Soul Clap’s Gator Boots

Although their latest edit based project has elicited smirks and guffaws whenever I’ve mentioned it, Soul Clap‘s Gator Boots is no laughing matter.

A collaborative limited 12″ (and download available through their Crew Love website) Gator Boots Vol. 1, is a bold series of edits of classic tracks that are fit for tweaking, but are so good most people don’t mess with them.

The edit game is a tricky one. To take something forgotten and rework it gives it new life, but to take a virtual razor to something easily recognizable and beloved can be a really really bad look.

Outkast’s “Prototype,” Mos Def’s “Umi Says,” Willie Hutch’s “Brothers Gonna Work It Out” and Grace Jones’ “Done It Again” are absolutely perfect tracks and should for all intents and purposes be left alone.

However, Soul Clap and Nick Monaco attack the source material with enough respect to add a new veneer to them while highlighting the aspects that make them gems. Monaco‘s essentially pitches up “Prototype” and adds a kick revealing a House track hiding underneath the surface of Andre 3000‘s most perfect creation.

But it’s Soul Clap‘s treatment of Grace Jones‘ plaintive “I’ve Done It Again” that really makes “Gator Boots Vol. 1″worth tracking down.

Taking Jones‘ tropical sunset take on Marianne Faithfull‘s melancholic ode to having seen and done it all and drenching it in swooshy reverb, they give it the treatment that actualizes the tracks intended wooziness.

Gator boots are goofy as hell. And prolly 98% of people who buy them can’t pull them off…but Soul Clap and Monaco are those 2% that actually make them look good.

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