Entertainment

Artist: The Disco Biscuits

Album: Planet Anthem

Grade: B+

Label: Diamond Riggs Records

So, let's say the Dave Matthews Band or Phish regularly employed synthesizers, consequently giving their rhythmic rock jams the electronic wings to soar. Now you have an idea of the music on Planet Anthem, the first full-length Disco Biscuits CD since 2006's Wind at Four to Fly.

With opening tracks "Loose Change" and "On Time," Planet Anthem seeps underneath the temples with brain-swaying beats and loops that are as hypnotic as they are grooving. Tunes such as "Rain Song" and "Fish Out of Water" are equally catchy and psychedelically computerized. And with the instrumental "Uber Glue" and the closing cuts, "Vacation" and "Quad D," you get plenty of the band's experimental prowess.

Planet Anthem is an intoxicating ride, one that swirls and slams in the right places. These trance-fusion pioneers from Philadelphia definitely crafted an engulfing opus. The music has a levitating quality even while it sounds firmly planted on solid ground.

Drive-By Truckers, The Big To-Do (ATO) – Label debut for the acclaimed alt-country-meets-Southern- rock group that decidedly made a rock album, front man Patterson Hood has said.

Flobots, Survival Story (Universal Republic) – More socially and worldly consciousness from the Denver rock and hip-hop group that struck a nerve with 2007's Fight With Tools and its single "Handlebars."

The Nadas, Almanac (Authentic Records) – The Des Moines, Iowa, rockers constructed their seventh album by writing, recording and releasing one song a month last year, each streamed live on the band's Web site.

Marvin Sapp, Here I Am (Verity) – Gospel singer, who launched his career with Fred Hammond's group Commissioned, delivers his eighth solo album.

Julieta Venegas, Otra Cosa (Sony Music Latin) – The always refreshing Latin pop singer-songwriter returns with her first studio album since 2006's beguiling Limon y Sal.

The White Stripes, Under Great White Northern Lights (Warner Bros.) – Live concert recording from the respected alt-rock duo finds them offering a souvenir of their 2007 Canadian tour.

Fresh notes

Singer-songwriter Ben Fuller, based in Lake Tahoe, Nev., has an uncluttered, organic pop-rock sound on his self-released debut EP, Aquarian Son. He's got a way with hooks, particularly on "Ashes" and "Handsome Loser," and he manages to keep an acoustic purity to his music even while backed by a full band. For the EP, go to www.benfullermusic.com or www.myspace.com/benfullermusic.

If you're not heading to Austin for the South by Southwest Music Conference and Festival, check out Tejas Brothers and Mingo Saldivar on Friday night at Uptown Theater in Grand Prairie. It should be a down-home, rollicking Tex-Mex experience.