Cities, cities, technology, and cities. And technologies. We love em, but they allow authorities to be miserable in entirely different ways. In London, power drunk pigs boast their salivatory rants before launching into beating time. In DF, authorities manipulate swine flu paranoia to worry about its entry to the US (heaven forfend!) above anything else — tragironically ignoring the histories of this very flu. But god bless the Mexicans, and god bless cumbia: A bit cheesy, but an ode to city life that repudiates panic, Cumbia De La Influenza (facebook) was brought to my attention by my heavenly south american informant. Working on the irony of the civilization-robbing Indiana Jones fretting over whether the virus invades its borders, this is the kind of social response we should expect from our cities, rather than the.. um.. the other kind of response.

La Cumbia de la Influenza [alt]

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)

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