“The roaring avant-funk of electric-era Miles (and) the legato drift of the Grateful Dead…heady music that doesn’t neglect the tail.” – Steve Smith, Time Out New York
“Most of this stuff is just flat-out crazy but in the best possible musical way, as if the Sun Ra Arkestra happened to pick up the Wild Tchoupitoulas on Bourbon Street and then set their controls for the heart of the sun.” – Chris M. Slawecki, AllAboutJazz
“Live At Club Helsinki is one of those rare recordings that points in a viable direction for the future of creative music and its’ near two-hour running time goes by in a flash…an accessible blend of styles that is unmatched by any current offerings. Highly recommended.” – Karl Ackermann, AllAboutJazz
“…(Live At Club Helsinki) layers centuries of musical cultures – from ancient Gnawa trance music to edgy hip-hop to free jazz to good ol’ rock and roll jams—into a coherent and compelling soundscape…Each track develops in a satisfyingly organic and unhurried way, with different instruments and textures flowing into the groove at different places, like tributaries feeding a river. The river just keeps flowing, with new views around every bend.” – Mel Minter, MelMinter.com
“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
“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
“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
“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
