That was the week that was. And this is how it went.

The sad and untimely passing of Guru cast a long shadow over proceedings. Malcolm McLaren, Steve Reid and now the Gang Starr man: April 2010 hasn’t been a kind month to legends.

In sunnier news, James Blake unveiled his eagerly awaited CMYK EP for R&S Records, and we revealed the first line-up announcements for FACT and Plat Du Jour’s unmissable off-Sonar Hyperdub party. New records from The Books, Omar Souleyman, Rene Hell, Deepchord presents Echospace, Kode9 and Kyla added to the smiles, as did a new track by M.I.A. Oh, and two classics of recent US synth-pop – Glass Candy’s effervescent B/E/A/T/B/O/X and Washed Out’s Life of Leisure EP – got reissued on vinyl. Happy days.

Elsewhere we chatted in-depth to Toro Y Moi about his recent Causers of This LP and his plans to follow it up with a folk record. We also sat down with Mala to talk about his life in music and the imminent Digital Mystikz album (Return II Space) – arguably the most penetrating interview with the dubstep founding father to date.

The star of the reviews section this week was T++, Berlin techno-breakbeat innovator, with his Wireless EP receiving only the second 5/5 score of the year. New albums by Nice Nice, Dillinger Escape Plan and Serena-Maneesh were discussed in depth, while our reviewers waxed lyrical over new singles by Space Dimension Controller, Girl Unit and Matthew Herbert, whose ‘Leipzig’ saw the audio auteur step “into the spotlight – mic in one hand and a glass of wine in the other.”

On the audio front, we fulfilled a long-standing ambition by getting Gavin Russom to record a FACT mix, and he didn’t disappoint, serving up a dancefloor-focussed selection of beautifully acid-soured house and techno. Our Daily Download haul for the week included tracks from Mystery Jets, Ike Release and Dan Deacon, but our favourite was undoubtedly Altered Natives’ bruk-house banger ‘It Is What It Is’.

Of course, what we’ll really remember of this week is Black Thursday, when our site came under attack from pesky malware, making it unviewable for most of you. Apologies for the break in tranmission; rest assured the malware has been identified and captured, and we’re currently getting medieval on its ass.