Nickynutz 🇧🇪 – Rich Mind EP Review by Infectious Unease Radio / Subterranean Zone Radio — Voice In The Void Written by Gordon Lawrence Taylor
Nickynutz’s Rich Mind EP is a sharp, soulful, high-pressure transmission from the deeper side of jungle and drum & bass — music that understands the past without becoming trapped inside nostalgia. Released through Nickynutz’s Bandcamp page, the EP contains four tracks: “Dusty Wind,” “Piano Ride,” “Rich Mind,” and “Roll Out,” with the release notes describing them as 2021/2022 tunes, produced by Nickynutz and moving through a 161–168 BPM range.
There is something immediately honest about this EP. It does not feel like a polished commercial object trying to fit into a fashionable algorithm. It feels handmade, heavy, warm, and lived-in. The cover image says a lot before the first break even lands: a room full of memory, tools, dust, light, wood, open doors, and quiet concentration. That visual atmosphere connects beautifully with the sound. Rich Mind EP feels like music made from fragments — old rooms, old breaks, sound-system ghosts, dub pressure, jazz shadows, and the restless pulse of jungle culture still moving forward.
Nickynutz has long carried that junglist DNA clearly in his work. His Bandcamp page places him in Belgium, and his SoundCloud profile points toward a wide underground network of labels and affiliations across jungle, ragga-jungle, breakbeat, and drum & bass culture. On Rich Mind EP, that background comes through strongly. These tracks are not trying to explain jungle from the outside. They speak from inside the language — from the drums, from the bassline, from the echo chamber, from the chopped break, from the feeling that the music is always running slightly ahead of the body.
Track Review
1. Dusty Wind
“Dusty Wind” opens the EP with the feeling of movement across dry ground, old memory, and pressure building in the air. The title is perfect because the track carries that sense of weather — not clean air, but air full of particles, history, and vibration. At 06:52, it has room to breathe and develop, and it does not rush its atmosphere even though the tempo sits in that fast junglist zone.
The rhythm feels restless but controlled. There is a dusty, rolling quality to the breaks, as though the drums have been pulled from old vinyl, machines, warehouses, and forgotten sound-system tapes. It has that classic jungle energy where the drums are not only keeping time — they are speaking. The edits feel alive, moving between forward drive and sideways shuffle, giving the track a physical, body-moving force while still keeping a smoky, inward mood.
What works beautifully here is the balance between roughness and soul. “Dusty Wind” does not just hit hard. It carries mood. It sounds like a track built for late-night radio, for headphones, for a small underground room, or for anyone who understands that jungle is not only speed — it is atmosphere, tension, memory, and survival.
2. Piano Ride
“Piano Ride” brings a different emotional colour into the EP. The piano element gives the track a warmer, more reflective edge, but Nickynutz does not soften the rhythm too much. The drums still move with sharpness and purpose. There is a strong oldskool feeling here, but again it does not feel like costume nostalgia. It feels like a producer returning to the roots because the roots still have power.
The title suggests motion, and that is exactly what the track gives. It rides. The piano does not dominate in a glossy or sentimental way; instead, it becomes part of the rhythm, part of the forward motion, part of the lift. It brings light into the pressure. There is a jazzy flavour here, but it remains grounded in breakbeat culture rather than becoming smooth or passive.
This is one of the EP’s most immediately inviting tracks. It has energy, but also warmth. It has movement, but also feeling. In the hands of a lesser producer, the piano could have become predictable. Here it gives the tune a human centre. You can hear the connection between dancefloor function and emotional memory — that sweet spot where jungle becomes both physical and spiritual.
3. Rich Mind
The title track, “Rich Mind,” is the centre of the EP, and it carries the strongest sense of concept. The title itself feels important. A rich mind is not about money or surface success. It suggests inner life, thought, memory, imagination, struggle, and depth. That idea fits the music well, because this track feels layered in both sound and feeling.
There is a mental movement inside “Rich Mind” — a sense of thought racing, memory flashing, ideas colliding, and rhythm becoming a kind of inner machinery. The drums keep pushing, but the atmosphere gives the track a deeper, more reflective character. It does not simply attack. It turns inward. It feels like a jungle track built from consciousness as much as from breaks and bass.
This is where the EP’s title fully opens up. Nickynutz is not just making high-speed drum & bass for impact. He is working with texture, mood, and mental space. “Rich Mind” has that trippy, oldskool, drumfunk edge that makes the listener feel caught inside a moving system. The rhythm is busy, but not messy. The energy is strong, but not empty. There is thought behind the pressure.
For me, this is the philosophical heart of the release. It holds the EP together and gives the record its name, its atmosphere, and its deeper identity.
4. Roll Out
“Roll Out” closes the EP with direct force. At 04:54, it is the shortest track, and that shorter length gives it a tighter, more immediate impact. The title tells the truth: this one rolls. It feels built for motion, for systems, for DJs, for late sets, for people who still understand the physical power of breaks moving through speakers.
Where “Dusty Wind” opens with atmosphere, “Roll Out” finishes with momentum. The track has a stripped, functional strength, but it still carries Nickynutz’s sense of character. It is not flat or anonymous. It has that underground energy where the tune feels like it belongs in a crate, in a radio set, in a dark room, or in the hands of someone who knows how to build pressure properly.
As a closing track, “Roll Out” works because it does not over-explain. It leaves the EP moving. It ends with action rather than resolution. After the deeper reflective mood of “Rich Mind,” this final track pushes the body back into motion. It is a clean and effective ending — not a fade into silence, but a roll forward.
Final Thoughts
Rich Mind EP is a strong, focused release from Nickynutz — four tracks that move through jungle, drum & bass, oldskool break science, dub pressure, jazzy feeling, and underground rhythmic intelligence. It has the speed and impact expected from the style, but what makes it stand out is the atmosphere. There is warmth here. There is dust. There is memory. There is a human feeling inside the machinery.
The EP does not chase trends. It feels connected to the older spirit of jungle: music made from fragments, pressure, rhythm, bass, and imagination. But it also does not feel frozen in the past. Nickynutz brings the old forms back into motion, keeping them alive through fresh arrangement, clean production, and a strong sense of underground purpose.
For listeners who love jungle and drum & bass with character — not just speed, but depth — Rich Mind EP is well worth hearing. It carries the rough beauty of oldskool breaks, the body pressure of bass music, and the reflective atmosphere of someone who understands that underground sound is not only entertainment. It is memory. It is movement. It is survival. It is a rich mind still speaking through the drums.
Recommended for listeners of: oldskool jungle, drumfunk, breakbeat drum & bass, dubwise pressure, jazzy jungle, underground sound-system culture, and anyone still chasing that deep late-night transmission where rhythm, memory, and bass become one.
