GET UP TO TIM SWEENEY'S LEVEL AT THE BEAT DOWN

The Beat Down monthly party has snapped up New York City DJ Tim Sweeney to headline tonight's event. This is major because Sweeney's the catalyst behind the Beats in Space podcast on WNYU, where he flaunts excellent, diverse aesthetics and a knack for surprising, brilliant segues. It's not for nothing that DFA Records honcho James Murphy cites Sweeney as one of his favorite DJs. Sweeney's MO is wholly admirable: "I try to find the best music from all different genres and then make them fit together in ways that appeal to people who might not have liked, say, disco or techno before now. For me it's always fun finding tracks that people don't know about, but that sound amazing." While past Sweeney mixes have included killer cuts from the techno, cosmic-disco, krautrock, and house genres (among others), he will probably perform a more laser-focused, party-igniting set for the Beat Down. You'll likely find few complaining about that. With DJ Nark, Lisa Dank, Kadeejah Streets. Neumos, 9 pm, $8, 21+.

TEARIST'S CHARISMATIC GOTH ELECTRO

LA duo Tearist (vocalist/percussionist Yasmine Kittles and programmer/synthesist William Stangeland Menchaca) give a big "fuck you" to the genre designation on their Facebook page, but, if you want to be pedantic about it, the description by the LA Times music blog of "gothy electro-noise" is rather accurate. Kittles emotes with stern, febrile, Siouxsie Sioux–like passion over Menchaca's heavy, punchy beats and buzzing, bravura compositions. Tearist's rhythms are trickier and more interesting than most in this increasingly crowded field, and Kittles sounds like she's going to absolutely bleed charisma onstage. With Rxch Wxtch, Sh6rl6s6, and Ozma Otacava. Electric Tea Garden, 10 pm, $10, 21+.

ITALIAN MINIMAL TECHNO DONATO DOZZY AND VOICES FROM THE LAKE

Craving minimal techno from Italy? Well, Giovanni, you can't really do better than Donato Dozzy and Voices from the Lake (Dozzy's recording project with DJ Neel, aka Giuseppe Tillieci). VFTL's 2012 self-titled album on Prologue is a slow-building, chilling work of cinematic suspensefulness. With exquisite subtlety, VFTL generate a throbbing palimpsest of techno that's filigreed with seemingly vérité sounds from nature (water, frogs, insects, etc.)—which veers from techno's usual synthetic sonic palette. The album's a serious aural adventure and a break from the genre's norm. Both Dozzy and Neel will be DJing tonight, too. Expect scintillating, enlightening tracks from minimal techno's vast reservoir of 4/4 hypnosis. With Cyanwave. Re-bar, 10 pm, $15 adv/$20 DOS, 21+.