Photography by Pascal Textiera

Despite name-dropping Mozart and Franz Liszt, one would certainly be hard-pressed to discern any obvious classical currents on Phoenix’s new album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix and its lead single “Lisztomania”. And perhaps this is the French four-piece’s master plan; for a record whose cover art shows technicolor bombs about to explode, understated subversion hardly seems the point.  “Vandalism” is the word Thomas Mars initially employs in trying to explain the album’s off-kilter title and overarching ethos, comparing the act of affixing one’s own band to the surname of the composer-god to “a kid drawing a mustache on the Mona Lisa. It’s like pop art. You take culture and make it your own.”
     Vandalism, culture clash, chaos, contradiction, and brats — such words and concepts appear and reappear throughout Mars’ slightly fractured-English account of his band’s fourth album. Clad in faded leather boots, artfully torn blue jeans and collared shirt, the singer sat down with PLANET over soda at the sun-drenched hotel lounge of NYC’s Thompson LES to discuss the album, the importance of chaos and culture clash, tourism in Versailles, and the magic of fatherhood. (Mars and girlfriend Sofia Coppola welcomed daughter Romy in 2006.)

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1901 Alan Wilkis Remix
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BPitch Control

Moderat are a German electronic supergroup comprised of the members of Modeselektor and Apparat. After working on an EP together more than 5 years ago, both acts went their separate ways and came to fame on their own: Apparat, most notably, for his collaboration with compatriot Ellen Allien and Modeselektor for 2007’s worldwide crossover Happy Birthday. The two acts ran into each other on the way to a public swimming pool in Berlin and had an argument about whose most recent album was better, and how each could have benefited from the other’s involvement. So, it only made sense to resurrect their long-lost project to prove the point. In that respect, Moderat (BPitch Control) is a successful exercise in synergy, and thrives on the explorations its members are willing to take together, from dubstep to atmospheric IDM, alternating between instrumental and vocal-driven tracks. The most memorable of these experiments, “Rusty Nails”, showcases Apparat’s Sascha Ring on vocals, and feels like what would happen if the Notwist let Burial make its beats. In case there was any doubt, Berlin is in the house.

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Frenchkiss Records

It’s been a quick musical maturation process for 21-year-old Michael Angelakos. Within a year, Passion Pit’s front man and primary songwriter has gone from essentially a one man band to part of a collaborative quintet, from blogosphere EP craze to one of the most anticipated debuts of 2009 – and rightfully so. The premise from last year’s Chunk of Change has evolved into an exuberant and charismatic sound, marked by Angelakos’ already-trademark falsettos, doubled vocals, and adventurous effects. Manners (Frenchkiss Records) draws from a broad palette of electronic and rock sounds sometimes similar to MGMT, but more concerned with ecstatic hooks than a psychedelic trip. The album’s strengths come from dance floor bounce and attention to detail, like the funky keyboards and a children’s choir on “Little Secrets”, baritone horns on “To Kingdom Come”, a sped-up vocal sample ala Kanye on “Sleepyhead”, and looped dulcimers on the more subdued “Moth’s Wings” (stream below). Precocious? Maybe, but then again maybe you’re just jealous.

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Friendly Fire

This Edmonton act conjures up comparisons to the Notwist and New Order by lushly blending glacial electronics, a haze of shoegaze guitars, and the demure vocals of brothers Steve and Tim Batke. The band has followed their dreamy yet dynamic second album (released in February), Feel. Love. Thinking. Of. with three new remixes now available on iTunes. Mexicans with Guns cuts up “Feel. Love. Thinking. Of.” into a cubist collage shaded with sinister flashes of dubstep. Meanwhile, Belgian disco auteurs Villa refracts the wistful tenor of the title track through a glitchy breakdown worthy of DFA Records’ most jubilant grooves.

