Oh, Ray...

... we hardly knew ye. This has got to be the most hilarious thing I've come across in the last few days. And I've got to confess that for a split second I was really like, "Wow, who'd have thought that?!?"

Africa 100 - The Afrobeat Boxset

Head on over to the excellent What's In My iPod to get this massive 7 cd set of intense, dark, raw, virtuosic and resolutely life-affirming music. It's an unofficial compilation to accompany this feature on Pitchfork by Joe Tangari and - if I understand this right - it was put together and uploaded to BitTorrent sites by the author himself. Now, I don't know too much about Afrobeat, but to me this looks as comprehensive a genre overview as you're ever likely to get. Plus it will have you shuffling those feet and wiggling those buns all summer long.

Bleep & Bass

Talk about coincidence: Just as this write-up and this wicked mix sent me back to listening to LFO's first album, Nightmare On Wax's Aftermath lp and the Warp 10+2 compilation, I discovered that It's Coming Out Of Your Speaker posted the whole Aftermath EP series by Nightmares On Wax plus a couple more early Warp 12inches. Nice!