Ought | Mon 23 Apr | Hare & Hounds | £14.30
Montreal post-punk band Ought’s verbose, rapturous sound hits that same nerve as the late, great Mark E Smith, baffled and windswept by the sheer chaos and occasional joy of being alive. This year’s ‘Room Inside the World’ tidied up their scruffy edges into a new wave sheen, and the refinement fits them like a glove – best of all, their electrifying energy on stage is undiminished. skiddle.com

Peaness | Tue 24 Apr | Sunflower Lounge | £7.70
Chester’s three-piece indie-pop band Peaness – aside from dorky-but-brilliant band names – specialise in catchy, understated choruses, breezy harmonies and tight guitar-bass interplay. Fun, punchy as a sugar rush; Peaness bring a light touch to their influences, and sound right at home in the North’s legacy of melody-slaying indie cult bands. seetickets.com

Akala | Tue 24 Apr | O2 Academy | £16.75
A unique voice in hip-hop culture, Akala is a forward-thinking MC possessed of a powerful political ethos; his versatility and caustic, incisive lyricism has captured a huge audience over the last decade. Tireless and consistently surprising, time spent in Akala’s presence is never wasted. See our full preview here.

The Low Anthem | Wed 25 Apr | The Glee Club | £16.50
With this year’s ‘The Salt Doll Went to Measure the Depth of the Sea’, Rhode Island’s the Low Anthem took their ramshackle folk sound to pieces and reassembled it among the analogue hiss of hypnotic grooves and textures. It’s actually the result of a car crash that destroyed most of their usual gear, and it could be their best work yet; gorgeous, haunting and strange. seetickets.com

Plan B | Fri 27 Apr | O2 Academy | £37
Ben Drew, a.k.a. Plan B has rarely stayed still – whether it’s rap, soul, acting, film directing or otherwise. We last heard from him on 2012’s ‘Ill Manors’, a startlingly well-realised film and album documenting the struggles of inner-city London. Unsurprisingly, new project ‘Heaven Before All Hell Breaks Loose’ promises to be a different beast all over again; the one thing that hasn’t changed is that Ben Drew is a man to keep your eye on. www.ticketmaster.co.uk

Natalie Prass | Sat 28 Apr | Hare & Hounds | £13.75
The world at large has been through a helluva lot in the last few years, and Natalie Prass is feeling it. She apparently scrapped a completed album in 2016, to come up a better sound for the times; with the direct and trimmed-down funk-pop of ‘Short Court Style’, she’s revealed her new approach as a revelrous, thoroughly danceable type of defiance. And that album? ‘The Future and the Past’ drops in June; get your first preview of it at the Hare & Hounds. seetickets.com

Alex Lleo | Sun 29 Apr | Sunflower Lounge | £6.60
Stumbling across the mellow tones of Worcestershire’s Alex Lleo put us in mind of Júníus Meyvant, the understated Scandinavian singer-songwriter who seemed to appear out of nowhere, fully formed, having been allowed to bud and bloom far away from our intrusive internet gaze. Similarly, Lleo’s electric folk sound has an understated, classy sense of completeness to it, robust and charming. seetickets.com

Love Music Hate Racism w/ Kioko + more | Sun 29 Apr | Hare & Hounds | £10
Join Love Music Hate Racism in Birmingham for another night of politics and home-grown live music. Reggae-indie maestros Kioko headline, as their dub-powered ascent to hugeness continues apace – they will not relent until all bodies are moving. Massive Attack’s Daddy G brings a DJ set, and huge Brum talent Lady Sanity brings her sophisticated rap to the stage. See our full preview here.