Press quotes:
The roaring avant-funk of electric-era Miles (and) the legato drift of the Grateful
Dead...Manic Berber bop, hypnotic Moroccan gnawa and blissful electronica are usually
present in the mix as well...at its peaks conjuring a Derek and the Dominoes floating
on a cough-syrup current. Heady music that doesn't neglect the tail. -Steve Smith,
Time Out New York
“One of the most inventive and ever-changing bands in all of new jazz…The songs are
great, the playing superb, the variety obvious but the main thing is that the spirit of
the music is so strong and unique. There is simply not another band like Club d’Elf on
the planet.” – Russ Davis, Jazz America
“Crushed between the borders of Morocco, jam band land and the kingdom of avant-
garde jazz lies Club d’Elf…James Brown-meets-Sun-Ra.” – Jed Gottlieb, Boston Herald
“Sounds like the lovechild of Pink Floyd and George Clinton, dropped in Marrakesh…
some deeply psychedelic music.”
– Marlon Bishop, WNYC
“A suite with many colors and moods, grooves, and melodies changing at a moments
notice… Something about the idea of so many minds and hearts involved here makes
this one a winner…If techno has come full-circle, enveloping [its] creator even as it
points to another world, this party of relative soloists and collaborators keeps me
guessing and wanting to guess.” – John Ephland, Relix
“Their music touches the present moment, and (their) experimentation (has) produced
some prime musical fruits…the band is defined by its ability to flow between and fuse
genres…a good group to see live.” – Eli Rumpf, Afropop Worldwide
“‘Electric Moroccoland/So Below’…masterfully mines a potpourri of global sounds and
styles spanning, among others, Moroccan trance, dub-dosed funk, jazz fusion, hill
country blues, and psychedelic rock.” – Jonathan Perry, Boston Globe
“…an incredible series of jams…sustain(ing) an intense, mesmeric vibe throughout.
Overall, this stuff is simply world-class fusion, with excellent production value to boot.”
– Mitch Myers, JazzTimes
“Even in our far-reaching and cluttered modern musical culture, it seems safe to
suggest that there is no other band quite like Club d’Elf…(Electric Moroccoland/So
Below is) a double-decker sandwich of liberating chant and mesmerizing jam…(which)
transports you into a scorching, sandy desert that bursts into vibrant music and
sound.” – Chris M. Slawecki, AllAboutJazz.com
“… consistently transcendent…a cauldron of modern textures and groove with a
continued Moroccan hint…(Electric Moroccoland/So Below) evokes Miles Davis’s fiery
‘70s jazz-funk workouts.” – Paul Robicheau, Improper Bostonian
“There is enough beautiful, soulful, fascinating, infectious material there to keep you
listening for months, and then some. These two discs are simply two of the best it’s
been my pleasure to review for years and won’t be popping out of my car CD player
for a long time!” – Rob Nairn, Bass World Magazine
“Club d’Elf’s polyglot is never less than compelling…(recalling) the best of Miles Davis’s
live avant-electric shitstorms of the early ’70s.” – Jon Garelick, Boston Phoenix
“(Electric Moroccoland/So Below) is a trip through a few hundred years of Moroccan
musical traditions as filtered through D’Elf’s lens of psychedelia, breakbeats, dub and
more.. Hassan Hakmoun’s involvement, along with that of other Moroccan natives and
master musicians such as (Brahim) Fribgane and Haj Belaid, lend a sense of
authenticity… It’s a wild ride.”
– Drew Stoga, State Of Mind
“…well worth the price of admission and as compelling as anything I’ve heard so far
this year.” – Bill Lupoletti, Globalagogo.com
“Club D’Elf makes electro-acoustic trance music of the highest order…where rock and
Morocco get genuinely symbiotic…(Electric Moroccoland/So Below) is out of this world
intoxicating…it will reconfigure your synapses, in a good way, if you let it. Don’t miss
out on this one.” – Chris May, AllAboutJazz.com
“Club d’Elf makes music that’s all kinds of “out there,” but is also extremely complex
and attempts something I doubt has ever been imagined, much less achieved. Here it
becomes fully realized, and with truly enchanting results.”
– Shannon Holliday, GoodSound.com
“Electric Moroccoland/So Below (is a) stunning double-album where jazz, freeform
improvisation, rock psychedelia, glitchy turntablism and North African trance melt in
one single cauldron.” – Nicolas Ragonneau, Paris DJs
“(Electric Moroccoland/So Below) offers a psychedelic stew of music with ingredients
from around the world…infusing touches of electric Miles Davis and the Grateful Dead…
(the music) adheres to a sacred principle of trance in Morocco…intended to help
listeners abandon their sense of self and surrender to the sound.” – Jon Nolan, The
Wire NH
“This trance-tinged groove syndicate combines the outer reaches of the celestial ether
with the most instinctual yearnings of the inner psyche for a sonic incarnation of the
cosmic id every time it takes the stage…(Club d’Elf) is defined not so much by its “on-
the-bus/off-the-bus” exclusivity as its commitment to creating an open-ended venue
for experimentation.”
