Iness Mezel is a powerful singer but also, on this evidence, a frustrating one. For this London show, she sounded alternately exciting and original and downright ordinary.
Mezel has an intriguing history – with an Algerian father and French-Italian mother, she spent part of her childhood living in a Berber region in Algeria, before returning to France, where she listened to disco and funk.
Her last two albums have explored both sides of her musical interests. Beyond the Trance was a rousing set produced by Justin Adams, who added to the African blues influences with his guitar, banjo and gimbri, while her latest album, Strong, mixes north African styles with funk and Europop. This was her first appearance in London in four years, and the poor attendance suggested that audiences have forgotten her. But she deserves to be heard, even if she doesn’t always do herself justice.
This time around she didn’t have Adams on stage to help her, but was joined by a four-piece band that featured guitar, two percussionists, and driving playing from Ruth Goller on a tiny bass guitar. She opened with the mediocre pop ballad Aim to Dream, but then began to show her vocal range, switching to the Berber language Tamazight for a brooding ballad and the desert blues of Cheikh Mo-Hand, driven on by handclaps and castanets. She moved back to forgettable Europop with Precious Souls, before heading for an impressive upbeat finale that mixed north African styles and funk.
Maybe Mezel should follow the example of Hindi Zahra, another fine singer from a French-Berber family, and spend more time in North Africa, for it was the Berber-influenced songs that showed her at her best.
• The London African music festival continues until 27 September.
