The Jazz Fest issue is done, and my soundtrack for it was LCD Soundsystem’s 45:33, Dimitri from Paris’ new mix Return to the Playboy Mansion (particularly his treatment of “Someday We’ll Be Together” and the slow jam conclusion, as the James Caans all move their bunnies from the dance floor to the grotto). Nothing very Jazz Fest about either. I kept trying to listen to the Mission of Burma reissues and Robert Forster’s The Evangelist, but rock ‘n’ roll (if it’s any good) makes it pretty hard for me to write or edit, and albums I had to review for the issue only made concentration harder.

I did keep returning to the Black Keys’ Attack & Release, which is unusual since nothing about their CDs has caught me yet. Guitar and drum duos usually sound thin to me, and as much as I’ve wanted to find them different, the Black Keys suffered the same fate. Here, with Danger Mouse producing, the songs are fully fleshed out with whatever instrumentation suits them best, and not surprisingly, they sound fully developed and engaging. Now I can tell them apart, and there’s a handful that I’ll return to. The bass guitar is not the enemy.

My other current fascination is Soul Messages from Dimona, a new album on the Numero label due out early next month. According to the hype, its “a joyful mix of spiritual soul, jazz and Old Testament gospel psychedelia,” and while I’m not sure about the psychedelic part (unless anything with a wah-wah pedal is psychedelic), this album of American soul musicians becoming Black Hebrews in Chicago and moving to Israel has the endearing relentlessness of good gospel, and the compulsive danceability of good funk. Like most Numero reissues, the story is complicated (far moreso than my sketch here would suggest), but it’s hard to argue with a choir singing “Burn devil burn,” or turning “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Hi Goodbye” into “Our Lord and Savior,” and having funk overpower any message.