"Point Break II" by USF

Here's a world-class music city problem for you: two concerts, both promising, on the same night. Happens all the time in Seattle.

This Wednesday it happens with electronic music. Local acts Beat Connection and USF release individual EPs with a conjoined concert at the Laser Dome. Up the street, Mary Anne Hobbs and Gonjasufi perform at Baltic Room. The events are scheduled to start at 9 PM.

Below, find reviews of the Beat Connection and USF EPs, and words about Mary Anne Hobbs and Gonjasufi.

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Beat Connection "Surf Noir" (Moshi Moshi / Tender Age)

University of Washington electronic duo Beat Connection's debut "Surf Noir" EP, independently released last year as a free download, is medicine for the seasonally depressed: good-vibes dance music, and relaxing, atmospheric sketches. Local press and radio were hip when "Surf Noir" was first online, but the EP's beach-y songs still sound fresh, particularly the throbbing "In the Water" and closing-credits pop gem "Silver Screen." The new "Surf Noir" is only slightly musically different from the old one, but it generally sounds better: the remix/remaster job accentuates the bass and makes the drums sound more slapping.

USF "Jamaica Plain" (Highfives and Handshakes)

USF is a big brother to Beat Connection — two recently-graduated UW students making electronic music that evokes tropical scenery. The "Jamaica Plain" EP is beautiful and ambient, full of shimmering synthesizers and echoing drums that fade in and out. Listening feels a bit like doing yoga, or getting massaged at a New Age spa. The ten-minute title track requires a little patience as it unfolds its several movements. But that's USF's thing: you have to give in to the music to "get" it. Luckily that's easy to do, and a passive ear is almost better when a jittery synthesizer might turn into dreamlike chanting, and that into grunting hippo noises. You'll wonder, "How did we get here?"

Beat Connection and USF play the Pacific Science Center Laser Dome Wednesday at 9 PM; $5, (206) 443-2850, www.pacsci.org/laserdome

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"Ancestors" by Gonjasufi

Mary Anne Hobbs is not a famous name to Americans, but if you've seen "Black Swan" you know her work.

The English DJ and journalist was a music consultant for the movie, and among other scenes, coordinated the pulsing electronic soundtrack for Natalie Portman's character's plot-shifting nightclub drug dalliance.

She DJs this Wednesday at Baltic Room on Capitol Hill, with Californian post-rap shaman Gonjasufi, and other artists.

Gonjasufi's 2010 "A Sufi and a Killer" album is still great one year after its release, a mix of psychedelic rock, electronic music and hip-hop that makes perfect sense in a weird way. It will be fun to hear those tracks float and thud through Baltic Room's serious sound system — particularly "Ancestors," produced by celebrated Los Angeles producer Flying Lotus. Hopefully the microphone is turned up loud enough to hear Gonjasufi's rhythmic poetry, from his unmistakable, blown-apart husk of a human voice.

Mary Anne Hobbs plays Baltic Room with Gonjasufi, Lorn and Take Wednesday at 9 PM; $12, 1207 Pine Street, thebalticroom.net