At last - a decent music site that’s based in the UK, has a wider world view and features all things darker than blue.

The self-proclaimed ‘home of black music’ at darkerthanblue.com is a multimedia encyclopaedia, with the emphasis on the ‘multi’. Hip-hop, Reggae, Soul and R&B, Rap and UK Garage are the featured genres. Mp3, real-time audio and video streaming, web radio, as well as nicely-edited text features and a lively chat area, are the various tools employed to keep music fans off the streets and happy, for as long as their phone bills allow. Darkerthanblue.tv has lots of interviews, promos and even the odd film trailer, all broken down by musical genre. There’s a shopping section with plenty of good suggested purchases. The gig guide is pretty comprehensive too; you can search by musical type and location, and there’s plenty of useful event info and links for tickets.

For dance music fans the UK Garage page features dedicated sections on the scene’s most popular artists. Whether its Craig David or the Dreem Teem that spin your deck, you’ll find plenty of streamed track samples and video, alongside penned interviews. And when I flipped to the Hip Hop chat room I found rap gods Jurrassic 5 were live in the place. ‘Nuff said