Zap Mama : Brrrlak!

Zap Mama was a five woman a cappella group, formed by a ex-African living in Belgium.  Their sound is heavily influenced by the rhythms of Africa, especially the pygmy tribes, as well as European pop song.  The rhythms they employ are intense, sometimes complex, and the harmonies are gorgeous.  The group sings in English, French and occasionally an African language, though I have no idea which one.

There were a number of great songs to choose from off their first album, but I chose "Brrrlak!" as it contains most of the group's signature techniques.  It starts with the a cappella rhythmic singing, including some very tribal hoots and chirps. There's the beatbox-ish percussion bubbling along through the entire tune, turning downright funky near the end.  And then there's the gorgeous melody sung over the top, in both French and English.  It's a very worldly presentation from an extremely worldly group and highly enjoyable.

"Brrrlak!" comes from their first LP from 1993, Adventures in Afropea 1.  It's a great album all the way through, stretching from medieval-style hymns to rhythmic chants to beautiful pop melodies, sometimes all in the same song.

[You can listen to Zap Mama's "Brrrlak!" by navigating to the post "Song072" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

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Linda Draper : Mother's Little Helper

I said at the beginning, "The music should just be really good, or at least interesting." This one falls into the latter category. Don't get me wrong. It is good. I enjoy it, and I wouldn't put anything up here that I didn't like. But posting this song is more about giving you something different than giving you something great. I don't think this song rings with the same universal appeal that the previous posts might have had, so if you don't like it, I won't think any less of you. But you should still hear it, because it's cool.

I couldn't find much about Linda Draper. She's apparently a folk/indie singer, which means she's probably a singer-songwriter who either wants to be Tori Amos or Norah Jones. I haven't heard anything else she's done, as is the case with many of the covers I've heard, but I'm sure she's wonderful if you like that sort of thing.

Here though she provides a stripped-down take on the Rolling Stones' Mother's Little Helper. Draper lilts her way through the song with nothing but a little bit of double-tracking and a tambourine. Where the original rocks, this version sort of ... floats. The weird thing is, it doesn't really sound full enough to have originally been imagined as an a cappella recording. Even most solo vocals have a sort of weight that seems to be missing here. It's almost as if they instead took a song that originally had all the parts, bass, drums, guitar and whatnot, and stripped them out, leaving only the backing percussion and the voice. Or maybe it's just a matter of some weird equalization. Either way, the result is a flat, dark, empty take on the song, which resounds with the subject matter quite nicely and makes for a vaguely unsettling experience, like driving down your neighborhood street in a light snow at three in the morning: familiar, yet eerie.

Mother's Little Helper can be found on Linda's 2009 album Bridge and Tunnel.

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