The Soul Practitioners
Self-Released, 2020
8/10
Listen to The Soul Practitioners
A duo comprised of Forrest Heusinkveld and Robert Monroe, the pair explore their skilled songwriting as a drums and keys operation, where they recorded the album live, before adding additional tracking and mixing.
“Day By Day” starts the listen with bright keys from Monroe as Heusinkveld adds his rapping prowess on the soulful and playful opener, and “Can’t Hesitate” continues the elegance with a punchy and rhythmic delivery that’s got plenty of style.
Elsewhere, “So Alike” benefits greatly from crisp drumming on the dance friendly tune, while “Help Me Be” finds a cautious yet melodic place to reside. “Phace”, one of the album’s best, then offers a hypnotic approach with an almost lounge feel in the instrumental fun.
Closer to the end, “Standin’ Over There”, with Katherine Ruestow, offers both graceful singing and proficient rapping on the charming and highly memorable setting, and “Cancelled Checks” exits the listen with cascading musicianship that gets extremely exploratory on the vocal-less finisher.
Both artists here play in other bands, too, and they bring their vast talent to lo-fi hip-hop, funk, soul, piano rock and jazz nods across this extremely lively listen that was actually made 7 years ago but sat on a hard drive until recently. Let’s hope this isn’t a one off effort from Heusinkveld and Monroe, as their chemistry really deserves to be explored further.
Travels well with: Diplomats Of Solid Sound- A Higher Place; The Uniphonics- The Uniphonics