If you've spent time at San Francisco clubs and parties, you've probably been to one where Swiss expat DJ-producer-artist Romanowski was on the decks. And you probably ended up dancing, grinning, and having a swell time. Despite skillful production (or perhaps because of it), Party in My Pants is raw and immediate. Cuts like "Train Song" – with its chugging samples and vocal drops riding a rubbery bass line punctuated by inescapable hooks – sound like the world's tightest DJ rocking three turntables at once. Not that there's an abundance of Technics tricks, but Romanowski keeps his music's various elements distinct, bringing each to attention solely when it's needed to propel the song: a desperately funky guitar riff is only used once in the middle of "Lord of the Pants," while a blasting disco brass lick occurs just twice, its surprise appearance and disappearance maximizing its impact. Even with a myriad of flavors – the video game electro of "E.T.'s Phone Bill," the grinding, rocksteady, and blues mash-up "Dance Dance Dance," and the Middle Eastern instrumentation on "Taliban Rockers" – Romanowski keeps Party in My Pants feeling like an album, not a mix tape. It definitely keeps a crowd moving. Romanowski plays Wed/10, Milk, S.F. (415) 387-6455. (Peter Nicholson)

Ludicra
Another Great Love Song (Alternative Tentacles)

One classic metal songwriting device is to start slow and quiet, then get fast, loud, and heavy. The opposite approach is much less common, but it happens a couple times on Ludicra's second full-length album, Another Great Love Song. Ludicra are very much a metal band, regardless of their new label, their sarcastic new album title, or Love Song's almost emo-ish artwork, which drops the band's old gothic-looking logo. Everything about this album feels different from 2002's Hollow Psalms (Life Is Abuse) except for the music. "The Only Cure, the Only Remedy" continues in the same bastardized Norwegian black metal style as Psalms, only with catchier guitar parts and better recording quality. Laurie Shanaman's witch-burning-at-the-stake vocals are as convincing as ever, but the kicker is the way the song unexpectedly slows down from a punklike double time to an agonizing crawl at about the five-minute mark. The album as a whole follows a similar downward spiral, and by the time "Aging Ghost" hobbles to the finish line an hour later, you feel like you've been raked over the coals a few times in each direction. By all means, keep the razor blades far away when you listen to this one. Ludicra play Wed/10, Elbo Room, S.F. (415) 552-7788. (Will York)

Mail stuff for review to Sarah Han, Bay Guardian Building, 135 Mississippi St., S.F. CA 94107.