In this week's issue of the Guardian, I finally got the total fanboy pleasure of writing about, and talking to, one of my true DJ inspirations, electro-funk originator and dance edit king Greg Wilson. (He'll be performing at Triple Crown on Fri/19). Kicking his career off in 1975, the man has the kind of stamina and skills most spinners can only dream about. (And I didn't even get into the fact that he was the first professional DJ hired for a regular gig at the hugely influential Hacienda club in Manchester.) In the late '70s and early '80s, Wilson provided a crucial link between the often segregated black soul and white dance scenes -- he was known as a "black music specialist," eek -- and his panoramic edits were the fruitful results of his colorblind cross-pollination. Here's our email chat in full, his replies coming after a "brilliant night in Melbourne," Australia.

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Four ngonis -- that's a lot of ngonis! Bassekou Kouyate -- Malian maestro of the stringed instrument which not only calls up the resounding Middle Eastern oud, the plucky Appalachian banjo, and the freewheelin' Greek zither -- has built a legendary sound around a quartet of ngonis (not as dirty as it sounds, but quite sexy), and has just released a bumptious and beguiling album, I Speak Fula (Sub Pop). He'll be bringing his multitudinous band and joyfully haunting sound to Slim's on Thu/11.

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