PAUL VAN DYK
DJ/producers like Germany's Paul van Dyk are the Coldplays and Jack Johnsons of the dance-club circuit: They spin and create pastel, vanilla house tracks with all edginess and adventurousness sanded out. Which is why guys like van Dyk and his ilk (Tiësto, Kaskade, et al.) make more money in one month than you and I do in a year. Because, bafflingly, there are hundreds of thousands of people worldwide who want to hear this bloodless, Nerf-beated pomp. Takes all kinds to make the world go round... the bend. Showbox Sodo, 8 pm, $36–$46, 18+.
DAVE AJU
The Sweatbox and Condiment crews consistently host some of the city's most advanced techno summit meetings with their TechYes! parties. This month's edition is no exception. Former Stranger music intern Chris Aldrich (aka Ctrl_Alt_Dlt, a formidable trackmaker and DJ himself) and company have booked San Francisco's Dave Aju (aka Marc Barrite), an experimental techno producer who knows how to inject fun into his weird compositions. His recordings for the esteemed French label Circus Company are still some of the most texturally interesting and strangely funky of the '00s; Aju's 2008 album Open Wide especially intrigued through its inventive approach of constructing tracks entirely from a panoply of his own mouth sounds. This is next-level beatboxing. And talk about saving money on gear! With Albert, Murdoc., and t.shade. Re-bar, 10:30 pm, $10, 21+.
PLASTICIAN AND SIGMA
Elements of Bass is larging it up for Bassdrop Music's first anniversary by booking London's Sigma and Plastician. Sigma (Cameron Edwards and Joe Lenzie) are mainstays on drum & bass's upper echelon, keeping a genre in which many heads have lost interest sounding vital. Andy C and Goldie are fans. Plastician is a prime mover in Britain's dubstep and grime scenes, with a regular slot on the important radio station Rinse FM and a Rinse mix CD to his credit. Plastician's tracks meld combative rhythms with strident, momentous melodies. You will feel him in at least two senses of the word. With An-Ten-Nae, Juakali, Kat1lyst, Sonny Chiba vs. ADD, and Double Penetration. iMusic, 9 pm, $15–$40, 21+.
