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The Disco Biscuits: Planet Anthem

At the dawn of a new decade the Disco Biscuits enter a future that allows the band to have a split personality. Planet Anthem is a disc that sounds almost nothing like what fans have come to expect the Disco Biscuits to sound like. And yet, when one peel back the multitude of studio effects, the vocal guests and the various producers, it’s unquestionably them.

In the context of the band’s albums—the studio being the area where the band, like many other jambands, has succeeded least— Planet Anthem is the most unique album the group has released in its decade-plus career. It’s the sound of a band that has conquered live improvisational dance rock (call it jamband, call it livetronica, trance-fusion, whatever) and took seven years to deliver another studio album in an effort to achieve the one thing that it hasn’t yet—a hit record.

Working with producers as varied as Simon Posford (Shpongle), Tom Hamilton (Brothers Past) and Dirty Harry (Ludacris), the Biscuits deliver a record that is a collection of songs versus a cohesive album. The tunes which are most appealing to fans, such as “The City” or “Loose Change,” are also the songs that recall the band’s live sound, though their length is truncated by the studio setting. The obvious single, “On Time,” is as mainstream as anything that the band has conceived yet—walking a fine line between overtly commercial and infectiously catchy with a beat that’s as ready for the dance clubs of South Beach as it is for a late-night festival tent. While the band’s vocals have routinely been a weak spot, here they succeed in being hyper-processed or taken over by guests like TuPhace. Moreover, the band has assuaged fan fears by already using new tunes like “On Time” as exploratory jam vehicles in the live setting.

However, there are tracks that not even the hard-core fans could be fully prepared for like “Konkrete,” which hears guitarist Jon Gutwillig speak-singing over a jungle stomp or “Sweat Box,” which is the closest thing to authentic hip-hop that the band has produced yet.

If Planet Anthem is shocking, it’s only because it’s so unexpected. And for a band that prides itself on improvisation, the ability to achieve the unexpected is commendable.