On its first full-length in four years, Marie Daulne's Zap Mama project returns to Luaka Bop from a brief encounter with Narada and resumes its quest to wind African melody and vocal harmony around hip- hop, jazzy breaks, soul and Afro Cuban rhythms first explored on 7 and continued with mixed success on A Ma Zone. Produced by Daulne and Anthony Tidd, the music production was supervised by the Roots' Richard Nichols. As such, this exotic blend is earthy, steamy, full of souled-out slips and shimmers in "Bandy Bandy" with special guest Erykah Baud, and the laid-back funk of "Show Me the Way," with guests Air Thompson Bahamadia and Lady Alma. This is far more an urban recording, where urban pop and nu-soul are informed by worldbeat esthetics rather than the other way around. Take "Miss Q'N" with its late-night groove and stacked harmonies (all performed by Daulne) coming from out of the ether and weaving a tapestry of soft seductive lullaby around the lyric. "Yak," with its male chorus intoning the pronunciation ("Yah Yoa") is an intro against the whispering hi hat loop, before a huge chorus of alto and contralto voices re-frame it and Daulne's solo voice. As the hypnotic effect becomes the M.O., M.C. Intense begins rapping from his urban reality perch and throws the whole thing into overdrive. And so it goes, drifting, cutting, edging, and willowing toward some otherworldly collage that is all held together in the sheer vocal magic of Daulne's vision. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
Marie Daulne (Vocal Arrangement), Talib Kweli (Vocals), Jon Smeltz (Mixing), Tanya Saw (Vocals), Manou NGuessan Gallo (Vocals), Scratch (Beat Box), Anthony Tidd (Keyboards), Chris McHale (Producer), Anthony Tidd (Instrumentation), Marie Daulne (Vocals (Background)), Erykah Badu (Vocals (Background)), Fredy Massamba (Vocals (Background)), Mfali Kouyate (Cora), Pablo Baptiste (Percussion), Richard Nichols (Music Production Supervisor), Lady Alma (Vocals (Background)), Gordon Goss (Engineer), Common (Rap), Anthony Tidd (Engineer), Marie Daulne (Sound Effects), Marie Daulne (Producer), Chris McHale (Post Production), Tim Green (Horn), Philippe Allaert (Engineer), Kesia Daulne Quental (Vocals), Patrick Dorcean (Drums), Greg Calbi (Mastering), Xuly Bet (Stylist), Marie Daulne (Percussion), Marcellus Hall (Illustrations), Yale Evelev (Executive Producer), Roman Zeitlin (Mixing), Marie Daulne (Audio Production), Aningi Bernadette (Vocals), David Byrne (Executive Producer), Marie Daulne (Bottle), Talib Kweli (Vocals (Background)), Desta Haile (Vocals), Larry Gold (Strings), Dana Leong (Horn), Richard Nichols (Mixing), Dizy Mandjeku (Guitar), Roman Zeitlin (Mixing Assistant), Anthony Tidd (Producer), Yvette (Vocals), Fredy Massamba (Vocals), The Storm (Engineer), Anita Daulne (Vocals), Toya Day (Assistant), Jonathan Finlayson (Horn), Marie Daulne (Vocals), Anthony Tidd (Arranger), Anthony Tidd (Mixing), Tim Leitner (Mixing), Manou NGuessan Gallo (Vocal Arrangement), Chris McHale (Vocals), Erykah Badu (Vocals), Lene Nørgaard Christensen (Vocals (Background)), Jan DeRijk (Engineer), Sophie (Vocals), Axel Niehaus (Mixing), Roman Zeitlin (Engineer), Roman Zeitlin (Assistant Engineer), Coco Minyaka (Vocals), Philippe Allaert (Producer), Ahmir Khalib Thompson (Drums), Filippa Lidholm (Cover Photo), Marie Daulne (Keyboards), Chris McHale (Vocals), Mike Harvey (Vocals), Philippe Allaert (Mixing), Yassin Daulne (Vocals), Roman Zeitlin (Keyboards), Mel Lewis (Drum Programming), ?uestlove (Rap), Nina (Vocals), Chantal Willie (Vocals), Jeff Chestek (Engineer), Marie Daulne (Executive Producer), Jan DeRijk (Pre-Production), Pablo Baptiste (Percussion), Tanya Saw (Vocals (Background)), Fredy Massamba (Guest Appearance), Lene Nørgaard Christensen (Clapping), Anthony Tidd (Audio Production), Roman Zeitlin (Guitar), Lene Nørgaard Christensen (Vocals), Marie Daulne (Sounds), Arlynne Page (Vocals), Manou NGuessan Gallo (Vocals (Background)), Alessandro Canu (Illustrations), Marie Daulne (Clapping)
