Thanks for joining me today. Unless there's been a major reshuffle, Lanre will be here tomorrow with more of the same (except infinitely cooler).

I'll leave you skipping into the sunset with two colossal tunes: Merchandise's soul-stirring new song Enemy and Caribou's just-unveiled extended mix of Can't Do Without You. You really should be very excited about their respective albums. Night.

All the chat in the office today has concerned Utopia, and how last night's audacious flashback episode has ramped up the anticipation for tonight's return of the familiar characters. To help while away the hours til then, have a gander at these Utopia-related tidbits.

Firstly, read our interview from the weekend with Neil Maskell, who plays wheezing assassin Arby. He really does come across as a thoroughly good sort.

Here's brainy Mark Lawson on the plausibility of Episode 1's conspiracy theories.

Den Of Geek have a great Q&A with director Marc Munden, who reveals his visual inspirations, how he got the best out of baby Arby and the strange working methods of composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer ("the first time he came over he bought a bit of rhino dung and a bone that he’d found and the rest was all samples. He played that first Utopia tune with chopsticks on the rhino dung").

De Veer was also responsible for the music – though not the mumbly dialogue – of Jamaica Inn. You can listen to some of his non-soundtrack (but still quite soundtracky) compositions below.

Who scores the most indie quirk points here? Is it Jenny Lewis for getting K-Stew, Anne Hathaway and Brie Larson to pretend to be in her backing band and dress up like, um, Morris Minor & The Majors?

Or is it Lykke Li for painting her face white and convulsing in a derelict car park among a group of teenage twerkers?

Omnivorous Afro-indie-funk dude Sinkane (AKA Ahmed Gallab) has a new album out in September called Mean Love. The latest single from it is this languid soul jam, Hold Tight:

You can read a bit more about Sinkane in our feature from a couple of years' back. Today though, we've persuaded Ahmed to share his five favourite drumbeats. Paradiddle frenzy!

5. Steve Gadd - 50 Ways To Lose Your Lover (Paul Simon)

"Every drummer will annoy every single one of their bandmates at soundcheck because he will continue to play this beat over and over and over and OVER again. If you don't play drums you won't get why. If you do you absolutely will. It's incredibly fun, it feels good and it's a great way to practice independency of your limbs. I heard that Steve Gadd got writing credit on this Paul Simon song because his beat was so great."

4. Questlove - Spanish Joint (D'Angelo)

"Have you heard this song? It's so funky! This beat is the best example of saying a lot with very little. I mean, he's hardly even playing, man! It's jazz. Can you dig it? Ok but seriously: this is modern soul music. Probably the blackest record to come out ever."

3. James Gadson - Ain't No Sunshine (Bill Withers)

"This is the tightest groove ever. The drum beat is so smooth that it literally makes you feel like you're flying when you listen to this version of the song. James Gadson is known for his jazz chops but this song is a great example of how restraint and knowing when not to play are the things that make songs. Every great drummer is a cement mixer. They hold it down and pour goo into your ears. That goo eventually solidifies into concrete."

2. Al Foster - Mr. Freedom X (Miles Davis)

"The wackiest drum beat of all time. I can't get enough of it. It makes me feel so weird in all the best ways. I loved this beat so much that I incorporated it into one of my songs in the previous Sinkane record. Ok but seriously, folks. Have you heard this kind of drumming on anything else ever? Not even Zappa got this wacky. Every time I listen to this song I feel like I ate something weird and everything starts to turn colorful and everyone's head and body starts to modulate like a lava lamp."

1. Brooks Headley - Visible Distance (Universal Order of Armageddon)

"This is the drum beat that made me fall in love with drumming. There isn't much 'groove' in hardcore music. It's all a bit cumbersome, isn't it? But it's so good! This beat is so soulful. It moves fluidly but embodies the immediacy and intensity of punk music all at the same time. It grabs you by your shirt collar, pulls you in and looks at you with a furred brow. It's the toughest drum beat of all time."

Enough of the snark – here's some new music we can genuinely recommend.

Tensnake's upcoming single Pressure has been remixed by Special Request (AKA Paul Woolford in jump-up house mode). And like everything Woolford's put his name to recently, it's great.

Brooklyn indie-R&B trio Wet are so hipster it hurts, but don't let your inverted snobbery prevent you from enjoying their lovely new song.

On a not dissimilar alt-R&B tip, here's the debut EP from south London band Hugh – thankfully rather better than the bandname suggests.

And while I've got to admit that the idea of cosmic-Afrocentric avant-rappers Shabazz Palaces is usually more potent than the reality, Forerunner Foray is still pleasingly frazzled.

