The XX

anyone else listening to them? probably the best new music i've heard all year. they describe their influences as everything from Aaliyah to Cocorosie, Rhianna to The Cure, Missy Elliott to The Chromatics and Mariah Carey to The Pixies which may sound a little pretentious but is pretty OTM.

first single "crystalised":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pib8eYDSFEI

full album stream
http://www.we7.com/#/album/xx-Exclusive-album-preview-!albumId=367943

New single:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHZVGqqf3gg

http://www.kspace.tv/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/the-xx.jpg

Don't get this band. They seem to have become this year's Token Indie Band for the dubstep crowd (exhibit A - The Lex likes them) but I thought the album was just blank and nothingy and a bit dull. Maybe I need to give it more time.

I'm really enjoying the record. I can hear some of the influences namechecked above for sure, but the minimalism reminds me of Young Marble Giants more than anything. Not musically, but in just how spare the arrangements are.

I also dig the way that their image seems completely incongruous with the music.

this v good record am enjoying greatly

They sound like a slightly less dynamic Morcheeba. If I want moody poseurs playing emptily doomy music I'll stick with the new Horrors album I think.

The male singer is a total snooze; he perks up when the girl joins in.

They're phenomenal live. They blew The Big Pink off stage in London a few months ago.

(Which, on reflection, isn't saying that much.)

the album's ok... gets old fast

but the minimalism reminds me of Young Marble Giants more than anything

This is my favorite thing to use a reference as well.

That said, outside of "Crystalised" being one of my favorite songs of the year, I think the album is pretty boring.

are these guys actually ok? whenever indie bands run thru their list of influences + it has stuff like aaliyah, missy &c then i start rolling my eyes. it's like myspace pages w/ crunk

this might be unfair

Yeah it's okay but where's the Aaliyah, Missy, and Mariah Carey? Maybe they should work on The Meters.

Both of those singles sound incredibly boring to me. Certainly not hearing Missy or the Pixies

I can hear Pixies-lite...

Listening to this just makes me want to listen to that live version of Gus Gus's "Believe" instead

Uh influences is just that, influences. Doesn't mean they will use the sound of mentioned band/artist. Which thank god they didn't do. I'd hate to hear Pixies mixed with Mariah. Love'em both but not at the same time.

"Uh" then how exactly are they influenced by them? And Strokes/Christina Aguilera worked so why not Pixies/Mariah?

Personally I hear Xanax references

sounds like stripped down balearic tunes being packed in a form of soul ballad. 'shelter' is pretty great, till the moment one realise that it goes nowhere.

never mind the balearics

here's the XX

wow "basic space" is really really good

this is the sort of minimalis indie that i can handle - everything is v confidently & carefully arranged. basically the complete opposite of micachu.

as previously mentioned, though, I feel like it goes nowhere. I keep waiting for the song to begin.

because of the RIHANNA! MISSY! AALIYAH! name dropping i was all ready to hate on this like crazy but it really won me over real quick. "basic space" is the only one i've listened to so far but i really think it has a great sense of build, and they add on hooks as the song progresses (even into the final minute). i keep coming back to micachu, but i feel like that stuff just takes one or two ideas and plays it out all smashed together for three minutes with no real regard or care for 'proper' arrangement. ('proper' in the sense that it was well thought out not in the sense that there is an objectively 'proper' way to arrange a song.) (and this is not to say that all music needs to be properly and artfully arranged & planned out like a mansion is being built [altho i would say that i probs lean towards music that is made like that more often than not] but that i think with twee-leaning stuff like micachu the sloppiness & bareness can get really grating where something like, idk, early green day would not)

otoh "basic space" just has this sense of professionalism and knack for structure that i think is most prevalent in stuff by people like - GASP - the-dream & that's where i could see some r&b influences and it's v impressive

i'm really glad i got into them before i read any of the bio/influences stuff, which have...not very much to do w/their music. i like the stillness, the carefulness, the clean production and bare-bones arrangements. disagree that the songs go nowhere - as i remember there are some really great builds on the album. it's "moody" in the best sense. 'basic space' is prob my least favourite on the album (tho).

aw fuck there's a micachu remix of "basic space"

i think i'll be fine w/never hearing that

ok listening to this now. i love the combination of shoegazey ethereal harmonies with the steady bare-bones arrangements - the vocals are blurry but everything else is in such sharp focus. am reminded somewhat of the kills in their attitude to repetition.

OOH they are playing london this week.

