Louisville artists Otis Junior and Dr. Dundiff have been collaborating since 2016, after they met at an open mic night (hey, remember those?) and bonded over their love of soul music. Since that time, they have released an EP and two albums. Their most recent, Cool, came out two years ago. They are now back with another EP, Rising With It.

It’s nice when you can listen to music like Rising With It, and you don’t have to wonder how the artists found each other. That’s because Otis Junior and Dr. Dundiff have such great chemistry together, and they’ve both put in the work honing their crafts that when you finally press play, what you get just sounds so breezy, soulful, and effortless. It feels like they were just meant to make music together. Otis Junior has a great rich and warm tone to his voice that can really fill up some space on each track, but there’s also just the slightest rasp to his delivery that creates interest and keeps your ears actively listening. He also has a great sense of melody, which adds to this feeling of familiarity that you get with this EP, since you’ll really get the urge to sing along with each song. This is also made more enjoyable because Otis Junior is giving you some grown, mature love songs that have a timeless quality to them. Dundiff is right there with him, filling out the sound with beats that feel like warm sunshine as they create a style of music that balances neo-soul with classic soul, and then adds a splash of acid jazz to the equation to make it all their own. They even bring in an X-factor when J. Lamotta joins Otis Junior for a duet on “You and Me,” whose high register and smooth delivery complements Junior’s voice perfectly. The only real problem with this EP is that we didn’t have it all summer long to enjoy when the weather was nice.

Rising With It is a great EP from a duo that has put in the work over the last four years, giving you high quality soul music. They’ve developed a unique sound that sounds timeless, and their chemistry together can’t be beat.