The thing about future shock is, it’s transformative. Even with extended stays on the International Space Station, the time even seasoned human travelers spend in space doesn’t add up to the time they spend on the ground, yet astronauts (and cosmonauts) universally talk about seeing life on Earth differently.

Amon Tobin’s sonic work is literally transformational when it comes to how it makes you hear the world: found sounds become entire albums, as on Foley Room (current TV’s interview below), and samples are consciously, transparently pushed to their breaking point. You can hear reality bending around you. The results aren’t self-referential about the line between tech and organic, as so much recent electronic music has been: the two as inseperable. Tobin’s world has changed, irreversibly. You’ll still wind up dancing; you may just find yourself dancing in ways you haven’t before. Here’s the artist on his most recent album.

When Amon Tobin comes on at 10:15pm Saturday night at Yuri’s Night Bay Area, you can bet people will be dancing all over NASA’s backyard. Thankfully, we have a special mix to share for every other day of the year, when you can’t get into the space program’s hangar.

Having covered CDs, vinyl, and video games, a lot of Tobin’s work is currently focused on live music. He’s shared this Chicago mix from January for the site here. “DJ mix” suggests that this is more like the boring, DJ texting on his cellphone fare we’ve had to live with in certain venues lately. I think, as usual, it sounds more like Amon come back from space.

Download the Amon Tobin Yuri’s Night mix

(there are a couple of samples that aren’t G-rated, just so you’re warned)

Deru laptoping live. Photo: pinkpucca, via Flickr. (CC)

Even in the post-Sun Ra era, artists still care about space.

Deru, aka Los Angeles-based IDM electronicator Benjamin Wynn, is playing Yuri’s Night Bay Area coming off of an injury — a repetitive stress injury. (Seriously.) And little wonder: laptop artists have some serious keying and mousing to do under the best of circumstances, and Deru pushes his computer to self-described cyborg-like technological detail.

Deru is just the kind of person you want to be grooving out to while celebrating Gagarin’s spin through outer space. So we’re delighted he’s given us a 45-minute set into which we can voyage. Enjoy! (And if you throw a virtual party with these mixes, send some photos / Second Life screen grabs.)

Just remember to give your wrists a break from computing now and then - at least until the robotic arm implant is ready.

Download Deru’s Free Mix

What’s the big idea in designing new interfaces for music? Just about everything, judging from the finalist entries for our Futuristic Music Design Challenge. A sequencer with bubblegum balls? A synth that works with surface temperature data and maps? Microtonal guitars, sound-making boxes, Nintendo games, digitally-connected saws and tape on bicycle wheels? Gloves, buttons, lights, strings, turntables? Yep, we’ve pretty much got the gamut here. We told contestants to make the Second Space Age proud. Now we get to see how they hold up.

Check out some of the videos and photos of what’s to come to get a sense of the projects, and if you’re attending Yuri’s Night Bay Area, be sure to get there by 2:30pm to watch these artists compete with each other in front of our expert judging panel. (See the Yuri’s Night Bay Area event schedule.)

Join this event on Facebook — and say hi!

After the show, get up-close-and-personal with the artists later on at the Create Digital Music booth. On the same stage, at 3:30 pm, our friends at Instructables.com have a show-and-tell session for even more DIY goodness. And then there are the installations, acrobats, space things, major scientists and thinkers… and, of course, stick around for a huge lineup of incredible music all night long. I’m going to figure out how I can be three places at once, personally, because there’s loads I want to see.

See you Saturday afternoon, California-bound peoples. Those of you not lucky enough to be in the Bay Area, stay tuned right here for more online coverage following the competition — plus the winner.

Each year Urb Magazine picks the top 100 up and coming acts to watch in the next year. This time they have included bay area local and Yuri’s Night artist Tycho. You can pick up the 14th annual “Next 100″ issue on shelves now.

“The only thing more beautiful than the mesmerizing design and print work he creates under the ISO50 name might be Scott Hansen’s rich analog signal path. As Tycho, this San Francisco artist has an absolute lock on daydream downtempo, fusing thick, fuzzy beats with lush synths, samples and guitars. Buy the ticket, take the ride. RT - Urb Magazine”

Check out his video for “Dictaphone’s Lament” here: