The Crystal Method

L.A. club kings the Crystal Method (producers Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland) like to mix it up, making dance tracks that are tough to pin down yet all too easy to groove to. So, where a dose of trippy psychedelia swirls through the pumping, big-beat flash of their debut single, "Keep Hope Alive," a sizzling funk bass holds down the untamed break beats of "Wild, Sweet and Cool," and "Name of the Game" rocks out a rap-metal hybrid with guest guitarist Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine.

Check out more of the Crystal Method's process in Next Steps.

What do you do after you define the big-beat sound of a country with cuts like the smokin' sonic cloud "Vapor Trail"? If you're the Crystal Method, you shake up your own stuff proper, bringing in heavy rock guitars to make massive noise on tracks like "Weapons of Mass Destruction," inviting guests like Scott Weiland to add his own special something on the nocturnal dance-with-danger "Murder," and stepping onto the big screen with the likes of movie-music maestro Hans Zimmer for a Crystal Method mix of "Jack's Suite" from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

It's easy to say that L.A.-based producers Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland — better known as the Crystal Method — make great music to club by, but it's a little harder to define what exactly makes it so one-of-a-kind brilliant. Is it the pulsating, ambient flavor of a track like "Cherry Twist," or the hyperactive big-beat fun of "Busy Child"? Maybe it's the psychedelic sonic journey of "Trip Like I Do," or the electric-guitar slide and rock roar of Kyuss singer John Garcia on "Born Too Slow." Can't decide? No worries: with our Crystal Method Essentials, you can have it all — from the intelligent-android electronica of "PHD" to the fuzz and chime of DJ Corporate's Squints Mix of the TV tune "Bones Theme" — in one dance-ready download.