There was a newspaper strike during the Christmas shopping season in 1958, so retailers had to be creative about their advertising. Here, model Diane Milne sits in the window of Stern's (one of the many department stores that have since vanished) and announces, via blackboard, news of a shoe sale, December 20, 1958.

London is satisfied, Paris is resigned, but New York is always hopeful. Always it believes that something good is about to come off, and it must hurry to meet it.

—Dorothy Parker

http://tinyurl.com/k2865af

PICKS

Balani Show Super Hits: Electronic Street Parties from Mali (Sahelsounds)

“Balani Show” refers to the Malian street parties enlivening boulevards from Bamako to Sikasso as well as the energetic dance music created by urban remixers specifically for such festivities, and from the way compiler Christopher Kirkley describes the style’s genesis, it’s tough to deny parallels with The Bronx circa 1975. You know the story, or one like it: once balaphon players started proving too expensive for everyday hire, DJs and creative types started fucking around with records and sound systems, only in true millennial fashion the innovations were driven by laptops and cellphones rather than cds or turntables. Kirkley promises the ten tracks and seven artists represented herein showcase songs blessed with “heavy rotation” in Bamako, and the result is this quite literal awesome tape from Africa - balafon patterns over incessant electro-beats, melodic chant and Bambara raps atop shekere and djembe instrumentation, rhythmic variations on coupé décalé, kuduro, and good old hip-hop. And while the production isn’t especially dense, occasional auto-tuned vocals and ad hoc synth flourishes add melodic variety to the all-encompassing groove. Our compiler recommends a very loud volume for recreating that outdoor Malian milieu. Private art, it has its pleasures. But public art is sometimes so damn necessary.

Moreno and L’Orch First Moja-One, Vol. 2: More Pili (Stern’s)

Stern’s ongoing archival dig into the vaults of Nairobi’s AIT Records brings more West African soukous from the husky-voiced Moreno Batamba, who leapt between labels and crisscrossed national borders with Orchestra Moja-One before his early death. Vol. 1 bundled a 1983 Moreno album with rare 1977 acetates. This digital-only follow-up is early 1980s, with two unreleased cuts from ’81 and six of eight tracks pushing beyond nine minutes. No horns and only a few sporadic keyboard washes, but plenty of rippling guitar from Mokili Sesti, on loan from fellow Congolese bandleader Samba Mapangala’s mighty Orchestra Virunga (Mapangala himself contributes backing vocals to “Dunia Ni Duara”). Familiar names surface; Lava Machine once again occupies the drum kit, and much love is rendered unto Moreno’s beloved Tanzanian girlfriend, Pili. And while the brisk arpeggios and rumba breakdowns of soukous/lingala prove as always remarkably sustaining, if it’s variety you seek, the final three tracks suggest this natural performer’s wide range - the jubilant reggae of “Sitaki Mambo,” some organist channelling Spooner Oldham on soul ballad “Mariana,” and the raw guitar of lo-fi closer “Bokila”.

NEAR PICK

Nils Petter Molvær, Switch (Okeh Records)

PICKS 

Balani Show Super Hits: Electronic Street Parties from Mali     (Sahelsounds)

“Balani Show” refers to the Malian street parties enlivening boulevards from Bamako to Sikasso as well as the energetic dance music created by urban remixers specifically for such festivities, and from the way compiler Christopher Kirkley describes the style’s genesis, it’s tough to deny parallels with The Bronx circa 1975. You know the story, or one like it: once balaphon players started proving too expensive for everyday hire, DJs and creative types started fucking around with records and sound systems, only in true millennial fashion the innovations were driven by laptops and cellphones rather than cds or turntables. Kirkley promises the ten tracks and seven artists represented herein showcase songs blessed with “heavy rotation” in Bamako, and the result is this quite literal awesome tape from Africa - balafon patterns over incessant electro-beats, melodic chant and Bambara raps atop shekere and djembe instrumentation, rhythmic variations on coupé décalé, kuduro, and good old hip-hop. And while the production isn’t especially dense, occasional auto-tuned vocals and ad hoc synth flourishes add melodic variety to the all-encompassing groove. Our compiler recommends a very loud volume for recreating that outdoor Malian milieu. Private art, it has its pleasures. But public art is sometimes so damn necessary.   

Bandcamp/digital.    Vinyl.

 Moreno and L’Orch First Moja-One, Vol. 2: More Pili     (Stern’s)

Stern’s ongoing archival dig into the vaults of Nairobi’s AIT Records brings more West African soukous from the husky-voiced Moreno Batamba, who leapt between labels and crisscrossed national borders with Orchestra Moja-One before his early death. Vol. 1 bundled a 1983 Moreno album with rare 1977 acetates. This digital-only follow-up is early 1980s, with two unreleased cuts from ’81 and six of eight tracks pushing beyond nine minutes. No horns and only a few sporadic keyboard washes, but plenty of rippling guitar from Mokili Sesti, on loan from fellow Congolese bandleader Samba Mapangala’s mighty Orchestra Virunga (Mapangala himself contributes backing vocals to “Dunia Ni Duara”). Familiar names surface; Lava Machine once again occupies the drum kit, and much love is rendered unto Moreno’s beloved Tanzanian girlfriend, Pili. And while the brisk arpeggios and rumba breakdowns of soukous/lingala prove as always remarkably sustaining, if it’s variety you seek, the final three tracks suggest this natural performer’s wide range - the jubilant reggae of “Sitaki Mambo,” some organist channelling Spooner Oldham on soul ballad “Mariana,” and the raw guitar of lo-fi closer “Bokila”. 

 NEAR PICK

Nils Petter Molvær, Switch     (Okeh Records)