HI-N-DRY: Club d'Elf

Club D'Elf

Amid static and tape flicker an ominous but cartoonish voice emerges to declare: "The world is under attack at this very moment by the most powerful forces man has ever seen: creatures from space, monsters from the depths of the earth and criminals operating right within our cities. They must be destroyed before they destroy the world. Operation Lifesaver is in effect as of right now." It's a clear signal that something transformative is waiting in the wings, scary and funny at the same time. And indeed, many of the listener's natural perceptions of sound and aural equilibrium are about to be pushed to the limit. This is precisely the kind of sonic journey that defines the debut studio album by the Boston-based collective, Club d'Elf, Now I Understand, a joint release on Somerville's Accurate Records and Cambridge's HI-N-DRY. Eight years in the making, it's a recording of great depth, intrigue and adventure. But more than just a musical experiment, human warmth and spirituality prevail. Club d'Elf has created an inspirational work completely unto itself.

Club d'Elf is the brainchild of bassist Mike Rivard, one of the most respected musicians on the Boston scene, having played with a startling variety of artists including The Either/Orchestra, Natraj (Indo-jazz), Hypnosonics (with members of Morphine), The Story, Guster, Jon Brion, Aimee Mann, and Paula Cole to name but a few. In 1998, Rivard seized the opportunity to organize a residency at Cambridge's ultra-hip Lizard Lounge by creating a rhythm section-oriented band with a floating cast of guitar, keyboard and horn players. Playing his tunes, which draw on influences ranging from Miles Davis and The Meters to electronica and Moroccan music, Rivard created a distinctly personal style from the bottom up, a sound which varies depending on the sidemen, but is always fascinatingly broad and a mile deep.

Club d'Elf's existence as an ever-changing peformance ensemble made it logical that its first seven CDs were live albums. Here, d'Elf's first studio recording reflects another side of leader Rivard's musical personality. Now I Understand takes fearless improvisations recorded "live in the studio" and weaves them into tight, layered compositions, perfectly paced and meticulously detailed. Primarily occupied with creating virtually a new edition of the band for every show - dozens of personnel combinations over the years - and the seven live albums, Rivard has taken years to construct the studio tracks, the process of recording, editing and mixing, documenting the composer/bandleader and ensemble's journey through time. Collaborators include d'Elf regulars John Medeski on Hammond organ, Wurlitzer piano, Mellotron and analog synthesizer, Billy Martin on drums, Mat Maneri on viola, Dave Tronzo, Duke Levine, Gerry Leonard (aka Spooky Ghost) and Reeves Gabrels on guitar, Alain Mallet on keyboards and DJ Logic on turntables. The core of the band, its rhythm section, remains consistent: Rivard on bass and a Moroccan three stringed bass lute called the sintir, Brahim Fribgane on oud, dumbek and percussion, Mister Rourke on turntables and Erik Kerr on drums.

As Now I Understand unfolds, Club d'Elf reveals itself to be firmly rooted in trance music, both contemporary electronic forms and traditional forms like Moroccan Berber and Gnawa music, and Sufi music. The opening cut, "Bass Beatbox," has a distinct drum'n'bass vibe, but the warmth of the drum sounds and the natural swing to the beat patterns make clear that these are not computer generated loops, but real players laying down a ferocious groove. "Hungry Ghosts" presents a Medeski Wurlitzer-driven sound tapestry punctuated by Dave Tronzo's razor sharp slide guitar and DJ Logic's conversational turntable scratchings. By the time track four, "Quilty," begins with the simply stated pronouncement, "some thoughts have a certain sound," Club d'Elf hopes the listener will have achieved something like an altered state. Deeply layered, dream-like, repetitive rhythms created by tablas, trap kits and turntables give way to Brahim Fribgane on oud. "Vishnu Dub" remains on this elevated level.

At this point the listener encounters something both down to earth and ethereal: the voice of Jenifer Jackson, singing an obscure '60s number, A Toy for a Boy, brought to Rivard's attention on a mix tape by Tom Ardolino of NRBQ. Originally recorded by the Ray Charles Singers (no - not that Ray Charles, but an easy-listening schlockmeister whose career was either jump-started or prematurely ended by his unfortunate name), Jackson's delivery is both sultry and ironic, riding a Portishead-like trip-hop feel.

The title track, "Now I Understand" begs the repeated question, "are you ready to die?," the centripetal force of Mat Maneri's electric viola slowly building into a rock-steady, circular groove, while Reeves Gabrels' slashing guitar skronks and squeals eerily amongst the chaos. And this only takes us half-way through Now I Understand.

Now I Understand is an album packed with brilliant players and performances, reflecting many lifetimes of musical experience, yet it never feels busy or cluttered. With spot-on pacing and balance, the end of the 67 minute program will leave listeners ready to listen again and again.

What the critics are saying:

"The brainchild of Boston bassist Mike Rivard, Club d'Elf is a genre-shattering collective that merges jazz, hip-hop, electronic music, worldbeat and more...Now I Understand is both instrumentally compelling and utterly uncategorizable. The future starts here." - Michael Roberts, Westword, Denver

"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

"[A] spontaneous groove-laden trance music experiment." -Dave Medeloni, Berkshire Eagle (Massachusetts)

"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 (Hi-N-Dry/Accurate) 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. Its core is bassist and sintir player Mike Rivard, a Berklee alumnus who began hosting biweekly d'Elf sessions at the Lizard Lounge in 1998. Affectionately dubbed ''Micro,'' Rivard's a legend around these parts, having come up with the Either/Orchestra and played with, among many others, the Story, Morphine and Patty Larkin." -Chad Berndtson, The Quincy (MA) Patriot Ledger

"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, electonica 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