While flirting with the world-music sin of over-amalgamation, the latest offering from Bamboula 2000 follows the compass-like congas of Luther Gray, tracing a cohesive journey in fusion that shows once again why the group matters.

The band isn’t a natural fit for recording, mostly because you can’t experience the dance and teachings involved in a live show (they deserve one of those bonus DVD packages). Still, the album works because the central concepts remain urgent and resilient. The first few songs show the heavy influence of neo-soul and 1980s R&B, with the seductive vocals of Cheryl Woods upending your expectations and driving home the fundamental point of Bamboula 2000: the living connection between Congo Square and distant relatives like Sade or Mary J. Blige.

Towards the middle of the album, the synthesizers and guitars give way to the drums of “I Ye’ Bamboula,” “Lucky 7” and “St. Malo.” In lesser hands, the traditional percussion might sound abrupt, but instead it feels unearthed, the momentum and influence laid bare.

A few songs (“Big Round World,” “Imagination Tour”) sound like Travel Channel interstitials, world-for-the-sake-of-world. Any doubts they might raise get overshadowed by the ambitious directions taken by Bamboula 2000 in their own search for origins and fusion.