Today TMYLM continues our tour of aural worldly delights, after a brief respite in honor of plagiarism and death surrounding the blogosphere in these darkened times. Yes, you’ll have to put on your famous sunglasses for these ones, both picked up, sans venereal disease, in a hostel somewhere in the southern hemisphere. First up we have rootsrock band Kultiration bringing in a dancehallish rhythm over some weird-ass Swedish mixing. Sounds lame until ya hear it, don’t ya know… Next up is Colombian band Aterciopelados notspinning out some cool ass cumbia but without the beats so prevalent in, well, these darkened times. Next time you’re waiting in some cold ass line to hear Diplo at your local shithole, you’ll appreciate these in your mind.

Kultiration - Sparkar Och Slag
Aterciopelados - Baracunatana

Well, we’re back. It was a fun trip, Il Duce Guiliani’s contribution to DF’s fashionable police scene notwithstanding. The beautiful Mexico DF, surrounded by quesadillas and tacos (but with some encroaching disturbing scenes, including a Domino’s pizza across the street from a Little fucking Ceasars). Thus, semi-happily borne into the berth of New York and with a smiley wink to all music loving friends in New York, the next few posts from this werld traveller will have some of the werld-ly music I picked up abroad.

Kumbia All Starz - Spidi Gonzalez
Ska Cubano - Yiri Yiri Bon (Dancehall Remix)

Here’s a mix from the cold gray streets of midwinter New York. Some hot-ass cumbia jams to get ourselves out of the doldrums, and to play for your Argentine-Mexican hostel bitties to show them just how cool your New York friends are. Grab it now, before cumbia becomes this year’s bailefunk.

Cumbia, Tu Sabes?! - Tell Me You Love Me Mix (43:some odd minutes)

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

Don Omar - Con el Cucu en la Boca — LINK FIXED!

Sabor Kolombia - Bota y Tambor

Continuing, or perhaps initiating, TMYLM’s proud, sheep-like infatuation — and heady confusion — with current musical trends, we’re more than happy to offer up a mindfuck of fads this beautiful Friday morning: Lil Wayne, Cumbia, and the ever-expanding constellation of the mash-up. With even less relationship to reality than that weird tourist meme about September 11th, you can be sure we’ll always be here for you.

DJ Stuart - Lil Wayne vs Los Palmeras

Who wouldn’t respect an erstwhile anthropologist drop-out from the University of Minnesota who decided to become a ranchera folk singer in Oaxaca? Lila Downs has a voice that sounds like it’s coming from a deep cavern of sparkling brass, but the production tends to go overboard with faux-indigineity, crossover electric guitar solos, and Sandra Cisnerosesque sentimentalism. These two tracks, from her newish album La Cantina “Entre Copa Y Copa…”, largely avoid those pitfalls.

Lila Downs - Cumbia del Mole
Lila Downs - La Tequileria

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