As we celebrate the anniversary of one of our favorite, and certainly one of the most influential sound systems, it's nice to be able to take a look back at the development of Norman Jay's Good Times, and his shaping of popular tastes. Through conversations with Norman himself, and those close to him, we get to see some of the many things that made (and make) Good Times so special. Hats off to Norman, and to the parties which have brought so many people together.

Read here how the new Orchestre Polyrhythmo album came together, and their experiences playing outside of Africa for the first time.

This one is really cool. At the beginning of the year, Afrobeat Academy played a series of shows with Ebo Taylor in his home country of Ghana. Traveling with the group, Tom Bass shot some fantastic footage of the country, the performances, and of Ebo behind the scenes. The pieces with Ebo looking through old memorabilia and records is especially interesting. Hard to imagine traveling with a true legend of African music in his own country! This might be the next best thing.

Danny Krivit is pretty much an un-ending well of knowledge, so any time we're able to pick his brain for a little bit it's a happy occasion! Leading up to his second collection of soulful re-works aimed at the dance floor, the master editor and record collector gave us a run-down of his history in the cutting room, some of his favorite edits, and his general philosophy of how an edit works best. Edits By Mr. K Vol. 2 will be out in September on Strut. If you're in NYC, come party with us Sunday the 12th for 718 Sessions at Santos Party House to celebrate the album's release!

The love we've received on our Walter Gibbons retrospective has been pretty amazing, from a full piece in the Wall Street Journal, to a "Best New Reissue" on Pitchfork, to all the feedback we've been receiving on Twitter, Facebook, etc.  In the same spirit of celebration of Gibbons' life, Danny Krivit & Tony Smith, both also DJ legends in their own right, took some time out to share some of their favorite memories of Walter with us.  Very interesting stuff, including gems like the fact that it took some of the subjects of Gibbons' remix work some time to warm up to his style.  Check it out, and look for Jungle Music out next week, and you can look forward to a new Edits record from Danny Krivit in the very near future!

Lloyd Miller is a pretty fascinating guy, and it's a pleasure to get to see him enumerate and explain some of the instruments he used for his collaborative album with The Heliocentrics. It's hard to imagine finding the time to learn all of these different instruments, but they definitely make for a uniquely textured album. We also shot an interview w/ Lloyd going into his rich history, including a near performance at Woodstock! Look for that here in the next couple of weeks. "Lloyd Miller and the Heliocentrics" will be out at the beginning of August.

As a creative force in disco, Arthur Russell is unmatched. In the third edition of our interview series, producer Bob Blank discusses working with the man behind the classics "Go Bang," "Is It All Over My Face," and many more. Our anthology of Blank's work, The Blank Generation is out this week, and as you can see below, it's streaming in full all week over at Spinner.com.