For Particle guitarist Charlie Hitchcock, the past two years have been almost as intense as his group's musical style.

"Ever since [the group formed], it's been pretty fast-moving, like a rocket ship," he said.

The Los Angeles-based "live-electronica" quartet will perform tonight at Crowbar, 420 E. College Ave., along with opening act Moonraker.

In the group's almost two years of touring, Particle hadn't settled down to record a formal album until recently. The band instead chose to develop its fusion of electronic dance music and human-created improvisation on the road.

Hitchcock was a freelance musician when he was asked to join the group in 2000 after the death of original guitarist Dave Simmons. The surviving members -- bassist Eric Gould, keyboardist Steve Molitz and drummer Darren Pujalet -- saw Simmons's death as a source of inspiration to continue pursuing the music.

Particle's current sound has evolved into a danceable, techno-heavy groove, reminiscent of the kind of set one might hear from a DJ at a club. But the band is made up of humans playing live music -- and humans can improvise. "The DJs are the ones that brought all this music into the mainstream," Hitchcock said. "But at some point, it gets stale without the human element. People want something more interactive, and with a band playing it's more organic."

And unlike a record, Particle can take a groovy, spontaneous jam session and turn it into a song. Hitchcock said that in several cases, jamming at shows has slowly turned into structured songs with organized changes.

The formation of these songs has finally allowed the group to settle down and record, although it did have to turn down some live gigs in the process, a problem that has kept the group from recording in the past.

"We've been just touring and playing, and haven't had enough time off to record," Hitchcock said. "We had to turn down some offers, but basically we decided to keep playing until we absolutely needed to record an album."

The group decided to work with producer Tom Rothrock for the album, who has also produced acts such as Beck and The Foo Fighters. Hitchcock said he expects this choice to enhance the album's sound, even though he is not known for work with "jam bands."

"People say we're a jam band, but I don't even know what a jam band is," he said about the difficulty in defining the genre.

One thing that cannot entirely be captured on record is Particle's multimedia audio/visual stage show. Projectionist Scott MacKinnon works with the group during performances to mix live footage of the performers with computer-generated visuals to create a full-on intense eyes and ears experience.

The group will continue touring through July, including performances in Japan and various summer festivals, such as JazzFest in New Orleans.

"We are jazz in the sense that we are improvisational, and a lot of the stuff we do is just off the cuff," Hitchcock said.

Moonraker, a five-piece group formed in Boston, will open for Particle.

The group's Web site describes it as a "hybrid of trance, rock, electronica and jazz" with a heavy emphasis on "living in the moment."