SXSW Music: Must-See EDM

Chrissy & Hawley

Wed. 15, ScratcHouse Backyard, 8pm
Originally from Kansas, the Chicago synth-pop duo of Chrissy Shively and Hawley Shoffner grooved their eponymous introduction last summer on a steady diet of Pet Shop Boys, Giorgio Moroder, Bananarama, Sparks, Siouxsie & the Banshees, the B-52s, and – well, you get the idea.

De Osos

Wed. 15, Friends, 9pm; Thu. 16, the Hideout, 9pm
Project of 24-year-old Arturo Luna, De Osos has evolved since its 2013 inception. Post-rock still lingers in this Mexico City multi-instrumentalist, but now it gets a digital makeover with brooding electronic beats. Todo el Ruido Entre Nosotros dropped last week.

Sylvan Esso

Wed. 15, Stubb's, 9:20pm
As production guru Nick Sanborn weaves beats, singer Amelia Meath brings the energy to this Durham, N.C., duo. Her crystalline voice, bowing on the pair's eponymous 2014 debut on Partisan, is entrancing in itself as folded into Sanborn's creations, but her dance moves make the live experience utterly charming. April's What Now follows up.

Hot Sugar

Wed. 15, ScratcHouse Backyard, 10:15pm
Nick Koenig, multidisciplinary New Yorker behind Hot Sugar, offers SXSW his multimedia staging Melody of Dust, which "places you inside a castle inhabited by the composer where you will unlock elusive songs." The associative God's Hand (2015) cobbled together found sounds into a divine out-of-body experience.

Banks

Wed. 15, Bar 96, 11pm; Thu. 16, Banger's, 12mid
On her infectious 2016 single, Banks – shortened from Jillian Rose Banks – boldly declared: "I fuck with myself." The electronic answer to Beyoncé's brand of self-love comes in the form of smooth production and Banks' fluttery soprano reined in over two albums.

Sneaks

Wed. 15, Sidewinder Inside, 11:55pm
Sneaks, a one-woman show by Eva Moolchan, bills as punk, but the upbeat electronic would disappoint most of the liberty spike set. The D.C.-based feminist takes the frenetic energy of her patron genre and filters it through drum machines and minimalist bursts on her full-length debut, reissued later this month by Merge Records.

Sohn

Wed. 15, Elysium, 1am; Fri. 17, Mohawk Outdoor, 11pm
London native living in Austria, Christopher Taylor's velvety voice guides his downtempo electronic soul. Clearly a student of James Blake, who relies both on meticulously engineered musical quips and his jaw-dropping vocals, the 4AD signee followed up his 2014 label bow Tremors with January's Rennen.

Emily Reo

Thu. 16, the Main II, 8pm
Owen Pallett collaborator Emily Reo's entrancing electronic hooks cast October 10-inch Spell into a dream state.

Dem Yuut

Fri. 17, Barracuda, 8pm
Chock-full of vocal manipulations, swirling synth lines, and seductive vocals, Minneapolis fourpiece Dem Yuut touches both R&B influences and infectious pop that would make their hometown's purple patron proud.

Phoria

Sat. 18, Sidewinder Inside, 12:15am
Not your womp-womp floor-rattling electronica; the Brighton fivepiece brings to life elegant arrangements with sometimes eerie, always intoxicating melodies. Last summer's still-import-only full-length debut Voli­tion garnered comparisons to Sigur Rós and Bon Iver.