This week's music previews

Hot Chip, On tour Hot Chip are holders of what other musicians must imagine is a golden ticket: the more they do exactly what they want, the more successful they become, and the more they earn the privilege to do exactly what they want. So it is that the band are now arriving at their fourth album, One Life Stand, with a music that makes reference – to pick some far-flung genres – to 1980s pop, to English folk, even to the more melodic vocal experiments of British band This Heat. All these magpie appropriations wouldn't mean much, however, without their aptitude for good tunes, and the idiosyncrasies of their presentation. Brightly coloured, with an awkwardness that seems, but almost certainly isn't, contrived, the band remain a cross between Kraftwerk and Thunderbirds: models of the kind of eccentricity that more people could aspire to. O2 Academy Glasgow, Fri John Robinson The Gambler, London It's more than 25 years since Prokofiev's second opera was last seen in this country, in David Pountney's London premiere at the Coliseum – one of the highlights of ENO's Powerhouse years. Based upon a Dostoevsky novella, Prokofiev had set out to create a new, conversational type of opera. The plot of The Gambler is not far off that of Tchaikovsky's better-known Queen Of Spades, but musically, the brittle, motorik score may be an acquired taste. The piece has maintained a toehold in the repertory at least, and this new production – directed by Richard Jones and conducted by Antonio Pappano with Roberto Saccà as Alexei and Angela Denoke (pictured) as Polina – promises to give it a boost. Royal Opera House, WC2, Thu to 27 Feb Andrew Clements Vampire Weekend, On tour A beachfront residence in the Hamptons. An Ivy League school. A heated debate on arcane punctuation. All round, the genius of Vampire Weekend is to take you behind doors that are ordinarily found closed: wittily, the band invert rock'n'roll's downwardly mobile social trajectory better than any group since the Rolling Stones. For all its complexity, though, they do still make rock'n'roll. Referencing the biography of the Clash on their current album, Contra – the title nods to that band's Sandinista! LP; they allude to Joe Strummer's privileged background – it serves to remind that, at the heart of this complex quartet, there lie some enduring truths. A person is better judged not by their background, but by how they rock. And that it's not where you're from that matters, but where you're at. Corn Exchange, Cambridge, Sun; Apollo, Manchester, Mon; O2 Academy Leeds, Tue; O2 Academy Birmingham, Wed; O2 Academy Newcastle, Fri John Robinson George Benjamin At 50, London As a composer and then increasingly as a conductor too, George Benjamin and the London Sinfonietta go back a very long way. One of Benjamin's earliest high-profile London premieres was of the dazzling ensemble piece At First Light, based upon a painting by Turner, which the Sinfonietta conducted by Simon Rattle commissioned and introduced in 1982, and which cemented the reputation he'd created with his first orchestral piece two years earlier. Benjamin just turned 50, and he's celebrating by conducting the Sinfonietta in a programme of his own pieces. At First Light is included, of course, but there's also a chance to hear another exquisite early piece, the Wallace Stevens setting A Mind of Winter, sung by soprano Claire Booth, as well as the more recent Palimpsests, and a danced version of the astonishing tour de force Viola Viola. Queen Elizabeth Hall, SE1, Sun Andrew Clements Robert Glasper, London When he played last November's London Jazz Festival, the young American jazz and hip-hop pianist Robert Glasper showed how broad tastes and celebrity associations can bring in listeners who'd never otherwise visit a jazz gig. On that occasion, his guest was the cult Soulquarians singer Bilal, whose falsetto climaxes over drummer Chris Dave's chattery patterns were greeted with ecstasy. His latest album, Double Booked, is the fictional story of how he finds himself booked for a hip-hop gig and an acoustic jazz one on the same night, complete with concerned voicemail messages from would-be employers Terence Blanchard and Roots drummer Questlove Thompson. Glasper's trio mixes Latin grooving and fierce free-funk, Keith Jarrett-like country-chording, even reworkings of Thelonious Monk mingling ragtime, hip-hop and free jazz. Ronnie Scott's Club, W1, Mon & Tue John Fordham Beach House, On tour If there's an important word in mainstream indie at the moment, it's "ethereal". From the reverberating voices of Fleet Foxes, to the offbeat hymns of Grizzly Bear, there's a mood in this music that seems to be questing for a spiritual harmony, as well as a vocal one. From Baltimore, Beach House are no less fervent in their devotions – they've been around for five years, each of their albums gaining a respectable growth in audience – but perhaps a little more reserved in how they express them. The result, on latest album Teen Dream, is a cool, reverberating ambience that can't help but evoke a Christmas single of the early-80s, the duo of Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand creating music that's a hair's breadth from a sleigh bell. As you might imagine, inside this snowglobe world, mood is all, but occasionally – as with the very good track Lover Of Mine – tunes follow, too. King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow, Wed; Islington Mill, Salford, Thu; Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, Fri John Robinson