A Ma Zone

by Rick AndersonZap 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). "'Allo 'Allo" and "Call Waiting" both hint at her ongoing obsession with the telephone, an instrument that she seems to find mildly repellent but can't seem to ignore. Everything on this album is both complex and immediately accessible, simultaneously deeply funky and sweetly gentle. Very highly recommended.