April 8, 2011 WNYC, Gig Alert By Marlon Bishop : WNYC Culture Producer

The strangely named Club d'Elf is the result of bandleader Mike Rivard's decade-long flirtation with the deep grooves of Moroccan trance music. Travels in North Africa led Rivard to become fascinated with the Sufi music of the Afro-Moroccan Gnawa people, and eventually to studying the sintir, a local instrument tuned low like a bass. With Cub d'Elf, Rivard translates the Moroccan sounds to a funk-jazz context, and the result is some deeply psychedelic music. This tack, “As Above,” features the twitching pianos of jam-band legend John Medeski, the smooth turntablism of DJ Logic, and the beats of master Ghanaian drummer Dolsi-naa Abubakari Lunna. Sounds like: the lovechild of Pink Floyd and George Clinton, dropped in Marrakesh.