The ultra-versatile producer/ DJ Matthew Dear’s fourth album, the critically adored Black City, conceptualizes a futuristic world that sounds like absolute hell – seedy, filthy, shadowy, dangerous, kind of like Gotham City without Batman’s saving grace. Dear has described it as “a city that’s always awake,” which explains the album’s relentless, thudding pulse. The tech-house songs, fronted by Dear’s murky vocals, are twitchy, rhythmic, and somber, like a gloomy Talking Heads. But despite their bleakness, Black City songs like “I Can’t Feel” and “Gem” are strangely riveting and compelling, just the type of music to keep a city up all night. ERIN K. THOMPSON

Tue., Nov. 9, 8 p.m., 2010