De La Soul, The Field, Klaxons, The New Pornographers, Of Montreal

DE LA SOUL
Since their self-proclaimed death in 1991 via the excellent De La Soul Is Dead LP, the New York trio has remained an important force in contemporary hip hop. Throughout the bulk of the 1990s the news media focused its attention on East Coast/West Coast feuds and performers disintegrated into misogynistic tirades while Kelvin Mercer, David Jude Jolicoeur and Vincent Mason dropped continually thought-provoking beats and lyrics. Combining elements of funk, soul, blues and new wave with rap’s fundamental aesthetics, the group laid the groundwork for acts ranging from Mos Def to N.E.R.D. And with a resurgence on the 2005 Gorillaz track “Feel Good Inc.”, the group reasserted itself as a genre giant while also introducing itself to a generation that was too young or too caught up in rap’s angriest moments to pay attention to their sultry intelligence during the band’s first go-round. (Sunday, 9-10, Aluminum Stage) –text: Derek Wright

THE FIELD
Swedish composer Axel Willner calls himself The Field. Earlier this year, he released his first full-length, From Here We Go Sublime, on the astute German label Kompakt. His music embodies ambience over techno proclivities with its churning and pulsating rhythms subtly filling time and space. Luckily, Willner’s music almost translates better outdoors on a summer afternoon rather than being performed inside a dank club somewhere in the middle of the night. (Sunday, 7:15-8:30, Balance Stage) –text: Garin Pirnia

KLAXONS
Britain’s favorite new rave rock punk band Klaxons charmed fans on both sides of the pond in the past year following the release of the chart-topping Myths of the Near Future. An album based in fantasy with occult sayings as song titles (“As Above, So Below”) and the all-too-soon apocalypse (“Four Horsemen of 2012″), this band makes the end of the world and Thomas Pynchon fun again. After an in-joke of creating a new genre called “new rave” turned into a minor subculture among British youth and a media key phrase, it’s easy to forget how little the band sounds like rave music. Instead, listeners are treated to a dance storm for the ears. The air-raid sirens and guitars that melt faces can bring anyone to break down and bust a move, regardless of whether or not the show takes place in a warehouse. But I would still bring my glowsticks if I were you. (Sunday, 8:30-10, Balance Stage) –text: Justine Reisinger

THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS
Listening to The New Pornographers can make one lonely, but not sad. It’s the kind of Belle and Sebastian-esque sound that makes you want to dance, eyes closed and smiling through a face of tears. Their newest and third album to date, Twin Cinema, marks a bit of a departure from the softer, wispier side of songwriter/frontman Carl Newman. It’s a little bit more rock and roll than albums past, but the songwriting is even sharper. (Sunday, 8-9, Connector Stage) –text: James H. Ewert Jr.–photo: Steve Dewall

OF MONTREAL
Of Montreal knows no bounds. Having nearly seven albums under their belt after more than a decade of playing together, the band has been mixing trippy-pop and electronic dance elements to make one-of-a-kind songs that ring true in their latest release, Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? Much like the lead-off track, “Suffer for Fashion,” which sets the energetic tone for the rest of the album, the band offers a chaotic, beautiful, stylistically unpredictable set of songs — making the album a compilation of wonderfully catchy and original material in its entirety. Formed in 1990 in Athens, Georgia, the indie pop/psychedelic band came together when lead singer Kevin Barnes supposedly named the band after a failed romance with a woman from Montreal. Still known for their inventive musical experimentation, wild onstage costumes and unique vibrancies, it’s no wonder that Of Montreal is one of the most talked-about bands these days. They promise an ever-evolving style and musical longevity that isn’t easy to imitate. (Sunday, 7-8, Aluminum Stage) –text: Jackie Bernardo–photo: Rennie Solis