I thoroughly enjoyed this when I gave it a listen the other week, but I can't say that I've been inspired to listen to it since. It was pleasant but there was something a little sterile about it. Geir-friendly, perhaps.

the difference between really liking this and finding it "pleasant but sterile" is in the margins i think

Wouldn't this be a lot better with only the girl singing ? The guy's voice sounds really dull. Nice production and some cool songs though.

'basic space' is prob my least favourite on the album (tho).

Mine too.

as previously mentioned, though, I feel like it goes nowhere.

That's the problem with a majority of the album. It sounds like they got bored with whatever idea they worked out and moved on to the next one. "Crystalised" is the only one, to me, that feels fully fleshed out (but I do love the instrumental "Intro" regardless).

I only listened to the track on the Youtube video embedded above, having been enticed by the interesting set of quoted influences, but found it very tedious. I just don't want to hear songs with that kind of numbingly boring, uninspiring chord sequence or that tired-sounding vocal style. I never liked that style in the first place but it seems even worse now, being rehashed for the umpteenth time.

Relistening, "Basic Space" isn't terrible but still isn't my thing. Certainly doesn't "suck" though, and I give them mad props for doing something that really isn't being done atm. The sound quite mature for whatever age they look in these videos/pix.

I am loving this. So nice and sparse, almost Young Marble Giants-ish in places.

Xpost

Saw them on Friday at a free show in NYC, purely by accident. Liked them more than School of Seven Bells, also on the bill, FWIW.

British, sparing, sometimes melancholic. I might have too much of this stuff already. But maybe not.

almost Young Marble Giants-ish in places.

Argh, stop saying this. This is nothing like YMG.

Some of it kinda is.

But not enough. Another friend says this sounds like the Vaselines, which is also not quite accurate.

Someone tell me why I keep coming back to this thread even though I only like two songs on the record! Maybe I feel like a mother hen or something because I've been gushing over "Crystalised" since months ago and, even though the album was disappointing, I still feel loyal.

the biggest problem with this album is that all the songs sounds the same, and as mentioned,going nowhere.

somehow most of the new hyped british bands in recent years are dissapointing.

TS: X vs The X vs The XX ....

vs The Ex

It's not a perfect album by any stretch but in some respects there's nothing wrong with a band doing an album that all sounds the same. Loads of good albums sound pretty similar all the way through on the first few listens.

If anything I wish they hadn't included the slightly different sounding track. Not because I don't like it but because it's too much like 'Wicked Game' by Chris Isaak.

because it's too much like 'Wicked Game' by Chris Isaak

Ha! I definitely heard that in there too.

Also, the first track, to me, sounds like a Foals 45 played at 33.

Four songs in and really enjoying it.

Gosh, this is lovely stuff. Instantly appealing.

I can see the YMG comparison a little, actually.

It also sounds a bit like Whitest Boy Alive, in terms of the guitar sound and the space in the production.

now i'm kind of interested in this band. have a feeling i will like it. these kids look so damn young...

They're 19. That means they were born in 1990. THE 90S!!!

that is insane

i feel old

don't mind that first single. reminds me of a bunch of things i used to listen to early this decade. sounds like something twisted nerve would have put out.

Hmm, there is a bit of a drop-off towards the end. It doesn't quite recover from its excursion into Isaak-land.

yeah, the last three tracks are nice but don't really add anything. tracks 1-8 are basically a killer EP.

??? 'infinity' is like the best song on the album

fucking hell they were amazing live. this is an incredible band.

REALLY amazing.

Really like this, but then my mind wanders every time I try to listen to it, and I forget it's even on.

They're something else live. The PA in the ICA was struggling to cope with their sub bass when I heard them. They certainly shredded a couple of cones. It made a mockery of The Big Pink's supposedly overwhelming wall of noise (they were support act), which was just like a haggard, east London MGMT, compared to the XX, who were just brittle but pristine and heavy as fuck.

I guess it's not the sort of album you can listen to on small speakers either.

Wow... I'm really getting into this album! The songs individually are very good, but go together even better. Uniformly coy and sensual album.

Roray won't tell us.

So please, ILX, which song on the album "sounds like Smalltown Boy" ?!?!?

I listened to this again yesterday and I still don't quite get what people are hearing there. The aesthetic is a good one - stripped down guitars + very slightly off-kilter clicky beats + sub-low bass + boy/girl vocals but the individual elements don't seem to be doing anything interesting.

I do really like 'Islands' and 'Night Time' though - they're the ones that clicked for me but I think the songwriting is kinda weak elsewhere.

