May 19: Wolf + Lamb vs. Soul Clap
If we’re in a woozy, ’80s-obsessed, cheap-glossy moment, then Wolf + Lamb vs. Soul Clap isn’t a bad soundtrack for letting your buzz ooze into sleep. This collaboration between the New York label and the Boston producer duo—codified last year on a compilation for the DJ-Kicks series—is all about sloooooowed-down house beats, disembodied R&B sounds, and anything else that goes down with Ambien. U Street Music Hall, $10.
May 22: Moombahton Massive
June 1: Afrojack
Without Afrojack, there would be no moombahton. The D.C.-invented global-bass sound still regularly packs U Street Music Hall, and this May’s party will be the 15th to take place there. But Dave Nada never would’ve found his fame ticket without accidentally slowing down an edit by Afrojack, the aggressive, in-demand Dutch house producer whom D.C. audiences should count themselves lucky to see at the Fillmore—for academic purposes, anyway. U Street Music Hall, $8 and Fillmore Silver Spring, $39.50.
May 23: Black Hills and Raindeer
Aaron Estes used to play in the icy D.C. indie-pop outfit Bellman Barker; now he’s making icy electro-pop as Black Hills, tinkering with the kind of cold R&B that’s infected everyone from The-Dream to the James Blake to D.C.’s Bluebrain at its most reflective. Black Cat, $8.
July 27: Identity Festival
Identity Festival, the traveling all-day rave that last summer introduced parental chaperones to their kids’ favorite EDM-cum-nu-metal stars, returns with another sampling of industry-upending dance music. Your instructors: Swedish electro-house producer Eric Prydz, American crossover threat Wolfgang Gartner, and Madeon, the 17-year-old French electropop producer whose more intimate May 16 show at U Street Music Hall is sold out. Hop the generation gap. Jiffy Lube Live, $40.