“With a harrowingly physical performance from Mitchener, tightly woven displays of virtuosity from the group, and little more than the highly evocative lighting to set the scene, it is like watching an exorcism: the demon cast out is history.”
“The soul that should go with funk was offered up with great effect at the Noumatrouff on Météo’s second night when singer Elaine Mitchener and her London-based septet presented what was billed as vocal classics of the avant garde.”
“Mitchener also makes a virtue of this ‘out of many threads one fabric’ aesthetic but, crucially, she brings her own character and idiosyncrasies to bear on Lee’s repertoire.”
“Her performance at Silent Green – an old crematorium converted into a cultural center – hit hard.”
“Digging deep into their own history is exactly the long run up Mitchener and her ensemble need to make their great musical leaps into the future.”
“It’s a marvel that such a small urban space as Cafe Oto, in the hard streets of Dalston, can contain all this music with its profound messages.”
“Whereas the originals pushed the envelope of their times and, on listening to recordings where available, still unnerve convincingly, the interpretations presented at Cafe Oto pushed today’s envelope in equally uncomfortable directions as, by implication, they reflected and acknowledged the issues in which society remains deeply mired.”
“This gig is a potent, provocative event that underlines the blues as a foundation for progressive black culture”
“The band captured the genre-bending energy of those times without imitation and added emotional force to the songs presented. (…) Mitchener was a syllable-stretching, sound-crunching force of nature throughout.”