@Kate, don't know about Smalltown Boy, but 'Infinity' always makes me think of Chris Isaak's 'Wicked Game' and Orinoco Flow

I don't think that sounds a thing like Bronski Beat so I don't think it's what Roray was talking about, but I do like that track LOADS. I think I might be being convinced on this band.

I know, I'm falling for it rapidly

I've listened to Infinity twice now, and those woozy boy-girl vocals are just really doing it for me. I don't mind his voice so much when they sing together.

It's not the second coming or anything, but it's a lovely, atmospheric haze of beauty.

<3 this album it's amazing!

I don't get this yet.

Finally listened to the album all the way through - hard work tbh, as it is pretty boring.
First off the guy's voice is the WORST, and even the girl with the huge underbite, who has a pleasnat voice, lost my interest eventually. The music, which still sounds nothing like Young Marble Giants, is too colourless and unengaging on too many tracks.
I did like "Crystalised", "Night Time" and "Basic Space", but not enough to make me want to go back to this band again. Heigh ho.

i quite like this and can see why some would love it. probably helps that i'm listening on my senns so hearing the good bass (and aforementioned space) well.

Was fucking certain I'd revived this this morning, or yesterday, to say that it sounded better on big ass speakers than modest headphones.

that seems like a given to me!

True, true, it didn't need saying. I just thought I had said it.

Finally tracked down this album today and have given it a spin or two. The aesthetic is fairly uniform, but for all that, it’s an interesting one. I didn't quite understand the ostensible Aaliyah influence until I tried to explain what I liked about the album, and came up with this: "The push towards total minimalism musically does the same thing for me as Aaliyah and Cassie’s vocal minimalism. The further and further it approaches total stillness, the more and more entranced I am, pulled into this black hole of charisma and repetition. Trance-inducing almost." So, I guess there's some truth in that claim, at least to my ears.

I'm not sure how it'll hold up to repeated listens, but there's certainly something interesting going on here.

i sort of like what this band is going for, but i'm not feeling the execution.

i really like this when it's playing but i seem to forget it after it's over.

going to keep trying.

Tom E just pointed out to me that they've covered Womack & Womack.

Aspects of some of the stuff I've heard reminds me of early Shriekback -- All the Greek Boys, Brink of Collapse, etc.

I keep being reminded of the first Cure album....

that Teardrops cover is great

Whoa they covered Teardrops? *scours the interwebs*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrVgCCUQ3fQ

Oh man, for a whole 30 seconds I thought it was going to be the Massive Attack song and got really REALLY excited. But alas, no.

sadly it was just the totally awesome womack and womack song

W&W's Teadrops >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Massive Attack's Teadrop (and I do love Massive Attack)

And I think Massive Attack would agree

W&W's Teadrops >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Massive Attack's Teadrop (and I do love Massive Attack)

― Andy K, Thursday, August 27, 2009 6:03 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

Thanks for YT clip Andy!

xx is the first studio album by English indie rock The xx. Produced by the group themselves, it was originally released by Young Turks Records on August 17, 2009 in the United Kingdom and is scheduled to be released on October 20th in North America.

YEAH, it will be out soon here in America. That cover is great.

just read that they scrapped sessions with Diplo (?!). good on them.

cover of 'do you mind' the uk funky classikk - http://www.thefader.com/2009/08/26/the-xx-do-you-mind-kyla-cover-mp3/

these guys are pretty rad

Got this on a chum's recommendation and a couple of cursory listens have revealed the lad's singing voice as a *big* stumbling block for me - his affected drawl is the kind of thing that gets put on by every other male teenage contestant on the X-Factor etc and it pretty much scuppers the whole endeavour. That and the dreadful lyrics.

If you're going to have the vocals so front-and-centre on a record then they'd better be special and in this case it's just not working for me.

rly tho what is it with bands like this covering songs like that instead of actually trying to make music more like that in the first place (not that these are bad examples of that necessarily, unlike say FAT M doing 'You Got The Love')

Maybe they don't want to make music more like that in the first place? Maybe they think they'd be rubbish at it? Maybe there are elements in the song that they wanted to bring out in a different way? There are loads of reasons!

Actually the The XX making funky would almost certainly be terrible - unlike this cover which I think is great.

of course of course, still quite a frustrating trend at times and sometimes hard to see the value in re-context of these songs beyond cred-chasing xp

Maybe they think they'd be rubbish at it?

is this not u+k?

