THURSDAY 4/30

THE SOFT-CUSHIONED HOUSE AND DISCO OF DARIUS AND THUGFUCKER

Studio 4/4 goes international again with Darius and Thugfucker, who hail from France and Iceland (via New York), respectively. Darius works in that lubricious and sometimes lucrative nexus where vocal-centric house and disco conjugate. He creates lush tracks that solve the sort of heart-on-sleeve, dance-romance equations that Daft Punk failed to do on their disappointing Random Access Memories album. It may shock you to learn that Thugfucker (Greg Oreck and Holmar Filipsson) sound little like what their name would lead you to expect, i.e., XXX-rated trap, gabber, or gangsta ambient. Rather, this far-flung duo pump out heart-melting, feel-good vibes on the decks, favoring cosmic-disco glides and deep-house throbs. If you don't get lucky at this show, you're probably a daft punk. With Kadeejah Streets and Kinjo. UPDATE: Due to visa issues, Darius has had to cancel. Q Nightclub, 9 pm, $10 adv, 21+.

FRIDAY 5/1

BRIGHTEN YOUR NIGHT WITH CASSEGRAIN'S BLACKENED TECHNO

Speaking of getting international, MOTOR is bringing in Berlin-based headliner Cassegrain (Alex Tsiridis and Hüseyin Evirgren) for its 24th edition. Keeping with the MOTOR tradition, they make an engrossing brand of hardware-generated techno that drills downward with pitiless gusto. Funny how music that's so dark can brighten up your life with the power of a hundred klieg lights. The rest of the lineup consists of live performances by MOTOR regulars P L L (Brain Fruit's Chris Davis) and Patternmaster (Brain Fruit's Jonathan Carr), and DJ sets by Dr. Troy (Medical Records boss and a keen selector of brooding techno and minimal synth music) and Nick Carroll (promoter with secondnature and an intelligent appreciator of all permutations of techno). Kremwerk, 9 pm–4 am, $8 early bird/$10 before 10 pm/$12 after, 21+.

SATURDAY 5/2

KORG BLIMEY, EMERALD STRATA'S DEBUT LP IS SPLENDID

Tonight, Seattle duo Emerald Strata—the prolific producer Vox Mod (Scot Porter) teaming with 5H1F7Y (Taylor Dahlberg)—celebrate the release of their debut album, BPM. Together since 2008, Porter and Dahlberg got down to the serious business of cutting this Emerald Strata record with a couple of Korg synthesizers in 2013. "We sought to create a sprawling epic of futuristic city beats and sounds, all dictated by matching the BPM on our respective machines," Porter recounts. "From there we created music simultaneously in a true symbiotic fashion." The result is a vibrant collection of rhythmically complex and melodically rich tracks in the vein of UK IDM twosome Plaid. The Seattle area is teeming with electronic duos now, and Emerald Strata have just jetted to near the summit of the pack with the glittering, optimistic BPM. With Lusine, Manatee Commune, and Pezzner. Nectar, 8 pm, $12 adv/$15 DOS, 21+. recommended