Goodbye, Brooklyn, how you doing?

Some of us, increasingly more of us, are off to [un]faraway vacations for a few weeks, and at the risk of emitting too much like a military experiment gone awry we wanted to direct a big fucking thanks to all the transumers, brand butlers, New York police, judeo-christian moralists, dive-bar-killers, Fort Greene expatriate grups and piece-of-shit ex-girlfriends that made this year such a precious one. Here’s some nostalgia for ya.

Jay Z & Lil Wayne - Hello Brooklyn (The Knocks Remix)
Carlos Moura - Sou

No, it’s not that weird internet dude. Sometimes you wake up in the morning and before heading out to navigate the stroller Normandy Beach in your local historic neighborhood, you want a 1960s band from Brazil to adopt a 1950s American style and with some flourish. I’m not too twee, I swear!

O Terco - Yes, I Do

It’s always nice when people sing pretty songs about, like, politics. While all too often a political ballad will roll hamfisted into the gates of tacky hell, sometimes a small charming ditty — helped if delivered by a pretty girl — will lull you to happiness before understanding that what underlies your happiness is actually a Western gaze that insists on compulsively commodifying all it touches. Then you have your tea and feel better.

Mayra Andrade - Dimokransa
Mayra Andrade - Comme S’il En Pleuvait

it occurs to you as the nights get darker and the air gets colder that the bike ride becomes less tenable. you think of trains more during this time. it isn’t as easy to stand still outside.

Gal Costa - Vapor Barato
Kelly Hogan - Papa Was A Rodeo (Magnetic Fields Cover)

The Racionais MC’s do a nice turn on a trip-hop standard, if such a thing can be said to exist. The original sample is from Isaac Hayes, “Ike’s Rap III,” in case you care to care.

Racionais MC’s - Jorge da Capadacia

Break out the incense and hang those tapestries!
Tricky - Hell is Round the Corner
Portishead - Glory Box