The Clap

The Clap – “The Operation” b/w “Lucy 2?
Release Date: September 6
Label: Double Phantom Records

Release Info:
Atlanta psych rockers the Clap will release their 7? via Double Phantom. It will be available on vinyl (of course) as well as a digital download through their Bandcamp page. - Latest Disgrace (Blog)

Double Phantom Records has a busy month coming up, with a free three-way release party set for Thursday, Sept. 8th at the Star Bar. Headliners Carnivores will be debuting their “Prom Night”/“Second Impulse” platter o’ clatter, Mood Rings strike gold with the sweet, echo chamber pop of “Promise Me Eternity”/“Exorcised Painting” and The Clap toss a summer salad of surfy guitars, fun-in-the-sun group harmonies, giddy garage band wobbliness and distorted reverb with “The Operation”/“Lucy 2.” Did we mention it’s a free show? Yeah…so bring a few bucks for the rekkids! - Stomp and Stammer

We’re surprised, frankly, that no one else had already named their band The Clap, but the prize goes to a quartet from Atlanta that plays hazy psychedelic rock so lo-fi that there’s nearly as much white noise as there is melody. And there’s a lot of melody.

The group, formed in 2009, releases a new 7-inch single next month, and the free song, “Lucy 2,” layers organ behind bright, super-crackly guitars and male-female vocals so lively on the refrain that you’d swear they were ripping a hole through your speaker cone. - Listen Dammit

There aren't many musical clichés heard throughout the Clap's Spider House 5 EP, making the band's woozy carnival of blown-speaker ambiance something of an anomaly. Descriptors like "psychedelic" and "garage" seem apt as the opening song, "Fake Out City," lays the groundwork for a gunked-up '60s pop love affair. But nostalgia isn't really a part of the Clap's experimental tendencies. Thee Oh Sees are an obvious touchstone for the jagged but elegant pop qualities of "Broken Ribs," "Goodwill TVs" and everything else on the disc, as each song is tied together by a bed of muffled hiss. The vocals are so densely layered that discerning any verbiage whatsoever is impossible. But that only adds to the music's abstract qualities, as the voice becomes another melodic device that makes the brain work a little harder to find meaning in the chaos, while getting lost in the ether along the way. (4 out of 5 stars) - Creative Loafing Atlanta

…caught the Clap over at 529 last night before Oxford, Miss.'s Bass Drum of Death. There’s a clunky homemade aesthetic to their raw and noisy jangle, sturm and dang. This is one of those groups that seems to have tapped into that vast, celestial headplace where undeniable chemistry and chaos are locked in perfect harmony; whether they're aware of it or not. They played for maybe 45 minutes, channeling damaged, high-register pop tones that could almost be described in terms of surf or sci-fi sounds if they weren’t wrapped in so much shimmering and tinny distortion. From the floor it seemed that the songs themselves were in control, and that’s a beautiful thing. - Creative Loafing Atlanta