It’s that time of year known around these parts as Freecember. Freecember is the yearly tradition of Fake Four releasing EPs of lesser known artists for free, in hopes of getting them more exposure. Previous participants include Dope Knife, Onewerd, and Tommy V. This year, the tradition kicks off with a collaboration between Iowa soul singer Soultru and Seattle producer Progeny, who give us their self-titled EP.

Progeny is a producer who has been part of groups such as hERON, Ghost Palace, and Chisme. So while he’s produced instrumental hip hop and worked with emcees, he’s less known for his work with vocalists such as Soultru. Fortunately, it’s not too much of a stretch for Progeny to make it work, and he’s more than a capable musician to know how to adjust his style to fit with Soultru. He takes the psych side of his style and just slides it over to psych-soul, and then blends it with a modern hip hop/R&B production style, especially with the drums and bass. The result is a style that is closest to artists like Bilal or D’Angelo. If you’ve not heard Soultru, he’s got a great raspy, soulful singing voice, and a very natural flow to his words, which are always in motion. His lyricism is very personal on the EP, and really allow you to get to know him as a listener. Together, they have great chemistry, and the EP gives some of the best modern soul music of the year.

Freecember is a great tradition at Fake Four, and this is a great way to start things in 2018. Soultru is an underrated soul singer, and Progeny doesn’t get enough credit for the number of interesting projects that he’s worked on in recent years. With this EP, they’ve combined forces to carve out their own little niche of psych-indie hip hop-soul that allows both artists to shine.