There isn’t a more aptly named genre of music than Soul. It’s direct; it speaks to your guts, your feet and your hips. Even the word itself sounds like it’s coming from a deeper place. It dresses itself up with a sexy bass riff and a voluptuous rhythm section. Musicians have used it to deliver powerful political messages and in its pure form it’s extremely hard to criticise. Its simplicity is its strength, and despite the best efforts of overhyped divas to usurp the moniker for commercial use, it remains such a powerful form of music that speaks to the intellectual and the aesthete alike.

Soul moves us in the best possible ways and Saturday night the Ray Mann Three wielded their music like a silk bull whip, and the cold, cold winter was forgotten for a while.

They dress well, they smile a lot and they play damn good Soul. If you completely disregard the rest of this review you should at least know these three undisputable facts. The crowd at the Transit Bar was the usual mix of hip young things, not too cool for school but certainly not a collection of wall flowers. While there was certainly a few that had braved the chill specifically to see these guys, most of the punters were just up for fun in whatever form. They slid up on stage and as soon as the lazy kick drum opened up and the bass sputtered into life the floor filled up. Boys and girls were dancing, drinks flowed, all was good, and it was like that the entire evening.

They had a beautiful sound. Grant Gerathy’s drums were fantastic, his rhythms tight and sharp. Byron Luiters’ bass was velvety and rich, with wonderful little flourishes. Ray Mann’s lead was confident; his voice easily floated over the high notes and never relied on cheap tricks or vocal gymnastics. His guitar was great too. As a band they work wonderfully, their timing was perfect. The constant tempo changes (mid song) and varying time signatures (also mid song) seem too natural to simply be stunts. I guess that’s the whole point of Soul. It has to FEEL right, and that it did. If you weren’t moving your feet, you were nodding your head.

The only problem that didn’t sit well was a minor one. The sets were broken up too often and the breaks were as long as the sets, breaking the momentum a little. For some reason they felt the need to introduce themselves a lot too. Like I said, a pretty minor gripe considering the sweet tunes, but it didn’t go unnoticed.

These cats were genuinely exciting; their music had a confident, driving machismo and effortless style. The Ray Mann Three was a very welcome respite from the relentless winter cold of late, and there was a neat reciprocity going on down at the Transit. The crowd warmed the band, the band warmed the crowd. And I’ll be damned if that’s not what Soul’s all about! Amen!