The Scottish Ballet descend on London's South Bank this weekend, and Swan Lake isn't on the agenda: instead, they're performing Radiohead's Kid A.

For anyone interested in Wilco, Fleet Foxes or Bob Dylan, there's a free download of the former two performing the latter's I Shall Be Released available at the Wilco website, and it's terrific.

All you have to do is pledge to vote in the forthcoming US election. Strictly speaking I don't qualify, but I would if I could.

We update the homepage content at the Word Download Store every week and, as usual, I'm looking for reader reviews to fill that particular spot. If you'd like to feature, find an album in the store you think other Word readers should own, write 80-100 words on why it matters, and send it to me. It's much appreciated.

As it's been a week of Heavy Metal documentaries, I thought I'd add a third. This one is from the very early eighties, when the NWOBHM was in full swing. It's an excerpt from Janet Street Porter's 20th Century Box series on LWT, and features narration from Danny Baker (yes, that Danny Baker). It's brilliant, especially the rather lovely interview with a man who makes cardboard guitars ("it's supposed to look like a guitar, but it's not really supposed to look like a real guitar").

Here's a few minutes of genuine radio gold: BBC West Midlands' Les Ross attempting to interview writer/broadcaster Hardeep Singh Kohli. The words 'Partridge' and 'Alan' may spring to mind, although not necessarily in that order.

Thanks to Mr Drayton for sending the file in. Here's a direct link if the embedded player doesn't work for you.

We've got new recommendations for you in the Word Download Store. Mr Hepworth goes big on some blues, while reader Handsome.P.Wonderful is flying the flag for perfect pop.

Also on the store homepage: pithy pop from Little Jackie, a career resurrection from Glen Campbell, Christian lesbian rap from Yo Majesty and a new album from Travis, plus a selection of albums from some of the featured artists on this month's Now Hear This CD. Happy shopping.

We change the recommended albums in the Word Download Store every week. One of the featured spots is an album chosen by a Word reader, and I'm looking for contributions.

So if you'd like to take part, and there's an album you think other Word readers should own, e-mail me a short, 80/100-word review. It can be of something old, something new, an all-time classic or an obscure nugget, just as long as it's available in the store.

I got rid of a load of CDs at the weekend.

It's something I do from time to time, when the shelves start to bow and the CDs begin to pile up on the floor. A record collection isn't like a stamp collection - more isn't necessarily merrier - and I really don't see the point in keeping hold of music I'm unlikely to listen to.

I have a strict rule: anything I haven't listened to in the last three years and can't imagine listening to in the next two? Gone. This year my approach was more brutal then usual, and I started getting rid of albums by artists I actually like. Do I need 25 Ed Kuepper albums? No, because when I'm in the mood I'm always going to choose one of the four I really like. The other 21? Gone. Sod completism.

I started doing this years ago out of financial necessity, but now I approach it as more of a musical spring-clean. I can't think of a single instance where I've missed an album I've passed on, and if I did, you know what? I could get it back again. These days, Everything is available.

Does anyone else prune their collection?

This week's recommended downloads are now online in the Word Download Store.

David Hepworth has discovered a long-deleted compilation featuring one of his favourite singers (what's more, it's an album that'll cost you the best part of a hundred quid were you to buy a second-hand CD via Amazon).

And reader Retropath2's choice of album that no Word reader should be without? Well, that might come as a bit of a surprise.

If you'd like to see a recommendation of your own featured, write a hundred-word review and send it to me.

BBC Worldwide has confirmed that it's to open up its musical archive, both TV and radio, for streaming and downloading. And yes, that includes The Old Grey Whistle Test and the Peel Sessions.

What are you going to buy?

I'm sorely tempted by this, even though Season 5 should be with me this week, and I plan to have watched it all by the end of the bank holiday weekend: The Curzon Cinema in London are showing the whole of the series over the weekend of 20-21 September.

Apart from all the big-screen action, the £60 entrance fee (£50 if you're a member) gets you a a copy of the book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by Wire creator David Simon, plus Simon, actor Dominic West (Officer McNulty, as you should all know by now), Charlie Brooker (tbc) and special guests in conversation. To round it all off, there's informal drinks and cheap croissants.

It'll beat staying in for The X Factor, that's for sure.

I've just received a press release containing the following:

Award-winning DAB station Planet Rock and PURE, makers of the in-car DAB Radio "Highway" have conducted a poll to establish the top ten greatest rock riffs of all time.

Planet Rock listeners voted ****** to the number one spot with more than a third of the votes. ******'s ****** took second place and ******'s ****** came in at number three.

The reason for the asterisks is that we're not actually allowed to tell you the results: they've been embargoed for an entire week, as if this were the most exciting media event ever, as if editors the nation over require seven days to grasp the full enormity of the news and ditch other stories accordingly, as if this weren't actually the most predictable set of survey results in all of recorded history.

I mean, what do you think is number one? Are you sure? Really? Yes, of course you're right.

Later on in the Top Ten, amidst all the fanfare and hullabaloo, the PR company gets one of the song titles wrong. And one of the band names.

Genius all round.

The Olympics have been great. I don't believe I've ever seen a field destroyed in the manner in which Usain Bolt won the 100m, slowing down with 20 metres to go and showboating as he crossed the line, or the frankly miraculous way in which Michael Plelps won the 100m butterfly in the last few inches to claim the seventh of his eight gold medals. Brilliant stuff.

Still, I realise it's not for everyone.

In the late 1980s, post-REM and pre-Nirvana, I was obsessed with American 'underground' music. I bought everything on the SST and Homestead labels. A then-colleague was similarly fixated on 4AD, purchasing every release across multiple formats. I suspect that more recently formed imprints like Domino and Warp have equally dogged disciples, just as I imagine there are people who own everything released on Harvest or adorned with Phonogram's Spiral Vertigo label.

These days my approach to buying music is a little less, shall we say, unhealthy, but I still feel the occasional flush of excitement when I think a label is doing something new or interesting. This week it's Sublime Frequencies, who've released a series of often brilliant, limited edition, non-barcoded albums featuring everything from Burmese short-wave radio broadcasts to Syrian folk-pop, more often than not mastered from ancient cassettes recovered from flea markets. It's enthralling stuff, honest.

Anybody else care to own up to a label obsession?

Mr Hepworth is away on some kind of teacher training course, but I've managed to borrow the keys to the common room from the games teacher, Mr Harrison. He's only allowed this gathering to take place with the strict understanding that with The Olympics up and running, any music played must have a sporting connection.

I'll start from something from Brazil. This song pays tribute to Afonso Celso Garcia Reis, better known as Afonsinho, a footballer who refused to cut his hair, stood up to the authorities, was the first footballing free agent in South America, and became a symbol for freedom of expression. Also mentioned in the lyrics are two greats of the game, Pele and Tostao. The singer is the wonderful Elis Regina.

That's the lecture over, but I'll be asking questions later.