Dubeats
Soul Clap’s Charles Levine teams up with rising artist, San Francisco singer songwriter, Khyenci, on the magical new single ‘Amazement’. The tracks tells the story of love through an understated musical backdrop with Khyenci’s subtle yet moving vocal sitting on top of the soulful notes. Here we ask Khyenci and Charlie to talk us through some of their favourite Neo Soul songs of love.
Khyenci’s Picks
Lauryn Hill – Nothing Even Matters
A classic, obviously right? The back and forth between her and D’Angelo is everything we want in a love song. What’s understood doesn’t need to be explained.
Musiq Soulchild – Halfcrazy
Honestly ‘Neo Soul’ and ‘Music Soulchild’ are synonymous, but the concept of going “half crazy” is exquisite and a “friends to lovers” dynamic is SO relatable.
Haitus Kaiyote – Molasses
This song is just intoxicating – Its soul, its musicality. Its almost a love song to chaos, and I love it.
Amy Winehouse – Tears Dry On Their Own
I personally think “let’s break up”/“getting over you” songs are the best kind of love songs. You can almost hear her convincing herself that this thing wasn’t good for her and she’s moving on. We are reminiscing on a trash relationship that we’re finally getting over. An anthem for the girls. Chefs kiss!
India.Arie – The Truth
India.Arie is a staple of my childhood and early music inspiration, and she’s THE inspiration behind my lyrical approach often. She says all she needs to say in totality and clarity and oozes emotion in every single song, every time. This song may best explain what true love is.
Charlie’s Picks
Floetry – Butterflies – (LIVE VERSION!)
One of those records that absolutely gives me chills each and every time. So impressive that Michael Jackson did a cover version. Floetry is exactly that group that embodies the essence of Neo Soul, check out this live version that pulled up when hitting YouTube. The energy is so there and the fits are so fly. This one is also at the top of my karaoke list :).
Amp Fiddler – Good Times
Losing Amp Fiddler this year has been profoundly painful, confusing but also effective in raising my awareness of just how magical and special he was as a musician, a trailblazing leader and a friend. His eclectic abilities allowed him to flow seamlessly thru funk, hip-hop, soul, R&B, house, techno, jazz you name, Amp IS it! Here’s a cut from his Amp Dog Knights album on Moodymann’s Mahogani Music that always sticks with me.
RH Factor ft D’Angelo – I’ll Stay
I mean man, could this record get any better? There’s so much history here… Originally this was a Pat Lewis uptempo Detroit Northern Soul record called I’ll Wait, Then taken by George Clinton who recorded a version as The Parliaments for Revilot Records. Fast forward to the days of Funkadelic and this slowed down psychedelic incarnation is born with believe it or not Eddie Hazel leading on vocals (I can listen to this on repeat for days). Then even more down the line jazz legend Roy Hargrove recorded his version for the Soulquarian collaboration project of Jazz / Neo Soul / hip hop called the RH Factor featuring D’Angelo vocals. This is Neo Soul like a mutha!! Woof!
Soul Clap ft Gavin Turek – Little Cuts
This is a very special record to me, we recorded this a few years back for TOKiMONSTA’s Young Arts label and I feel it sorta slipped through the cracks. Gavin Turek is a force and the combo of the chord progression and top line I played here just really gets me going. The strong emotive energy that I really love about tender and vulnerable music really shines here.
Soul Clap ft Khyenci – Amazement
I’m so proud of Amazement and this moment in time welcoming Khyenci into the world of house music. She is just an incredible song writer and recording artist, we’re really just getting to know each other but Im so excited for what will come from this collaboration together. She really took to the original demo idea, the energy I was envisioning and took it to exactly the place I was hoping. Her sound is classic but also very contemporary, I really dig this.
– Charles Levine & Khyenci
Turn it up & enjoy!