Daniel Lanois' Black Dub

Infusing music with soul is no easy task. And we're not talking some stock R&B thing, this is soul in the archetypal sense – the invisible, overarching embodiment of things beyond the world we can see and taste. Soul in music is what makes it more than ditties meant to shift units and pass the time. Soul in music is what makes it breathe and leap into our hearts and minds, and yes, bodies, to live anew in our own strange ways. It's there in the intentions of the players in a way that transcends language. And there is abundant soul, in this wonderful, fully fleshed sense, inside Black Dub, the boffo new project from celebrated "studio rat" Daniel Lanois.
In Black Dub, whose raw, thickly conjured self-titled debut arrived on November 2, Lanois is joined by highly regarded studio bassist Daryl Johnson, drummer extraordinaire Brian Blade (Wayne Shorter, Joshua Redman, Joni Mitchell) and vocalist-songwriter Trixie Whitley, the daughter of the late, utterly great Chris Whitley. The combination is as crazy talented as one might imagine but also a good deal earthier and readily appealing than such high tone combos often turn out to be. The burn of the blues, the raised hand exultation of gospel and irresistible shuffle of vintage rhythm 'n' blues swirls within their future-forward energy and gutbucket, immediate rock feel. Whitley is a force of nature and one of the few young singers that might have joined the roster of Atlantic Records or Stax-Volt back in the day. And the instrumental vets sound looser and more engaged than at almost anytime in their past. That's not a dig against their worthy pedigrees but the interplay and atmosphere of Black Dub suggests a giving way to a bubbling group-think that's really intoxicating. The songs rock, from the minimalist "Ring The Alarm" to the more structured pieces like "Nomad" and "Canaan," and allowed time to really seep into one's consciousness, Black Dub is a quintessential grower that hints at amazing live incarnations to come from these initial seeds and a wide open studio landscape for the quartet down the road.