– Matt Bartlett, MySecretBoston.com
“If you want to experience the trance, jazz, improvisational, and dreamy sounds of
North Africa via Boston, then Club d’Elf is the place to be.” – Matthew Forss, Inside
World Music
“…a burbling cauldron of sound that ranges from the deeply introspective to the dance
floor-ready. Though it is infused with the borderless spirit of free jazz, the music is
nearly always held together by an omnipresent beat…It’s the Moroccan influence that
truly pushes the sound into new areas—beyond jazz, beyond jamband.” – Jeremy
Goodwin, Berkshire Eagle
“Electric Moroccoland/So Below includes everything from deep, downtempo trance to
danceable groove-laden funk…an original and signature voice.” – Marc Gabriel
Amigone, The Afrobeat Blog
“(Electric Moroccoland/So Below) is a seriously accomplished fusion of jazz,
electronics, funk and space-rock with Moroccan folk music, particularly gnawa…heavily
informed by the electro-voodoo-funk of Miles Davis’ mid-’70s recordings…Cultures and
centuries mix and match in a way that never comes off as academic” – Jeremy
Goodwin, Metroland.net
“The music reaches the spacier heights of jazz and electronica from a sonic home base
in Morocco…psychedelia for the 21st century.” – David Luhrssen,
ExpressMilwaukee.com
“…as informed by Zappa as it is indigenous trance, it’s a wild ride for the young world
beater that wants to be impressed with something cool and well outside the lines. Fun
stuff that is well made but doesn’t take itself seriously.” – Chris Spector, Midwest
Record
“All-stars they are: Club d’Elf have to be one of the most fluent polyglot musical
aggregations on the planet: straight-ahead and avant- garde jazz, Indian, African,
Moroccan, blues, funk (always funk), pop.” – Jon Garelick, Boston Phoenix
“Downtown jazz meets trance, Moroccan music, dub, electronica and jamband…the
music’s ambitious in its scope but navigated smoothly enough and with enough chops
to cause musicians out there to take notes.” – Tad Hendrickson, JazzWeek
“Club d’Elf’s Mike Rivard can draw from an unbelievable talent pool [and] with the
studio, Rivard can put together any band he wants, whether they could all be in the
same room at the same time or not. Great performances litter Now I Understand, but
John Medeski and Mat Maneri deserve special mention (just check the
Mellotron/electric viola feature on “Bass Beat Box”) for their near ubiquity on the
album. Now I Understand isn’t an improvement over the live d’Elf shows; it’s a
different side of the same organism. Consider it the polished gemstone to the uncut
diamonds of the live releases. Excellent.”
– Sean Westergaard, All Music Guide
“I love this friggin CD but I took it out of my car so I would listen to all the other CDs
I’m supposed to be checking out for the channel [XM radio]. It’s been a month [since I
listened to it]. And then there is it, like a drug, so I pop it in and all over again – I am
hooked! What have you done to me !!!!??? This is one of my all time desert island
CDs. You can quote me on that too!” – Michelle Sammartino, XM Radio
“Club d’Elf’s debut studio CD is the sound of a Dali painting…beautiful, surrealistic…
eclectic, funny, technically impressive and, well, just awesome.” – Jon Nolan, The
Wire, New Hampshire
“This music takes its time, and only repeated exposure to its delights reveals the
depth of its identity. There is an overriding sense of construction behind the entire
programme of Now I Understand, [yet] this is music whose democracy is as profound
as that of any piece of free improvisation.” – Nic Jones, AllAboutJazz.com
“Put it on and go for a ride.” – Miles Jordan, The Chico News & Review
“It took eight years…but Boston improvisational collective Club d’Elf has finally
captured this city. Led by bassist Mike Rivard, Club d’Elf’s first studio album, Now I
Understand, translates the feel of a cross-city commute into music: layers of sounds
from hip-hop to trance and a half-dozen world-music genres create moments of
beauty…” – Jed Gottlieb, Boston Herald
“If you want to hear a band who does it right, may I suggest Club d’Elf, whose Now I
Understand (Accurate/Hi-N-Dry) is an album where you do not know what’s coming
next, even after three or four listens. [With] incredible down-tempo funk jams,
tranquil jazz, African percussion [which will] take you to the motherland, these guys
refuse to stay in one place at any given time and it’s a joy to hang on and see where
they take you next. Even with all of the diversity of music and musicians, it’s not
scatterbrained or disorganized at all….It’s about unity, it’s about community spirit, it’s
about one world, one music. Club D’Elf must have discovered some good hash
somewhere, because once they hit that high, they thrive on the buzz and allow
themselves to weave through it. All on one puff”. – John Book, musicforamerica.org
“Club d’Elf is a fusion workshop, somewhat in the style of later Miles Davis or the
Mahavishnu Orchestra, drawing together a range of players in a variety of genres to
plumb jazz, dub, electronica, rock, trance, and the music of the Middle and Far East,
with a heavy emphasis on Moroccan styles.” – Chad Berndtson, The Quincy (MA)
Patriot Ledger
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