Of all the topics discussed during a 40-minute interview with the Georgia Straight, none gets Humans member Robbie Slade quite so animated as the subject of gore-filled horror movies.

Talking about the 1981 film Scanners, the local dance musician breaks into several seconds of laughter while reminiscing about its gratuitous bloodiness. “There’s a sweet head-explosion scene,” he explains enthusiastically. “It’s so good.”

Speaking on the line from a tour stop in Victoria, Slade credits his Humans bandmate, fellow singer-producer Peter Ricq, with nurturing his love of cinematic carnage. “Pete’s kind of gotten me into it,” he says. “It can be funny. I wouldn’t have thought that I would ever think gore was funny. But he [Ricq] showed me things that are pretty funny.”

This isn’t the first time that Ricq has pushed his bandmate in new artistic directions. When the pair first met in 2009, Slade fought forest fires for a living and spent his free time playing in a folk group called Family Room. He chuckles self-consciously and admits, “Someone said we sound like Dawson’s Creek. It’s a bit cheesy.”

He eventually recruited Ricq, an experienced visual artist, to design some merchandise for this now-defunct project. “When he came over, he brought some beers and a sampler,” Slade recalls. “I had never even seen a sampler. I didn’t even know what it was. We jammed and he sampled me singing.”

When Slade’s Family Room bandmates, who were also fire fighters, returned to their jobs, Ricq convinced him to stay back and pursue their electro-oriented collaboration. This was a gamble for the gainfully employed Slade, but it quickly paid off: the pair became favourites on the local live circuit and put out some well-received short-form releases.

Most recently, Humans dropped Traps, an EP that broadens the duo’s party-starting sound by blending booty-shaking beats with low-key electronic textures and subtle production nuances. “De Ciel” and “Possession” have banging rhythms and hooky vocals that are guaranteed to inspire late-night hedonism, while the title track is a percussion-free wash of star-dazzled synths and computerized voices. Elsewhere, “Hell Me” is anchored by quietly burbling arpeggiators, and “Plus Rien” employs a thick blanket of reverb to set a nocturnal atmosphere.

This dark and occasionally downtempo approach, Slade believes, is the new frontier in dance music. “No one wants to make dubstep anymore,” he scoffs. “It’s taboo. If you’re still making dubstep, it’s like, get with it. So people are finding out how to take people to that same level, emotionally and energy-wise, without actually going there. I think that’s basically what 2012 and 2013 are all about, musically.”

He continues: “You can do more with less now. It’s almost like people know how to dance now, and they’re going to dance, so you don’t have to hit them with everything. I think you can be more minimal and people will know the drill.”

If anyone is qualified to comment on what gets the punters moving, it’s Slade, since Humans’ have wowed audiences at major music festivals and underground parties alike. In 2012, the duo performed at high-profile industry events like South by Southwest, CMJ, and Rifflandia Festival. In 2013 it will tour throughout Europe, the southern United States, and Asia.

During his time on the live circuit, Slade has learned that the secret to a good dance party is very simple: “You just turn the lights off, man. People think that we’re a party band because me and Pete always have our shows notoriously dark. That’s it. That’s all you’ve got to do. Turn the lights off and people will dance for sure. You’re just less self-conscious.”

The pair’s love of the nightlife is such that it has recently branched out into DJing. Between these gigs and Humans’ live shows, Slade says, he and Ricq rarely have an evening off. He goes on to note that, while the energy of an on-stage performance can’t be equalled, his DJ sets are just as fulfilling, since he favours on-the-fly spontaneity over programmed playlists.

“This is probably something that would make a lot of musicians cringe,” he confesses, “[but] there’s more artistic expression in DJing for a couple of hours than there is in playing the same rehearsed set night after night.”

Meanwhile, Humans has been working on its full-length debut for a projected fall release date, and both Slade and Ricq play in other bands. The former has an unnamed collaboration with local beatmaker Max Ulis that he describes as “deep house”, while the latter sings and plays guitar in Gang Signs. And, of course, they’ve been continuing to promote Traps, earlier this month releasing a music video for “Possession”.

Appropriately, given the two-piece’s love of filmic gore, this new clip finds Slade getting his skull pulverized in a hilariously gruesome death scene.

So what does he think of his on-screen demise? “It’s absurd,” he says with a laugh.

Humans plays Venue on Thursday (December 27).