Hardsouth remains the friendliest most up for up party in town. Everyone who has been away comes back and says the same thing – the people, the atmosphere, are the best. And, recently, whoever, plays, the crowd is up for it, smiling, shaking hands and DANCING – after all, that’s what we’re here for, isn’t it? The club always seems to be busy and friendly.

A lot of responsibility is placed on the warm-up sets to set the tone, get the crowd in the mood and moving. Our residents are brilliant at this, and on many occasion I have seen them read the crowd far better than some of the super-star DJs.

This month, DJ Drummer and birthday-boy Salerno B2B (or rather 3x3) played a more conventional warm up than previous (which was nails all the way): some trancy stuff to open, building up to tougher harder tuneage, like ‘Fantastic’ (Nik Denton), ‘Cuz the house gets warm’ (RMX) and ‘A Class’ by Adam M (hope we have him play down here soon cos I know the punters would love him). Drummer and Salerno are the Siamese twins of hard dance in Brighton but listen closely, if you’re not too mashed, and you can tell who’s playing – Drummer’s the one with all the tricks and scratching, for example.

Our longest standing main room resident, Krunchie, is also a technical wizard and in my humble opinion the most under-estimated, unrecognized talent in the local scene. He is unusual in these days when everyone is a producer (but most of them not as good as they were five years ago) in that he is a pure DJ. Krunchie’s end-of-night sets at HardSouth in the past were absolutely legendary, and he was also the hardest man at the wonderful Sunday nights we used to have at the Honey back in the good old days of hard house.

Lately he has been moved to the 12-1 slot, which necessitates a change in style, and has been experimenting with a broader range of hard dance music. Tonight though he was back to the recognizably and distinctive Krunchie style: fucking relentless manic mental hammering stomping percussion, that was going to take some beating by anyone that followed him. Within this fist-punching set, he was also able to slip in a couple of techno tunes that fitted well with the overall set. This was a proper set, not just a bunch of random tunes thrown together (anyone can do that!). It had a style, it fitted together, it had a distinct identity, and it was fucking danceable.

And whatever he plays you know that Krunchie will not be a lazy sloppy complacent twat like some DJs and just bang out loads of yawnsome old ‘favourites’. He will play the cutting edge – plenty of tracks that are so new they haven’t been released yet. One of the few oldies I recognized was an acid classic from Dynamic Intervention. Top stuff. Well done that man. But get a haircut ;o)

JP & Jukesy are known for their versatility and delighted us tonight with a hard (rather than bounce or funky) set – well, they had to after those warm ups! I’ve seen most of their sets at Hard South; they are one of the regular guests, and this was definitely the best. It was proper solid fucking hardhouse all the way. I was well impressed also with the freshness of it. Again, there was not cheap reliance on boring overplayed classics of which I for one am heartily sick of. This was mostly new quality music, with a great, thick sound. Some of the (few) tracks I could name were ‘Playing with knives’ (Karim), ‘Strawberry kiss’ (Karim and Frank Farrell) and ‘Lost in Love’ (Legend B). Thanks lads for one of the best sets this year. (And thanks two for the excellent Deprivation CD ‘Hard house music volume 1’)

It says a lot that so many new quality tunes were played tonight. The hard house scene is in serious decline and DJs are struggling to find good new tunes. Many of the top names have retired or lost their mojo and the labels have disappeared. If Dom Sweeten (JP & Jukesy’s engineer of choice, Krunchie’s most played producer and THE most important man in hard house) retires we’re fucked!

This was also the night of Salerno’s 30th birthday so some of us had to leave the club early to go to his party and miss top party-animal Ed Real’s set. So I can’t comment on that. I can guess, though, from seeing him before plenty of times, that he played loads of crowd pleasers and new hard dance (in the broadest and most eclectic sense) as he’s head of Track it Down, Riot and the Hard Dance Awards and so in touch with the latest fashions and totally down wiv da kids. (Unfortunately though I’m not a kid any more but a 45 year old man ;o)

Well done all for a great night out and see you next month for more mad music.

well written John, your enthusiasm shines through

Cheers Ray :o) You know I love it. Hope to see you soon :o)

well is May 1st ok with you? hahaaaa

that just about sums it up mate!

Cant wait for next month

Well...i couldnt have put it better myself..infact, i wouldnt even try!..It was a phenominal night..truely one of the best out and out hardhouse nights ive been to in a long time. No ifs, no buts....absolutly fecking outstanding!

And not forgeting the Vibealive room! As always a great mix of many talents perfectly put together with the most up for it crowd! Even saw Nexus in there enjoying some Toxic hardstyle. Between the three rooms no one could wish for more.

Nice one Dr J. I'd just like to add that Mr Real was great.

John a wicked review as always!! Love reading your stuff!!! :o) Was good to see you Friday but we shall have to catch up and talk music as its been far too long fella!!

Nice to meet you John and great to be back down at hardsouth

it's great to be in a position of being able to play brand new music (only the one classic in our set and 2 remixed classic) and you'll see shortly this year we are well and truely pumping out the hardhouse sound, taking things back to its energetic and lively roots and not being overly hard with it all.

Hopefully see you down at hardsouth again soon, it's a fantastic night, one of our fave's :-D

also yes in regards to dom sweeten, his finger still well and truly on the pulse and we are enjoying spending alot of time in the studio with him - for the harder sounds you dont get much better or upfront than him get him down at hardsouth ;-?D

Another thing to mention was the Hardstyle hour that Toxic kicked out. I couldnt stay in the room for long as it was too hot to dance for any long period of time....but..The hardstyle was fecking outstanding! :)

Fuck me that was an essay and a half ;) I really have to check it out after that review!

Wicked review as always John and thanks for the compliments ;)