SOULRENDER is a German soul band. They hail from Bremen and their collective CV tells us that they’re 4 times winners of the German Rock & Pop Prize for Best Soul Band! So, investigation of their latest album, ‘Circles’(below) became a must for us.
We’ve learned that the band consist of Tina Kludig – Lead & Backing Vocals; Thulani Masinga – Lead & Backing Vocals; Tim Vollmers – Keyboards; Matthias Behling – Bass; Jürgen Block – Guitar; Stephan Besl – Drums; Ilja Nagel – Percussion/Turntables and Celina Seifried – Backing Vocals. Further, the 12 tracker that is ‘Circles’ is the band’s second album and it’s a pleasing mix of neo-soul, Latin, world music with garnishes of funk and even hip-hop.
The album opens encouragingly with a bright and breezy ‘Fallin’’ which reminded me a lot of the Brand New Heavies’ take on soul. The album’s title track delivers a similar groove though the best take on soul is ‘Drama Queen’. This is bold and brassy and very catchy – a good ‘un.
Elsewhere there are all sorts of flavours. ‘One Man Show’ has a gypsy flavour, ‘Walking On Fire’ is Teutonic rap (there, I’ve created a new genre!), ‘Drown You In A Lake’ is a sombre meander (you could guess that from the cheery title!), ‘Crescer’ is the album’s big Latin moment (great horn solo, by the way) while ‘Come What May’ shows Soulrender’s love for Steely Dan’. Elsewhere things like ‘Space And Time’, ‘Feel Free’ and ‘Lady in The Shadow’ are more pop than soul.
SOULRENDER’S ‘Circles’ is out now. Learn more at http://soulrender.com/
