Man, Decibel. Are you trying to kill us, or what? Perusing the schedule for this year's festival, the seventh edition of one of the world's premier electronic-music/digital-arts events, one can't help feeling overwhelmed by the abundance of essential showcases that Decibel founder Sean Horton and his volunteers have assembled. Even the painful cancellations of Moritz Von Oswald Trio and Vladislav Delay can't dim the excitement.
It would take all of this week's Stranger editorial space to do justice to the elite acts from today's most interesting international scenes who are performing this year. Alas, this truncated survey will have to suffice. Pro tip: Visit www.dbfestival.com and explore artists unfamiliar to you. They're often the ones who end up blowing you away. Without further ado, we present all of the can't-miss acts that can fit into this space. (See Data Breaker for a roundup of Decibel's local highlights.)
Grouper (Portland)
Haloed in reverb, the voice and guitar of Grouper (Liz Harris) evoke heady, morose feelings that you proudly wear like a shroud. She's a Vashti Bunyan for the stoned-drone generation. You could call Grouper's music post-folk hauntology, but whatever you wish to label it, she turns wherever she plays into a planetarium with her portentous, stellar lullabies. Catch her drift. (Pravda Studios, 9:20 pm)
Ben Frost (Reykjavík, Iceland)
Ben Frost's By the Throat repurposes ambient and chamber music for these extreme-bass times. His music conjures tenebrous moods that you can imagine larging up a Cineplex's screen, but the chilled horror tones and vibrantly dank atmospheres Frost generates are better suited for art-house films than for Hollywood blockbusters. Vividly harrowing stuff that's too savage for the conservatory. (Pravda Studios, 10 pm)
Dan Bell (Berlin, Germany)
One of the pioneers of minimal techno, Dan Bell is a master of assembling tracks with a few spare elements that accrue an intense power through repetition. What could be boring is instead absolutely thrilling, because Bell chooses the most piquant sonic atoms and arranges them with masterly feng shui. He brings that same focus to his DJ sets. (Chop Suey, midnight)
Flying Lotus (Los Angeles)
Flying Lotus practically has become a genre unto himself, and for good reason. He's taken J Dilla's advanced beat schematics and knack for unusual samples to the exalted realm where his aunt, Alice Coltrane, once created her unearthly masterpieces. Ergo, hiphop gets launched to the astral-jazz plane and receives an infusion of future-tilting rhythm juice, and aural discombobulation rules the day. Pure 21st-century sci-fi soul music for mind and body. (Neumos, 12:15 am)
Murcof (Tijuana, Mexico/Barcelona, Spain)
This description from a 2004 Data Breaker column still applies: "[Murcof] makes holy-minimalist composers like Górecki and Pärt do the clicks'n'cuts jitterbug. Fans of Ekkehard Ehlers's and Gas's sublime works will dig Murcof's intricately detailed aural carpets." Hearing this nuanced composer summon his gorgeously glitched music of the spheres in Benaroya will be special. (Benaroya Hall, 6:45 pm)
Mark Van Hoen (New York/London, UK)
A founding member of British shoegaze legends Seefeel, Mark Van Hoen has gone on to a rewarding solo career in the 17 years following his departure from that group. As Locust, he made some of the most texturally and rhythmically adventurous IDM of the mid-'90s. Under his own name, Van Hoen veers into a more song-oriented approach, but one that's still challenging, as his new Where Is the Truth album demonstrates. His brand of lush, diaphanous electronic unpop should trip the dark fantastic at tonight's Optical 1 showcase. (Benaroya Hall, 8 pm)
Ikonika (London, UK)
It took me a while, but I've finally come around to appreciating Ikonika's peculiar strain of dubstep. Her beats seem awkward and spindly and her melodies weedy and abstruse, but extended exposure to her Contact, Love, Want, Have album reveals that these strange elements cohere into something like an individual vocabulary—which is rare for any genre. You go, girl—as oddly as you wanna be. (Baltic Room, 11 pm)
Mount Kimbie (London/Brighton, UK)
