ILIKE • Hampton Saturdays
Long before it became the name of a Facebook app, and DJing on iPods felt like a good idea, iLike was the democratisation of DJing removing the tyranny of having to build a vinyl collection and learning to mix. I know this because about seven years ago I started the night with the lovely Shimmy Hendrix. One night we got iLike kicked out of 93 Feet East for being too rowdy and some of the young DJs who came to battle each other urged us to carry on somewhere else. “Why don’t you do it,” we said, and that’s exactly what they’ve done. Take your iPod or iPhone down and give it a go. Just don’t get too rowdy. (JK)
COUNT & SINDEN Digital Thurs 4th
DJ tag-team the Count & Sinden are doing the rounds this month, touring their debut album, ‘Mega Mega Mega’ out on Domino records. Infamously hitting the charts with ‘Beeper’ back in the day, becoming de rigueur in irritating mobile phone ringtones, the duo have stuck it out. Shunning a mainstream label in preference of the more credible indie route, does this mean the boys are growing up and out of their comic-book hero monikers? We’ll have to wait and see. (LS)
BENJI B Audio Fri 5th
Smooth-talking darling of Radio 1, Benji B is Mary Anne Hobbs’ late-night replacement, so you’ll be hearing a lot more of him in the coming months. He’s highly regarded for his versatile ability to seamlessly straddle genres and for having a nose for sniffing out the newest producers. Expect tunes you know and tunes you want to know, from hip hop, house, soul and broken beat. Support comes from two-step pioneer Zed Bias aka Maddslinky and Tru Thoughts’ Hint. (JMM)
BIG BEAT REUNION 2 • Concorde Fri 5th
10 or 12 years ago big beat ruled Brighton – people used to travel down from all over the place to go clubbing here. That was basically down to the Big Beat Boutique, one of the most exciting nights we’ve ever been to. There was much leaping about and spilling of beer as DJs like the emerging Fatboy Slim slammed hip hop into house music and emerged with a set of tunes you talked about on the way home (no ‘journeys’ here). After the huge success of the first reunion, another batch of the regulars get to look back – Jon Carter, the Propellerheads, Aphrodite, the infamous Derek Dahlarge and more. (JK)
CARTE BLANCHE Coalition Sat 6th
Riton and DJ Medhi absolutely rocked Sonar this year with a set of banging electro topped with the former beefing up the beats on a 909 drum machine. They looked like they were having the time of their lives, and the chirpy electro – a hyped-up mix of 80s soul pop, 90s house music and ghetto tech – reflects that. Riton often does his best work in collaboration, and this hook-up with the smooth Ed Banger producer is as good as you’d expect. Might be worth getting tickets for this, could be busy. (JK)
WILEY Concorde Sat 6th
Even for someone known for being – how can we put this – a bit feisty, grime pioneer Wiley has had a right year of it, quitting his label Island, sacking his manager over Twitter and giving away 200 new tracks at once, including the album Island had planned to put out. For a man who’s now, by all intents and purposes, a pop star it’s incredible behaviour, but could lead to anything happening on stage tonight. Which isn’t a bad thing – we hope – as long as he turns up on time. Download the 11 zip files of this year’s tracks for a heads up. (JK)
ANNIE MAC Digital Thurs 11th
If you want to see Radio 1’s liveliest Dubliner you had best be quick on this one as the hyped-up mistress of hype always sells out Digital. This is of course because she’s the dominating leader of Generation Y’s clubbers, but also because she always brings with her a quality line-up. This time the badly-named but on-message Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs join Ellie Goulding’s white-hot producer, Starsmith, on show. (TR)
MAGNETIC MAN Digital Thurs 11th
The towering behemoth that is Magnetic Man pulls up in Brighton for all the screw-facing/foot-stomping/laser-reaching you could possibly ask for on a Thursday night. Labelled as the first dubstep ‘supergroup’, their material is in a different style to most of their individual work – like the dub equivalent of Cream, with Skream as Eric Clapton, Benga as Jack Bruce and Artwork as Ginger Baker. We’re not entirely sure if that analogy works but check them out. (CH)
JOKER Audio Fri 12th
Joker’s remix of ‘Cruel Intentions’ by Simian Mobile Disco and Beth Ditto ranks just below the Dogtanian theme song for how long it gets stuck in our head, uninvited. Forgiving this, Bristol’s Joker is one of dubstep’s biggest producers, and is known as a key artist moving the genre forward. He’s also known for being young (21), seeing colours when making tracks (mostly purple) and his prolific remixing, so listen out for plenty of catchy pop songs in his wonky overloaded reconstructions. (JMM)
^I’M WITH STUPID^ • Hope Sat 13th
This party-in-a-box returns courtesy of a new venue in the shape of The Hope on the second Saturday of the month. They’re promising gorilla suits, a pantomime cow and “stupid DJs throwing cash up in the air” as they bang out a playlist of high street hits and ‘big ones’ from motorik rock, future hip hop, crossover disco, and daft pop, from 8pm til very late. (LS)
