Performing at Future Music Festival 2011

From Rundle and Rymill Parks in Adelaide to Perth's Arena Joondalup, and a bunch of commandeered urban racecourses in between, the 2011 Future Music Festival sets out its rave-centric stall in hugely impressive style: the roster features big names from all over the planet, with an especially impressive contingent weighing in from the U.K. — headliners the Chemical Brothers, represented here by "Swoon" from 2010's Further, are joined by countrymen Dizzee Rascal ("Bonkers"), Leftfield ("Open Up") and Mark Ronson ("Bang Bang Bang" featuring Q-Tip), while a big home flag is flown by the Presets ("This Boys in Love"). Pendulum strengthens Aussie/British ties with "Witchcraft."

Belgium's the Subs join Queensland's fraternal DJ team the Stafford Brothers in Next Steps.

If our Future Music Festival 2011 Basics set your bones all a-frazzle, then these radioactive Next Steps will totally supercharge your molecular structure. Belgium's the Subs cook up a superior blend of digital itch and scratch with "Mitsubitchi" which was composed for the 10th anniversary of London's Fabric club and has picked up an international following, especially here in Australia. Queensland's reality TV superstar DJs, the Stafford Brothers, come on like a hurricane with "Speaker Freakers" while Binary Finary (the U.K.'s Matt Laws and Stuart Matheson) steams in with much-loved, much-remixed international club smash "1998," which still infects like a rogue virus.

The future, as one philosopher put it, ain't what it used to be — but we'll go one further . . . it's much better than it used to be, thanks in large part to the existence of the technologically awesome Future Music Festival 2011, which beams itself onto the late-summer shindig circuit in a neon-fringed flurry of souped-up sound systems and dazzling video displays . . . plus a gob-smacking roster of A-list dance and electronic artists. Take your pick of five major cities, lit up by the touring sonic carnival during the second week of March, and you've got yourselves a recipe for the time of your lives. Our selection from the lineup includes Stateside superstar Ke$ha, who wants to make you dance 'til your body goes numb with "We R Who We R," German techno king Sven Vath (the Eric Prydz remix of "The Beauty and the Beast"), and U.S. indie groundbreakers MGMT ("Congratulations").