"actually trying to make music more like that in the first place" leads us to Bloc Party's "One More Chance" and that horrible strangulated vocal which dude can get away with in indie but not in piano house.

tho who knows, maybe Temper Trap will cover 'In The Morning' and i'll love it

"actually trying to make music more like that in the first place" leads us to Bloc Party's "One More Chance" and that horrible strangulated vocal which dude can get away with in indie but not in piano house.

Or alternatively, The XX debuting with a mediocre dubstep track that disappears without trace upon release.

and that horrible strangulated vocal which dude can get away with in indie but not in piano house

they could've made it as an instrumental! interesting statement tho re shit horses ok for some courses

Joker remix of XX surely in progress as we type

Or alternatively, what is the point in castigating an indie band for not making a dance record when there are already so many potentially great dance records in the world that no one has a hope of hearing them all anyway?

because sometimes hard to see the value in re-context of these songs beyond cred-chasing

i'm not saying XX covers aren't good just that it's part of a trend which seems to usually not work

total headphone album

^^ yes.

Quite impressed that they self-produced, since the production so ideally fits the material.

listening to this now and while i don't have a fully formed opinion the thing i keep coming back to is THEY ARE 20 and understand a lot more about why music works than most lifelong musicians do.

And good on them for that. (Reminds me of Disco Inferno in a way...)

i'm not saying XX covers aren't good just that it's part of a trend which seems to usually not work

it's true that it's an annoying trend which usually does work - what's amazing is that in this case it works superlatively. they've covered 3 originals which i love every single note of, and done them in such a way that it seems totally natural that they should be played like that. that's an incredible thing to have done.

Just read the P4K review, and this:

The xx didn't need a gestation period, though xx is nuanced, quiet, and surprising enough that you might.

manages to capture exactly what I've been trying to express about this record when trying to sell my friends on it, but about twelve times more eloquently.

only heard the tubes posted here, but i'm sorta ~almost~ really liking these guys. like its some uncanny valley thing, where it sounds enough ~like~ music i should like, but falls short in some minor and inconspicuous way

young marblemouth giants

I just wish they'd left all that ropey single-note straight eighth note guitar off the album. Dah dah dah dah dah dah dah dah DAH DAH DAH DAH DAH DAH DAH DAH dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee. Young people need to be dissuaded from learning from the Bernard Sumner Guitar Method Series (bless, tho).

try listening with better audio than youtube tbh

did so.

was talking to gbx i guess

i like this a lot, its use of space is really great & almost reminds me more of sade than any of the r&b references they mention ... like the idea that space between sounds implies sexiness that filling that space would not (things unsaid etc)

a whole lotta restraint shown by some kids who arent more than 19

i do think the affectations of the male singer are kind of a problem, tho. he sounds young, in a bad way, trying to front some confidence he doesnt really have

also found the kyla cover really boring ... a lot of what makes the og work is the way the smoothness of the vocals is balanced by such a muscular groove

it's funny, when i saw them live i was kind of stunned by the male singer, there was something in his voice that hooked me, maybe it was the same thing that sounds wrong on the record to youse - the girl's voice i've heard before in guitar music with girl vocals, although she's got a great version of it, she has the kind of voice that you fall in love with on a radio, that you want to hold hands with but are terrified of frightening away. But the boy's voice had something strange in it, a tender sort of soulish thing that i couldn't place, that sounded familiar and utterly out of context.

i think any complaint i might make is overrided by the THEY'RE 19 factor, that's just kind of amazing

here's to hoping they manage to be one of those indie bands that get their second record recorded in less than a year hey

This is growing on me a bit. I like the ones with the rumbling dubstep-influenced sub-bass. Maybe they need a bit more menace to go with the fragility.

There's definitely something about them, although they're a bit of a journalistic wet dream in terms of influences, style and age... Love Crystalised, but find the album a little slight. But good point made above, unusual for a bunch of young uns to be making such understated music. It'll probably grow on me.

In my major 'uh duh' moment of the day, turns out I have a promo copy of this album around that I was sent some time back -- but I have no memory of when! I need to clear my mail more often...

listened to this a few times now - not entirely sold. agree with someone upthread who said this seems to have all the elements of music i should like but just falls short somehow. lots of potential though.

i think any complaint i might make is overrided by the THEY'RE 19 factor, that's just kind of amazing

― thomp, Saturday, August 29, 2009 5:34 AM (16 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i dont think this is really that mind blowing & certainly not unprecedented in pop music. how old were tribe called quest when their first album dropped

yeah, is 19 unusually young to be a good songwriter already?

kind of?