LAURENT GARNIER
Concorde Sat 13th If you’re a certain age, the name Stompa Phunk will mean some of the best underground house-driven parties you’ve been to in Brighton. From the Funky Buddha to Audio, they punched way above their weight with amazing residents (Kenny Hawkes, Radio Slave and many more) and incredible guests like Derrick Carter playing in a 250-capacity club. Perhaps the biggest coup was getting French techno legend Laurent Garnier into Audio for an extended DJ set. For the return of Stompa Phunk they’ve upped things by getting him to play live. Plus there’s talk of getting all the residents to play in the bar. We’re not sure which we’re most excited about. (JK)
TORTURE GARDEN The Yard Sat 16th
Legendary fetish night Torture Garden has got a long history in Brighton, popping in and out for the last decade or so. Despite some controversy, the night has always been less intimidating than its London outing and now that it’s found the, seemingly, perfect home in The Yard, it ought to really make a mark. As much about dressing up as the serious sex stuff, the London event might have the huge shows but if you want to dip your rubber stockinged-toe into the fetish world there’s no better place to start. (JK)
FOUR TET Coalition Tues 16th
Brighton favourite Four Tet returns to the coast for another night of pioneering electronica, showing his diverse influences from folk, techno, hip hop and jazz and amalgamating them in a warm sampling, sequencing soup. His unique and multi-layered style has spawned a thousand imitators, and someone who can clearly name Four Tet as an influence is the new supporting artist Luke Abbott, who distorts the basics with his own musical textures and patterns to create a vibrant, dancey vision in sound. (JMM)
ESKMO Jam Fri 19th
On the back of his (fan-freakin’-tastic) debut release for Ninja Tune, Eskmo is hitting Brighton for the first time. The San Francisco resident has spent the past 10 years going from straight-ish dance music to weirdo electronica labels Warp and Planet Mu, and has now arrived on Ninja with tunes that sounds like the most sublime elements of French synth being pummelled by the toughest glitch-hop Flying Lotus wishes he could have made. A rare live set, with 24-carat production, and MSG-grade addictiveness, it’s a treat of an evening all round. (MB)
TERRY HALL Concorde 2 Fri 19th
The legendarily hang-dog frontman of The Specials brings his battered record box to the seafront for an evening of original ska, reggae, blue beat and dub. We’ve seen his son and absolute doppelganger Felix do a similar thing at the Specials’ anniversary shows last year, now it’s dad’s turn to dust off his loafers and air the tunes that inspired him and an entire generation to do rocksteady. Expect a full house of creaky-kneed old skinheads letting their braces down. (NC)
SHOGUN AUDIO • Digital Sat 20th
Following their last appearance at Digital a couple of months ago with Noisia and Alix Perez, Shogun Audio have a lot to live up to. This month’s line-up certainly seems to be aiming at those same giddy heights. Local boys Friction and Spectrasoul head up the evening and any night featuring the daddy of deep d’n’b, dBridge, is guaranteed to be a winner. Add party favourites Nero and this is how drum’n’bass is done in Brighton. (CH)
BATTLEJAM • Audio Fri 26th
When we ran into JFB the other night he had some sad news for us. This will be the last Battlejam performed in front of a full club audience. From now on, when he gets together with Beardyman to make their live, on-the-fly hip hop (etc) it will be streamed over the internet. Why, you might be asking? Well, they became frustrated with the intricacies of the music being lost in the party atmosphere. Fair play – it’s always been an uneasy balance for gig and club night, sending it towards the former seems pretty sensible. They’ll be headlining festivals soon anyway. (JK)
AKAAKAROAR • Life Fri 26th
AkaAkaRoar have been blazing the strand of dubstep that doesn’t involve scally teens in 59Fifty caps. They cast their net much wider than your straight dubstep sound, tonight’s case in point being Ikonika, whose releases have spanned Hyperdub, Warp and Planet Mu. Also on the bill is Joker / Gemmy ally Guido, plus up-and-comer XXXY. As a chunk of bonus love from AkaAkaRoar, £10 will get you one of their lush t-shirts and a mix CD, plus queue-jump and cheap entry on the night – all from 412 in the South Lanes. (MB)
HED KANDI The Honey Sat 27th
Hed Kandi will be blasting out the futuristic sounds of nu disco at Honey this month. A ‘natural evolution’ from the drab remnants of disco, think the glitz and glam of New York nightspots versus the minimalist house remixes of A-trak and the electronic-pop explosion of artists like Little Boots, The Golden Filter and Glass Candy as championed by over-zealous bloggers everywhere. So it’s out with tacky mirror-balls and in with laser beams as Hed Kandi head back to the future. (LS)
WORDS BY MATT BARKER, NICK COQUET, CHARLIE HAYWOOD, JAMES KENDALL, JESSICA MASHALL MCHATTIE, THE RECOMMENDER, LYDIA STOCKBRIDGE