Why is this actually the end for Soul Clap?
Eli Goldstein and Charles Levine started Soul Clap in Boston in 2001, and spent the next 25 years building one of American house music's most recognizable brands: horn-stabbed disco-house, a label, a festival, and a seat inside the Wolf + Lamb and Crew Love family that pulled Brooklyn's warehouse scene into the wider conversation in the early 2010s. Goldstein's exit was confirmed in September, when Resident Advisor reported he was stepping back after the birth of his second child in 2023 and a master's degree in Climate Science and Policy, and that the pair's "final" show together would be a September 26 date at Public Records in Manhattan.
That wasn't actually the end. Refuge's Halloween booking means Friday, October 30 is now the night both Electronic Groove and Dancing Astronaut are calling the real last time Soul Clap share a booth. The set is billed as "Soul Clap with DJ E-Cology," which is Goldstein's own alias, the one he's using to run the Future Sound Of Nature festival, its label, a residency on The Lot Radio, and his House of EFUNK party series. Levine keeps the Soul Clap name for whatever comes next.
What makes Refuge the right room to end it in?
Refuge is a 500-capacity space in East Williamsburg built by promoter John DiMatteo and sound engineer Craig "Shorty" Bernabeu, and it just marked its first birthday, during a Nor'easter, by its own account. The club runs no VIP program at all.
There are no tables to buy, no roped-off areas, and no bottles being carried through the crowd.
That framing puts Refuge closer to Paradise Garage, the Sound Factory and Space Ibiza than to the bottle-service rooms most new US clubs default to. The sound comes from a custom four-point REX analogue rig co-engineered with Al Fierstein, built to carry a long DJ set evenly across the whole room instead of just the front rail.
What else is on the four days of PURGATORY?
Soul Clap's set is one of six parties Refuge is running across the four days. Thursday night pairs salute with Stacey Pullen; Saturday goes all day with Victor Calderone and Anthony Middleton before Nicole Moudaber takes the night; Sunday closes with a Mira sunrise set and an afternoon from Serge Devant and Vanjee. Jayda G plays alongside Soul Clap on Friday. Across the marathon, the genre range runs house, techno, UK garage and disco, roughly the same range Soul Clap spent 25 years working in.
