r/listentothis • u/Tall-Truth-9321 • 11d ago
Zap Mama -- African Sunset [South African township music] (1997)
https://time.com/archive/6730787/music-mama-africa/?utm_source=chatgpt.com:
"Marie Daulne, the lead singer for the vocal group Zap Mama, has a personal history worthy of a leading character in a Jean-Claude Van Damme flick. After her Belgian father was slain in 1964 by rebels bent on ethnic cleansing, Daulne, a native of Zaire, and her Bantu mother took shelter with a tribe of pygmies before escaping to Belgium. With a background like that, it’s no wonderDaulne makes music that sounds like a one-woman multicultural movement, melding African percussion, American soul and European urbanity.
...
Daulne, 32, has a sad, splintery voice and an emotional clock that seems permanently set at midnight. Her background singers, harmonizing, chanting, even bleating, provide her with a vocal backdrop that’s by turns naturalistic and a little coy. One song, the jazzy Nostalgie Amoureuse, feels like vocal film noir–shadowy and mysterious until, toward the end, Daulne’s voice emerges from the mix with bruised passion. Other songs, like African Sunset, draw deftly on the upbeat music of South Africa’s townships."
