NAME: Phoenix
PROGRESS REPORT: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, out in Spring 2009. Recorded at Philippe Zdar’s studio in Montmartre, Paris.

“Fast and intense” is how Phoenix’s lead singer Thomas Mars describes the band’s next record. The Paris-based foursome are men of few words, or maybe few English words and more French ones. Either way, though they’ve just completed their followup to 2006′s It’s Never Been Like That, they’re not giving away details in any language. But if the record is “fast and intense,” then it sounds like it travels further down the same path as It’s Never Been Like That, a rougher LP for a band whose discography was all rounded edges and glossy textures. Or perhaps the new record will fuse both. “Our production on It’s Never Been Like That was pretty raw, this time we wanted to get back to something more sophisticated,” guitarist Laurent Brancowitz explains. “Looking back I realize that this new album shares many similarities with United, our first one.” Mars has a slightly different take on Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. “I feel like we started this record without any specific goal in mind, which wasn’t the case with our last one,” Mars says. “The last record was about our present, this one is about our future.”

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Remember “Feeling For You“? That track was so great — we loved it even after they started playing in the GAP. Since then, the French house maestros in Cassius released second LP Au Rêve, and just last year, its follow up 15 Again. Apparently 15 got hung up in customs while crossing the Atlantic (it’s been almost a year), but the IDM-ic duo plan to pull your purse strings by including sweet little US-only gifts, like the hypnotic, howling house of “Shame Shame Cherie.” At eight-plus minutes, the track takes its time pushing to the dam break, which hits at four-minutes with polyrhythmic fury. Best way to spend your bandwith today.

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