HARD TIMES •
Green Door Store Tuesdays
Feeling down on your luck? What you need is a free, late-night celebration of sounds of struggle, strife and penury. DJ Jon Slade (Born Bad) and guests ranging from Stay Sick to Stone To The Bone play the funky howls and desperate yelps of the dispossessed, plus any party tunes that take their fancy. It’s a rare thing to find music of this calibre being played on a school night; almost worth calling in sick the next day and ensuring further Hard Times to come. (LMM)

CLAUDE VONSTROKE
Audio Fri 4th
Not just the Detroit house honcho Claude VonStroke himself, but a raft of producers from the DirtyBird label will be gracing Audio tonight, as Justin Martin and Eats Everything heat up the decks for what promises to be a very house-y all-nighter. If you like your beats on the cleaner side of techno then this is a perfect winter warmer. (JMM)

PHI LIFE CYPHER & BLAK TWANG Easy Bar Fri 4th
Is it just us, or has Easy Bar’s transition from post-shop-emergency-pint-stop to quite a cool little gig venue come out of nowhere? And their Caribbean roasts are another exciting development. We digress: on Friday 4th there’s a night of the most brilliant British hip hop, with Luton heroes Phi Life Cypher and long-term rap star Blak Twang. Such a line-up doesn’t usually surprise us down the local, and especially not for the good old price of free. (JMM)

LOWKEY Concorde 2 Fri 4th
You’ll be forgiven for not knowing much about Lowkey; his conscious hip hop is ostracised by the mainstream media due to its political content – tracks like ‘Terrorist?’, ‘Obama Nation’ and ‘Long Live Palestine’ question institutionalised rhetoric and therefore won’t be heard on Radio 1 anytime soon. Not only does he have a worthy, well-informed message, he delivers it with eloquence, soul and often brutality. With his new album, ‘Soundtrack To The Struggle’, expect some serious and previously unheard material. (ZC)

RED BULL MUSIC ACADEMY Life Fri 11th
Red Bull doesn’t just give you wings, it also gives you music workshops, festivals and club nights. This evening Pearson Sound aka Ramadanman tops the bill. His sparse percussion and Chicago juke stylings gained him quick notoriety on the underground club scene, then he went on to set up Hessel Audio with Panagea and Ben UFO, making him a true bass music luminary. Pariah joins the line-up with his Burial-like atmospherics as well as Marcelus Pittman and Lorca. (ZC)

IN THE FACE • Volks Sat 12th
Kanji Kinetic and Submerse return to headline Brighton’s best bassline night and tour their collaboration EP released on new imprint, Mutant Bass Records. In The Face has been fronting the wonky beat scene with sensory overloading sonics and nauseous ket-step sounds for a few years now, mixing manic rave vibes with euphoricly unhinged tracks. So if you want a night of blitzkrieg bassline that’ll make you dance no matter what, now you know where to go. (ZC)

HUSH YOUR BEAK
Concorde 2 Sat 12th
Soundboys and soundgirls, you better get your best skanking shoes on, David ‘Ram Jam’ Rodigan is back. After his packed show last year Rodigan returns to Brighton with a record bag full of dubplates, signal and soul. With support from Rinse FM’s The Heatwave and Urban Nerds’ Klose One, tonight’s going to sell out quicker than hot hash cakes, so don’t be a wasteman, get your ticket now. (ZC)

REWIND • Coalition Sat 12th
When DJ Format brought us the fun-loving album, ‘Music For The Mature B-Boy’, it was a pleasant change from the vicious battle raps of UK hip hop and the bling-encrusted murder anthems from America. DJ Format and his MC, Abdominal, had a sense of humour. They could lace a track, kill a beat and cuss you down, all the while leaving a smile on your face, and his live sets promote his old school De La Soul-esque feelgood vibes, which is exactly what Rewind’s all about. (ZC)

YUKSEK Coalition Thurs 17th
This Parisian’s name is probably the only ugly thing about him: the multi-talented demi-god Pierre-Alexandre Busson makes the most beautiful electro-based, house-influenced creations, and only produces under the name Yuksek when he’s not collaborating with a plethora of other French artists. Since the release of his second album, ‘Living On The Edge Of Time’ in June, Yuksek’s been on a non-stop tour, and is showing no signs of fatigue. Support comes from Mondkopf, fresh from his post-punk and black metal-inspired Aphex-eque second LP ‘Rising Doom’. (JMM)

