STEMS: DJ Clap Gives Us A Flash Of The Best Night Ever

Each week on STEMS, we ask an artist to break one of their tracks down into its stems and reveal how they created each sound, shedding light on every nuance of the production. This week: DJ Clap.

Flash (part 2) is one of my favorite songs as it is really aggressive, powerful, full of lush layers and emotion which is all carried by a sort of unrelenting rhythm of triplets, half-time, speedy hi-hats and rimshots that flow between every section through the use of reverberation and filters that tug and push the listener throughout.

[MM 1-56]

The work starts out with a few poundings of the bass drum with a dusty electronic swiping, and then the addition of a deeper, more rounded, and fast-paced hammering of a single sample with hi-hats forming into triples lagging and taking their breath to keep up with the rest of the team as the piece begins its transformation into an almost beck and call between the down and up-tuned samples.

[MM 53-72]

After the filter enters and exits, squeezing the sound down and releasing it out in a 4x4 rhythm, the section really drives itself forward with the simple snare drum, bass drum,and open hats. The samples are structured identically however multi-layered between pitches and arranged taking the pitch up a little higher, down slightly and then to its peak.

[MM 73-152]

After this initial showcase the main samples keep the same base structure but the sweet cake-like layers on top complementing it change in succession with one another with more vocal sounds and cuts. The sound then switches up quickly adding a few bars of complexity preparing the listener for something to grab onto, but not until the pummeling jabs of of bass drums which are arranged in sections of 3 measures with rimshots moving up and down, claps slapping their way across the beat with the hi-hats tripling themselves getting the ear ready for the brief half-time show before the reverb effects take over blurring the distance between the listener and the sound creating a hollow metallic space that is instantly shortened without warning.

[MM 153-232]

The following section switches out the vocal layers for a more electronic sharp jabbing with this tasty and juicy synth below allowing a showcase of their brightness and warmth. The drums are simple, constant, fast and push the sound along. The beat drops out and the hi-hats come back with a super saiyan vengeance trying to force as much of themselves into one space as possible. The samples maintain themselves but seem to have a more percussive yet decayed electric horn-like quality to them. This section allows the voice samples to come back in for a moment along with the main footwork style drumming before finally…

[MM 233-284]

The bass drum, hi-hats both closed and open play a little game with each other, coming in, forgetting to kick at the start of the measure, or hi hats opening at an irregular moment, pulling back and forth ever so briefly and maybe too fast to recognize. The piece brings the listener back to the vocal samples with one repeating "ahh, ahh, ah", the others repeating "ohh ohh oh" almost asking the others for something, anything, which they reply "yeah, yea" and "gah gah ga" and another with a breathy blurred sense of vocal structure, but maintains a tonal whisper between the rest. The piece says its goodbyes as the beat drops off and a filter rolls in to suck it all away only to leave a slight echo in its departure.

Put them all together, and here's what you get. "Flash (Part 2) by DJ Clap.