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Photography by Danny Bensi

Grace Jones performed last night for a lucky crowd of about 200, at a private boat party on Pier 17 in New York to celebrate the launch of Matthew Williamson’s line for H&M. At 60, Jones is as daring, magnificent, and regal as ever; it’s incredible what a commanding presence she has. During her performance, in trademark Grace Jones fashion, she pranced around half-naked singing her classics. Then models came out wearing Williamson’s clothes, writhing from side to side. But truth be told, neither the models nor the crowd could take their eyes off of Grace. She’s literally a force of nature.

Astralwerks

British mystic Natasha Khan (formally known as Bat For Lashes) has conjured up a monumentally beautiful and eerily poignant follow up to her breakthrough debut Fur and Gold. A lingering potion of Khan’s siren’s call, pagan percussions, and hypnotic synths drives opener “Glass” and surges similarly throughout standouts “Daniel” and “Pearl’s Dream” (which feature Brooklyn tribalists Yeasayer). The delicate pianos and numinous croon of “Moon and Moon” and “Travelling Woman”, meanwhile, bring Kate Bush to mind. Two Suns purports to be a concept piece pitting Khan’s spiritual side against her supposed second persona, a blonde femme fatale named Pearl. Yet, as intricately as the record’s eleven compositions twist and turn, the bipolar pathology looms in name only — and perhaps from an aural standpoint this is for the best. Purported identity crises aside, Two Suns proclaims Khan as a singular talent for this world and beyond.
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Astralwerks

The title track from Empire of the Sun’s debut is already being hailed as one of this year’s best songs, a seemingly lost, yacht-rock gem that leaves you wanting more when its chorus fades after just three minutes. It’s the zenith of a breezy sound this Aussie duo, comprised of Sleepy Jackson’s Luke Steele and P’nau’s Nick Littlemore, render through simpatico keys and drum machines. While occasionally lacking in sonic cohesion, the album easily makes up for it with memorable, bouncy songs. Don’t let the “Neverending Story in Space” album cover convince you this is a nerd-only affair. What’s inside is well worth a listen.
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Because Music/Nonesuch Records

Since we first wrote about Amadou and Miriam in 2005, we’ve remained enchanted by both their music and their affecting story – that of two blind Malians meeting at the Institute for Young Blind People in Bamako, Mali nearly thirty years ago, becoming friends, falling in love, making music, and becoming their nation’s most celebrated contemporary musicians. Their first album, Dimanche à Bamako, was made in close collaboration with Manu Chao. For their second album, Welcome to Mali, just released last month, Damon Albarn produced the opening track, “Sabali”, a mesmerizing blend of Gorillaz-style electronica and traditional Malian music, which you can listen to below.

This summer the duo will tour with Coldplay in the U.S. and play a number of festivals, including Bonnaroo in June.

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Photography Courtesy of Mute Records

The moon is up somewhere over Stockholm and the sun’s been hiding behind cloud cover since September or October. Karen Dreijer Andersson, one sisterly half of electronic master planners The Knife, is settling in for the evening after another dark January day of studio seeking. She’s on the lookout for a new spot to work in. The space, she says, must have windows. “I think I’m old enough for them now,” she jokes quietly via telephone. “Light would be good.”
     In March, Andersson released her first physical recordings under the newly minted Fever Ray moniker. Juiced from a similar sonic vein as The Knife’s 2006 Silent Shout, it’s a self-titled solo debut that boasts much of the same inky tones and nightshade textures as that landmark album. Born during the cold months of late 2007 and early 2008, it’s as much an audible byproduct of sunless Swedish winters as any form of haunted creative wandering.
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What's Your Rapture?

Sweden’s Love Is All made indie-philes quiver with their 2006 debut Nine Times the Same Song, a frenetic party-crasher that delivered perfect punky breakup anthems in three minutes flat. With cymbals that clatter and fall, bristling synthesizers, and the crazed vocals of Josephine Olausson (who sounds like The Concretes’ Victoria Bergsman covering new-wave chanteuse Cristina), A Hundred Things buzzes with a broken heart stomped out all over the dance floor. But when a saxophone teases out nursery-rhyme melodies on the slowburner “Giants Fall”, it could be Jesus and Mary Chain headlining a high school battle of the bands.