Returning from collaborative work soul/funk songstress Mandisa played her first live gig this week at a monthly night in Muswell Hill. Accompanied by a serious base guitar and lead, she reworked some of her best tracks like Enough is Enough’. One of the key features of this singer is her ability to inflect her voice and keep her own rhythm while the music plays around her, the interplay of vocals and music is unusual and hypnotic. Its easy to hear the power in Mandisa’s voice even though it isn’t force fed via a room sized balled, the feeling in transferred through the lyrics and smokey tones resulting in a simmering quality. Currently in the studio writing and recording it looks like we can hope to see some new material in the new year. Claire Quinn