The word “koyebi” in Lingala means “to hear” and “to feel.” While I could simmer and come apart with bliss in the metaphorical implications of this fact, I’ll keep that to myself. I’m told that this is actually the case in most Bantu languages; now that’s what I call embedded values.

Moving up the coast a litte bit but sticking on the same continent, Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate released their collaboration, In the Heart of the Moon yesterday. Toure, the blues-influenced Malian guitarist, takes a comfortable backseat to Diabate’s virtuosity on the Kora, a 21-stringed African folk harp that sounds like more brittle, less mystical version of the sitar. Get in, sprawl; it bubbles and whirls around like loose boats on a midnight sound or cream blots on a black sky, v. beautiful, really. I’m thinking about writing on it, but ironically, the more I try to learn about African music, the more I feel like a dilettante.

Speaking of things that I probably will attend to though, it looks like No New York is finally getting a US CD release on November 15. I was always meh on that comp., especially in the wake of the James Chance catalog getting recently reissued, and the DNA single-disc retrospective last year (still my favorite band of that scene). Still, I can’t help but get a kick out of the fact that Steve Albini once claimed “Flip Your Face” as his favorite song of all time, psssssh.