Otis Junior & Dr. Dundiff - Cool (2018)

"Cool“ is the second album by Otis Junior and Dr.Dundiff. Otis and Dundiff both are originally from Louisville, Kentucky. They only met shortly before they released their first work together. Sometimes musicians take their time to find a formula, to carve out a way in which they create. Not those two. It was an instant creative connection, a artistic bond from the get go which makes them produce classic song after classic song. Otis once summarized their working approach like this: "As with our previous works, the concepts for the songs and album were born from Dundiff presenting me with broad ideas (instrumentals and titles) and allowing me to define them through my own perspective (with lyrics and melodies)“.

Dundiff's organic yet hard hitting productions compliment Otis Junior soulful timbre perfectly. Around 60% of the sounds on the album are played live while 40% are based on samples which shows how the music is created within two different musical birthplaces. the result is too Hip Hop to be Soul and vice versa but it is sitting very well in between these chairs.

When Otis Junior and Dr.Dundiff approach an album production they always try to establish an ongoing theme for the album. Their latest work deals with the concept of „Cool“ and the contemplations about what it means to “be cool” to others versus actually feeling cool, calm, and comfortable in life. Thereafter, the album follows a subtle growth towards the latter. Beginning with an overt contemplation on what it means to be cool, the first half of the album speaks from that insecure perspective. Becoming more sure as the album develops, it ends not with a contemplation on being cool, but whether or not people are perceived accurately at all.