This young duo's Crooks & Lovers is one of those crucial releases that could lure outsiders into the post-dubstep diaspora. Full of inventive yet inviting melodies and clever rhythms, the album describes a perfect midpoint between Hudson Mohawke's neon-hued tone painting and Flying Lotus's snap-crackling funk beats. (Neumos, 11:30 pm)
Modeselektor (Berlin, Germany)
Modeselektor's experimental yet hedonistic techno, accompanied by Pfadfinderei's amazing visuals, never fails to deliver ecstatic highs. (Neumos, 12:30 am)
Fennesz (Vienna, Austria)
Christian Fennesz is the John Fahey of the stoic-guy-with-laptop-and-guitar phenomenon. His muted, granular grandiosity has influenced a fleet of similar-sounding ax-wielders who conjoin wood and catgut with silicon to wring a more varied palette of tones. So far, Fennesz is the acknowledged master of this approach, and live he makes postindustrial and pastoral atmospheres coexist in imperfect harmony. (Benaroya Hall, 6:45 pm)
Oneohtrix Point Never (New York/Boston)
Earth's new golden boy of blissful ambient music aims his expansive synth compositions toward the altered zones of the form's deities: Tangerine Dream, Steve Hillage, Vangelis, Fripp/Eno, etc. OPN's back-to-the-future kosmische symphonies leave you stardusted. (Benaroya Hall, 8 pm)
Machinedrum (Brooklyn)
One of the most inventive boundary-blurrers of the IDM/hiphop interface, Machinedrum is a precocious prevaricator of disjointed beats and wickedly warped textures. Catch him doing double duty as one half of sleek two-step heart-stoppers Sepalcure (with Praveen Sharma) later tonight at Baltic Room. (Motor, 9 pm)
Untold (London, UK)
Untold (Jack Dunning) is one of dubstep's most distinctive producers; his funky, crazy-angled tracks have won the support of Mary Anne Hobbs, Scuba, and Planet Mu's Mike Paradinas. Check "Anaconda" for proof of Untold's singular vision. (Baltic Room, 10 pm)
Scuba (London, UK)
As boss of the scorching Hotflush label, cocurator of the Sub:Stance night at Berlin's Berghain club, and a brilliant DJ, Scuba oversees a great percentage of dubstep's mercurial evolutionary spurts. He's also a skilled producer; his excellent 2010 album Triangulation captures the deep, downered spirituality of Burial's best work while maintaining a riveting rhythmic thrust. Scuba melds soulful techno with finessed dubstep to create a bracing fusion that should please fans of both genres. (Baltic Room, 11:30 pm)
Carl Craig (Detroit)
Carl Craig's possibly the most important emissary of Detroit techno's legacy, which is why he's on the D25 tour celebrating the Motor City's quarter century of seminal 4/4 beat science. Twenty years into his career, he shows no signs of artistic senescence. As a producer, remixer, and DJ (he'll be working in the latter mode at Decibel), Craig mines expansive dance-floor gold, balancing irrefutable grooves with sublime melodies. One of his most famous tracks is "The Climax," and that's the tenor dominating his sets. (Neumos, midnight)
Mary Anne Hobbs (London, UK)
Respect must be paid to the disc jockey who's exposed future-bass music to more people than anyone. Mary Anne Hobbs isn't the most technically adept DJ, but she possesses impeccable taste and unbeatable connections, allowing her access to cuts you wish you had. Watch a post-dubstep grande dame get her groove on in Seattle Center's green glory. (Seattle Center, 3 pm)
Monolake (Berlin, Germany)
Monolake (aka Robert Henke) not only makes awe-inspiring abstract and clubby/dubby techno—he creates the software that enables other world-class producers to do the same... and other things besides. One of the masterminds behind Ableton Live, Henke is the rare lab genius who can execute his infrastructural ideas in real life. At Decibel, he'll be performing with visual artist Tarik Barri. Prepare to be immersed in profound sound design. (Neumos, 11 pm)
Kyle Hall (Detroit)
This 18-year-old prodigy is taking Detroit house music to the strangest places it's ever been. That he has releases out on Omar-S's FXHE as well as forthcoming joints on Hyperdub and Warp proves that Hall flexes multidimensional skills that can't be contained by genre restrictions. Catch a future legend right at the start of realizing his vast potential. (Sole Repair, 11:45 pm) 
