The Death Set

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 this 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!” that’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. Believe it or not, “Negative Thinking” and “Collision,” a couple of remixed songs on a new twelve-inch single, both reach the five-minute mark. But the players, currently touring with Girl Talk and CX KiDTRONiK, 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.