Encyclopedias of disco knowledge that they are, it's always educational to hear the Horse Meat Disco guys hold court on the subject of music history. One such topic on which they have a lot to say is the after-hours disco sub-genre known as Sleaze, made popular at seminal NYC night clubs like The Saint. In fact, the entire second disc of the London collective's latest mix album functions as a Sleaze survey. Not familiar? See what the guys have to say in an interview with the mighty djhistory.com (encyclopedias in their own right). Both discs of HMD III are likely to soundtrack more than a few parties this summer.

The Detroit Music Awards won't be the first time Dennis Coffey and Mayer Hawthorne share a stage together. In fact, the two performed their cover of Parliament's "All Your Goodies Are Gone" when Mayer was in town this past February, and we were lucky enough to get some great video footage. It's a nice preview of the kind of guitar wizardry to expect from Dennis when he hits the road in June and July. Having seen him in Austin this month, we can attest to the fact that Dennis takes no prisoners on stage.

We've been doing video trailers for some of our albums and compilations for a while now, but when we approached Mox (of Coldcut & Cinematic Orchestra fame) about assembling a video collage for Leo Zero's "Disconnect" mix, he delivered something unlike we've ever seen before. Invigorating the material with all sorts of explosive footage, the video mixes in news images from the UK during the late '70s and '80s, from a rubbish collection strike in 1979, the mayhem of a Celtic vs Rangers on-pitch invasion in 1980 and the Brixton riots of 1981 to a bizarre '70s attempt to smuggle vinyl-shaped pot cakes in record sleeves from Jamaica. Images of Leo's work throughout his career pepper the visuals including his celebrated days as a resident at Soulsonic in London to his work as a member of A Mountain of One. All of this is set to a custom mini-mix of some of the album's tracks from Leo himself. It's an awesome companion piece to the mix, which is out this week. Enjoy!

Dennis Coffey is a true legend. One of the all-time great Detroit guitarists, a member of the original Motown house band The Funk Brothers, and the man behind classic breakbeats "Scorpio" and "Theme From Black Belt Jones," he's back in the studio recording a brand new album, which we'll be releasing in 2011. We'll have more info for you on that really soon, but for now enjoy this teaser video in which Coffey is joined by a host of Detroit friends, incuding Mayer Hawthorne, drummer Melvin Davis, and some other folks you might recognize for cheeky take on Cee-Lo’s ‘F*@k You,’ a track influenced by the Motown sound he helped create.

We couldn't be more excited to have the opportunity to present the classic music of Fania on Strut. There really is no way to have a conversation about Afro-Cuban music without touching on what Fania have done, and it's an honor to be able to share their music with our listeners. Salsa Explosion serves as a great entry point to the Fania catalog, touching on many of the different sub-styles that make up what is referred to as Salsa. So many classic artists and tunes on here. We're also thrilled to be able to present the album with a series of unpublished photos, and new artwork, some of which you can see in this video. Look for Salsa Explosion at the end of the month!

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!