Arling and Cameron

They call it club pop. The term perfectly describes the sound: beat-based dance music crammed with hooks, melodies and a blissful, carefree 'tude. Its most influential progenitors, Pizzicato 5 and Cornelius, cram so much sampled energy into five-minute songs that pulling apart all the ingredients would take eons and leave a big mess on the dance floor.Holland's Arling and Cameron — Gerry Arling and Richard Cameron — are among the best. Believe it or not, they do rival the quality of the artists mentioned above — Cornelius recently remixed A&C's music, and the duo wrote the song "Arigato We Love You" on Pizzicato 5's Happy End of the World album — mainly because they have the ability to combine some fantastic samples (most notably some great Teletubbies riffs) with an amazing selection of beats. The result is a loopy happiness and carefree celebration. At their DJ set at South by Southwest in March, the two — actually, one (Arling stood to the side, arms crossed, resembling a Mafia don, and observed) — pumped out a wide selection of sounds ranging from deep, ominous German techno to lite Brit drum & bass to, hip-hip-hooray, Iggy's glorious "Lust for Life" (though, notably, the crammed dance floor cleared when it came on — goddamn kids don't know nuthin').

This tour will be the first the pair has undertaken with a full band, a wonderful sign in an age when a couple of DATs and mics usually pass for performance equipment, and the tour is only stopping in a few select cities — New York, Chicago, Montreal, San Fran, Vancouver, Seattle and LA, in addition to St. Louis.