I'm obsessed with transitions—in DJ sets, in radio programs, in mix tapes, in my own listening habits. I spend a lot of time thinking about what song combinations will make sweet segues—which is partially why I don't get invited to many parties.

Anyway (weak transition, yo), while I appreciate and admire some DJs' ability to seamlessly beat-match 20 consecutive monolithic tracks within five bpm of one another and make them seem like one long ĂŒber-track, I'm more impressed by selectors who range all over the stylistic map and never lose the plot—and even force you to realize unexpected similarities among divergent genres. For this approach, Four Tet's new DJ-Kicks CD (!K7) is among the best ever.

Four Tet (Britain's Kieran Hebden) is best known as a producer of inventive, laptop-powered folkadelia. But he occasionally moonlights as a DJ and, as his DJ-Kicks offering proves, he is incredibly eclectic. DJs like Andy Smith and Certified Bananas are stylistically promiscuous—the former keeps things primed for parties and kitsch-aholics, while the latter spins sets for ADD dancers who like absurd juxtapositions. Hebden, by contrast, is a serious crate digger whose selections typically attain sublimity. He would rather blow your mind than indulge your taste for tacky nostalgia. DJ-Kicks, like Four Tet's 2005 entry in Azuli's LateNightTales series, reflects his archivist's ear for the wondrously arcane and the exquisitely psychedelic.

What sort of nutty genius starts a mix with minimalist computer-music pioneer David Behrman? Hebden, that's who. He then (un)naturally segues into some weird funk from Syclops (Mu's Maurice Fulton), thence to Curtis Mayfield's "If I Were Only a Child Again," thence to jazz/classical composer Heiner Stadler's "Out-Rock." Thenceforth, things somehow get even stranger and better. Nobody has ever transitioned from French prog-electronic innovators Heldon to UK garage unit So Solid Crew—and made your brain flap in appreciation. Akufen into Animal Collective? Detroit technoista Model 500 into Shona People of Rhodesia? Prog-rock absurdists Gong into NYC hiphoppers Showbiz & A.G.? Yep. Four Tet is that audacious. Open your mind and let him fill it with great obscure music.

DJ Muro, on the other hand, monomaniacally spelunks into the funk cave on The Kings of Diggin' (BBE/Rapster; he shares half of the double CD with Kon & Amir). Excavating from a 100,000-strong wax stash, the Japanese beat miner presents 44 rare gems from the '60s and '70s for your good-foot approval. I've never heard (or heard of) Black Exotics, Centipede, or Cocody's Men, but I'm thrilled Muro bumped 'em upside my head. Throughout Diggin', Muro doesn't beat-match, but his transitions are impeccably timed and his sense for logical progressions is uncanny. Diggin' is an advanced funk history lesson to which you will sweat buckets.

BEAT HAPPENINGS

FRIDAY JUNE 9

LITTLE LOUIE VEGA, GREENSKEEPERS
A member of Masters at Work and Nuyorican Soul, Vega's a NYC house-music legend who's remixed tracks by Michael Jackson and Madonna, among others. If you have any appreciation for house history, you'll want to catch LLV work his voodoo on the decks. Greenskeepers are Om Records' most interesting act, peddling whimsical, song-based electronic-funk diversions that stick in your head for longer than you'd think. Trinity, 111 Yesler Way, 447-4140, 9 pm–3 am, $15, 21+.

SATURDAY JUNE 10

KRAKT
Seattle's best pure techno night also boasts the funniest promo campaign [www.krakt.net]. Residents Kristina Childs and Paul Edwards bring it hard and nasty. Re-bar, 1114 Howell St, 233-9873, 9 pm–2 am, $5, 21+.

SUNDAY JUNE 11

JOHN DIGWEED
Jet-setting British jock John Digweed's gradually dropped the cheesy trouse (trance+house=trouse=yawn) and progressed into deeper tech-house territory. On his Fabric 20 mix, Digweed commendably takes some big-room risks by delving into minimal techno from Superpitcher, Repair, and Billy Dalessandro and tougher techno juggernauts from Bobby Peru, Angel Alanis, and Joel Mull. On his new Transitions CD, Digweed plays more to the mega-festival crowd, so it's a bit more uneventful and frictionless, but he keeps the selections fairly weird and trippy (for mega festivals). Snide techno snobs like me will have to find another whipping boy to snipe at (there's never a shortage of such targets...). With Chloe Harris, DJ Chronus. Showbox, 1426 First Ave, 628-3151, 9 pm–2 am, $17 adv, 21+.

TUESDAY JUNE 13

SOLVENT, ECTOMORPH
Tonight's Oscillate features top-flight electro, or, as group leader BMG calls it, "post-human body funk" (Ann Arbor duo Ectomorph) and electro-pop (Toronto's Solvent). Solvent casts a quaint glow over the early-'80s phase of naive, charmingly krafted synth pop pioneered by OMD and Vince Clarke–era Depeche Mode, replete with frostily frigid robot vocals. Ectomorph take electro to dark, ominous realms while keeping it funky enough to provoke barks from George Clinton's "Atomic Dog." With Kinoko. Baltic Room, 1207 E Pine St, 625-4444, 9 pm–2 am, $10, 21+.