Sally Nyolo - Multiculti & Béti & Zaïone (1998-2002)

A delight from beginning to end, this is Sally Nyolo's second solo outing since leaving Zap Mama. Originally from Cameroon, Sally Nyolo's music is rooted in the Bikutsi rhythms of her childhood and has spread to encompass a wide variety of global influences. The music ranges from rollicking Cameroonian dance numbers to atmospheric textural vocal evocations of the forest at night. Nyolo has a rich supple voice, at times soft and sultry, at others playfully swooping into Pygmie style yodels. She is a talented percussionist who works with her band to create complex subtle rhythmic textures using acoustic instruments. Nyolo sings in her native Eton language and a variety of others including French and English, and covers a number of topics including environmental spirituality, solidarity in the face of racism, and a tribute to Japanese reggae. Full translations of her songs are included in the booklet. --Jeff Grubb

While her former colleagues in Zap Mama move toward a slicker sound, on her third solo release, Camerounian singer Sally Nyolo continues on her back-to-basics route, this time taking it all the way to the village with the bikutsi rhythms. The most notable things are the ample groove supplied by the guitar, which finds its riff and hangs onto it like a pit bull discovering a mailman's leg, the rich range of percussion, and the layering of voices that can move between the airiness of angels and the roll of thunder. All of that makes for a substantial, and very hypnotic, package. Partly recorded in Cameroon, it has a very rough and rural feel under the multi-track voices from massed backing vocalists, up to ten of them, making for a female choir. While the bikutsi rhythm has been hijacked by men in recent years (such as Les Tetes Brulées), its origins are with the village women, and Nyolo reclaims it here, even if she does help it travel the world on a track like "Harlem." Lyrically, again, it's centered on community and family, grounded in the village. Over the course of her three albums, Nyolo seems to have found her calling, and this mix of the raw and the high-tech, in perfect balance, is her best effort to date.