Soulful Nature: Going Nowhere EP
NexGen Music
It's a confident producer indeed who christens his EP Going Nowhere, given how enticing such a title likely is to haters and trollers alike. But the evidence at hand suggests that Soulful Nature, aka Leicester, UK-based music producer Richard Gundelach, is very clearly going somewhere and knows exactly where it is. The moniker was obviously deliberately chosen, given how deeply the four cuts embrace the soulful liquid side of the drum'n'bass equation.
At EP's start, a (what else?) soulful vocal by an unidentified male singer drapes itself across the drum'n'bass-powered radiance of the summery title anthem. A midtempo roller with no small amount of bass muscle fueling its forward charge, the cut also works into its framework a few subtle wisps of flute and horns to enhance its presentation. Similar in uplifting spirit is “Something New,” which likewise weds a smooth male vocal (“Every day, there's something new / To keep me loving you”) to a widescreen arrangement, this one featuring strings and piano to go along with the lightspeed pulse.
Cued to comparatively faster BPMs, “Still Love U” doesn't lose anything in the soulful department, even if one's energy'll probably be spent by the time the cut reaches its destination, while the closing “Doing to Me” sends the listener home on an ecstatic headrush of vocal snippets and funky guitar licks. Whether moving fast or slow, Gundelach makes good on his moniker's promise on this solid EP outing.March 2016