Zap Mama - A Ma Zone [Bonus Tracks]

Zap Mama's last album was the first one to incorporate instrumental sounds into the group's six-voice a cappella mix; it was also the first to include male voices. On A Ma Zone, group leader Marie Daulne has expanded the exploration of American R&B and hip-hop that she began with Seven. Breakbeats, jazzy upright bass, and turntable manipulation are now a part of the mix -- a mix that was already rich with European and West African influences. "Gissie" draws most deeply on Daulne's Central African Pygmy roots, with its call-and-response structure and her unearthly yodeling; "Rafiki," which opens the album, is a collaboration with Black Thought (of The Roots) that segues beautifully into "W'Happy Mama," on which Daulne shows off her own speed-rap flow (in French, of course). Read More