The Death Set, Team Robesphere, Ninja Sonik, Cerebral Ballzy, Totally Michael

Death Set partners Johnny Siera and Beau Velasco are pros at getting fans onto the dance floor and keeping them there—not that their songs sound anything like the stuff usually heard on the nightclub scene.

Take "Intermission," from last year's Worldwide full-length. The tune's a collection of hammering riffs, feverish percussion fills and high-pitched yelping about the "motherfuckin' Death Set!" It's over in less than two minutes, making it a bracing sonic jolt as opposed to a drawn-out beatfest.

Granted, these Baltimore-based partners are open to longer forms—on some remixed versions of Death Set tracks, the songs reach the five-minute mark. But the players, currently touring with Team Robesphere, Ninja Sonik, Cerebral Ballzy and Totally Michael as part of the Newmore Switchblades tour, are at their most effective when they get in and out as fast as they can.

It's a recipe for bad sex, but great, if unusual, dance music.