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Sample Track 1:
"Sunshine of Your Love" from Electric Moroccoland
Sample Track 2:
"Instar" from Electric Moroccoland
Sample Track 3:
"As Above" from So Below
Sample Track 4:
"Wish I Was In Heaven" from So Below
Layer 2
Album Review

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Boston Globe, Album Review >>

Noisy neighbors
by Jonathan Perry

Club d’Elf’s first studio album, 2006’s “Now I Understand,’’ was eight years in the making, so waiting another five years for its sprawling 25-track, two-disc follow-up doesn’t seem like too terribly long a stretch. Besides, as they say, some things are worth the wait.

“Electric Moroccoland/So Below’’ is one (actually, make that two) of them. The free-flowing, free-spirited Boston collective, led by founder Mike Rivard on bass and sintir (a low-voiced, three-stringed North African instrument), again 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. (Check out d’Elf’s radically revamped version of Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love,’’ featuring Hassan Hakmoun’s vocals and John Medeski’s mellotron.)

Taken as a whole, this release feels and sounds like two distinct, yet mutually adventurous works - the first born from ancient tradition (and reportedly inspired by Rivard’s first trip to Morocco), and the second sprung from the space-age dance floor of some cosmic club of the imagination.

Like “Electric Ladyland,’’ Jimi Hendrix’s epic double album to which this work winks, “Electric Moroccoland/So Below’’ is also a ravishing example of exhilarating musical exploration and dazzling execution, encompassing earth, sky, and the elements in between.

Club d’Elf plays with Otis Grove at the Regattabar at the Charles Hotel on Aug. 12. 617-395-7757. www.regattabarjazz.com


 08/05/11 >> go there
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