play horns on it.

I submitted two versions, one with the drums and one without, and for some reason we all just gravitated to the one without – the space within the groove just seems to crawl in a sexier way.”

The original track: