Soul science

Soul Science is a slow-burning album that reveals its many surprises and innovations gradually. It is a collaboration between Justin Adams — the guitarist in Strange Sensation, Robert Plant’s backing band — and Juldeh Camara — a griot from Gambia who plays a rifti (a one-string fiddle). Its 11 songs provide some of the tastiest gut-bucket blues this side of Muddy Waters’ early material. The music is, at once, reassuringly familiar and utterly exotic and strange. Embedded within the album’s subtext is a commentary on the history of blues’ and rock’s African origins that is as alluring, enticing, and challenging as anyone is ever likely to hear.