DOOM Concorde 2 Fri 18th
It’s a big one. The artist formerly known as MF Doom is back in Brighton. Whether you thought the MF stood for Metal Face, Fingers, Fist or something else entirely, he’s dropped the mystery and is playing under the sturdy monicker Doom now, which is fitting: as one of the East Coast’s most solid hip hop producers, he’s – although we hate to say it – a legend. Support comes from Samiyam, and with live art and graffiti going on too, this night will be one you can brag about. (JMM)

ECLAIR FIFI Riki Tik Sat 19th
LuckyMe is one of the most exciting things to come out of Scotland since the 25-year Glenfiddich; an electronic hip hop label repping such fresh audio treats as Hudson Mohawke and Jacques Greene. Eclair Fifi is their self-proclaimed first lady, and with good reason: her musical knowledge knows no boundaries, and she’s not the type to let genres bother her either. Effortlessly mixing unknown Italo grooves with the newest electro hits, hip hop classics and generally anything that sounds good, she’s not just a pretty face. (JMM)

JACK BEATS Digital Sat 19th
You can’t ignore Jack Beats – their bastardisation of house music is like Frankenstein’s monster; the original components are gutted and glued back together, creating an obscene marvel that refuses to be tamed. The bolshy basslines and big breakdowns grab you by the ear like a school dinner lady, dragging you along the dancefloor before dropping into a bombastic wobble that pushes the best bass bins to breaking point. Plus there’s Shogun Audio boss, Friction, to ensure the night’s ended at high speed. (ZC)

RUSKO Audio Weds 23rd
Creating a seminal dubstep track with ‘Cockney Thug’ back in 2007, Rusko strutted onto the scene full of wobbly bass, tasty trumpets and ironic gangster swagger. Fast-forward a few years and he’s living in LA producing commercially viable chainsaw beats for MIA, Britney and Rihanna, which isn’t surprising – his take on dubstep was always more accessible than the dark and moody soundscapes that had dominated previously. It’ll be interesting to see what he belts out tonight; whether it’s his old school, upbeat squelch or his pop-friendly leanings of late. (ZC)

THERAPY SESSIONS
Volks Fri 25th
If you like your drum’n’bass hard and heavy then chances are you’re no stranger to the Therapy Sessions parties. Having made a huge impact worldwide in the last half decade or so, they return to the south coast for the first time in a couple of years. With a 20k Void sound system being installed in the Volks, be prepared for Barcode Recordings’ head honcho Donny, Audio and Gein to wipe the floor with you. Not for the faint of heart (CB)

AKAAKAROAR! • Life Fri 25th
Jam City’s sound owes as much to Gary Numan and The Human League as it does to his confederates on London label Night Slugs. The industrial production line beats and backing synths have sinister dystopian undertones that would be well used to score scenes of car crashes. His tune ‘Magic Drops’ was a brighter but still woozy affair, with its disorientating slide whistle and Ballardian beat it still wouldn’t have been out of place on the Blade Runner soundtrack. (ZC)

CHARITY JUNGLE • Blind Tiger Sat 26th
If charities have to solicit, give us a blinding jungle night over persistent bucket-shaking chuggers any day. All proceeds might be flying straight out on the soonest Moneygram to a school in Tanzania, but there’s never a whiff of self-righteous do-goodery about these nights, which is why we like them so much. A bevy of local DJs playing drum’n’bass, jungle and ragga; cut-price cocktails, and a hangover that helps to save the world. Lovely. (JMM)

MOODY DISCO &
DEATH BY DISCO Tube Sat 26th
Responsible for the recent renaissance of British house music, Richy Ahmed has certainly been a busy boy over the summer. He’s played at Sonar in Barcelona, The Nexus at Burning Man festival and Space in Ibiza, and he’s still got the energy to pack out The Tube. His disco, techno and funk influences are major ingredients behind his re-design of British house, and tunes like ‘Suck It’ and ‘Rock’n’Rolla’, with their confident beats and glowing basslines, demonstrate why you’d better believe the hype. (ZC)

WORDS BY CHRIS BIGGS, ZAC COLBERT, JAMES KENDALL,
JESSICA MARSHALL MACHATTIE, LISA MARIE MUNDY