The press release for the new Ting Tings album is in, and it's everything we'd hoped for from Britain's most deluded band. Here are some personal highlights:

When they decided to decamp to Ibiza to record their third album Super Critical, Katie and Jules from the Ting Tings had a slight ‘uh-oh’ moment. ‘We’d been to Berlin to make the second record,’ says Jules, ‘and done nothing but get high and look at great architecture. Going to Ibiza had party written all over it. Obviously we were going to get nothing done.’

Emotionally, the starting point for the record was the touchstone glamour and twilight excess of 70s New York. Katie happened upon a picture that would come to foreshadow everything they locked into the record, of Diana Ross emerging from behind a curtain into the DJ booth at Studio 54. ‘Everything about her, the dress, the hair, the make-up, made her look like the most exotic and effortless creation,’ says Katie. ‘She was so glamorous, so of a moment, so not overdone. If we could get a sound even 5% close to what that picture was giving us, we knew we were onto something.’

First single Wrong Club spells its intent out in bold letters. Cut at a median cross-point of the Holy Grail of all crate-digging disco evangelism it taps its toe to Chic and Tom Tom Club without sacrificing any of the unique, angular noise the band had fashioned back in Salford, shouting diffidently along to an effects pedal.

Before arriving in Ibiza, The Ting Tings extricated themselves from their record label obligations. Their rented accommodation was owned by someone whose father-in-law was a famous printer, responsible for academies in Paris and New York. Her husband was a jazz musician. They found themselves drifting through the island’s established nightclub demimonde distractedly and decided to throw their own parties. On New Year’s Eve 2013 at 7am even the weathered stalwarts of the islands nightclub culture shook their hands as they left Pikes nightclub, thanking them for rejuvenating a spirit Ibiza had not seen since the openings of Pacha

Super Critical is not just about Katie and Jules making a hook-stuffed, glowing, confrontational, warm, wordy and wonderful modern disco record. It was about finding out who they are again. About going away to come back home. ‘Where we are right now feels exactly where we should be,’ says Katie. ‘I feel like dressing up and going out again,’ says Jules. ‘And that feels perfect.’

Super Critical is out on October 20. But if you can't possibly wait til then, here are the saviours of pop in reflective, acoustic mode:

Of course, everyone's a deep house DJ/producer these days. Here's the debut single from Luvbug, a trio featuring Marvin Humes formerly of JLS. Reckon they might have a hit on their hands with this one.

And who else just announced their intention to make a house album? Yes, it's sleazy polymath R Kelly. Here's what he told the crowd at a recent Chicago concert:

I want y’all to know a secret. I'm working on a house album right now, and I want y’all to know its coming. Y’all know I love music and I feel like I can do anything when it comes to music because I am music, just like y’all.

Not for the first time, P Diddy is shown to be way ahead of the game.

As Guardian Music reports, Hodor from Game Of Thrones (AKA Northern Irish actor Kristian Nairn) has just announced a DJ tour of Australia under the banner Rave Of Thrones. The press release attempts to draw some links between Game Of Thrones and deep house music for the purposes of humour, but comes up a bit short.

Hodor's dedication to carrying Bran on his back has become legend but what is less well known is how much he enjoys carrying the party vibes long into the night. An established DJ in his homeland, HODOR of House Stark will be showcasing some of the deepest house from all seven kingdoms at his very own Rave Of Thrones.

Unlike the Red Wedding, these soirees will be remembered for seasons to come for all the right reasons. For one night only in every capital across this land venues will be transformed into the finest halls of Westeros, wherein patrons will be (enforced by the hand of the king) dressed to the occasion in a manner that would befit Queen Cersi herself.

Demand your money back if he doesn't play this:

Daniel Radcliffe is still striving to put plenty of clear water between himself and Hogwarts. He's done sexy (Equus) and subversive (Kill Your Darlings) but evil looks like it might be a bit of a stretch. Here's a new poster for his upcoming "dark fantasy thriller" Horns.

Daniel plays a man who wakes up after a night on the sauce to find his girlfriend (played by Juno Temple) has been raped and murdered, and he's the chief suspect. Then horns start growing out of his head and it all gets a bit metaphorical.

Looks like it could be trashily enjoyable, in a Heroes / True Blood kinda way. Bless him, though, his American accent is still all over the place. Couldn't they have just set it in Hertfordshire?

Morning all. Utopia was good, wasn't it? So good, I had to save Rio In Rio for another time. While I pick through the bones of today's pop culture feast in search of the tastiest morsels to post here, why not enjoy this video of the real-life Peter Griffin? Family Guy hasn't been funny for years, so perhaps it's time for the live action episode…