they are good songwriters -- whats surprising about them being 19 is more their restraint & the smoother reference pts ppl are making ... its not so much 'skill' that surprises, its that sophisticated sultry mentality i think ... but again im not, like, SHOCKED by this

I was so prepared to hate this, but it's pretty inoffensive, and whoever has mentioned that the production has a really nice spatial feel is right -- it's a pretty cozy sound. That said: I don't totally dig these affectless, almost-drugged vocals. I guess they do the job w/r/t the sound, but they make each song basically indecipherable from the next, and it's kinda hard to care since it sounds like the vocalists barely care (the entire thing doesn't sound totally different than Bright Eyes circa 2005 on like "Lua," that tired, world-weary cosmopolitanism, and that kind of thing gets dated really quickly).

(Though this "shelter" song is pretty gorgeous in some super-brief moments.)

Eh, well the early songs on the disc remind me of The Cure. I like it (a lot).

I never liked the Cure much.

Yeah it's okay but where's the Aaliyah, Missy, and Mariah Carey? Maybe they should work on The Meters.

― Kevin John Bozelka, Sunday, August 16, 2009 8:41 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

OTM, btw. There's nothing bouncy or joyous or alive about this music at all -- not that there's anything wrong with that but... Rihanna??

I didn't dress or look the part, but I was a big Cure fan, back in the day. I kinda sadly felt like 80s revivalism was in it's "dying throes," but it's shown some surprising staying power even as 90s revivalism rumbles on the horizon. Long may 80s revivalism live.

(xp)

its not so much 'skill' that surprises, its that sophisticated sultry mentality i think

yeah i can see that. alot of people who i know that are 19 are brilliant musicians, and a handful are even great songwriters. i think what this band has in abundance is not maturity or sophistocation but patience and precision, in the way they've crafted such a specific style and play it in such a controlled way.

as 90s revivalism rumbles on the horizon

i am afraid of this.

thats totally already started d00ds

examples?

You wouldn't believe how many press releases I'm seeing with lines like "A band that's not afraid to dig out their flannel" and the like. And the bands pretty much all suck.

I'm reminded a bit of the Everything But the Girl records that were more minimal, like their version of "Night and Day" and "The Paris Match". Not a bad thing. Hear the Cure ref too, esp. the stripped down "17 Seconds" era.

I like this. I like that it's not weighed down by its influences, either. The fact that we're struggling to pin down exactly what it sounds like is a good thing, I think.

If the no-nonsense t-shirts and jeans rock of the 90s came back (GBV, Grifters, Pavement) I'd welcome it with open arms over the theatrics and heavy style-over-substance vibe of the 80s that seems to have been going on lately.

This band sounds very good though from what I've heard, regardless of what era they take most of their influence from.

Hi Evan. Do you want that Life Without Buildings album?

Uh... yes I do! Was going to buy it soon.

Dude's voice reminds me of Tricky at points.

E-mail me (thru webmail), I'll hook you up.

That Everything But The Girl thing is spot on. I've been trying to put my finger on that particular itch for the last week.

I'm not familiar with EBTG beyond their '90s stuff but the songs upthread definitely reminded me of the Marine Girls in a way so, yeah.

I don't know if I'd like a whole album of this but those two singles are nice, I agree that the arrangements are great.

This record would be perfect if the guy knew how to stfu.

I like this a lot but clearly everyone in the universe has forgotten about COLDER.

This is so much better than Colder, dude.

So finally listening to this in full and it's great, what's to hate? (All the complaints about the guy's voice upthread are baffling me! This isn't frickin' Wayne Hussey or anything, be thankful for what you got.)

YMG comparisons are a total red herring, the bass is too loud for that. The EBTG comparison does make more sense (the start of "Shelter") but I actually hear a lot of Jesus and Mary Chain circa Darklands in the initial tracks and I'm surprised they haven't been mentioned yet! (Then again the fact that we're throwing around a ton of references is to their credit, I figure.) "Fantasy" might be my favorite in terms of arrangement on first blush.

Really digging this, what they most remind me of is early 90's shoegazer/dream pop band Breathless. But there's plenty of other stuff in the mix, Mezzanine era Massive Attack, Tricky, Felt, even a bit B&S with the interplay between the vocalists. I like the fact that people can't quite put their finger on a sole overriding precursor even if it does sound slightly familiar.

Obviously the vocalist sounds nothing like Dominic Appleton.

Oh and the Womack and Womack cover rules kthxbye.

It's not that the guy has a bad voice or is a bad singer, it's just that whenever he starts singing, he strangely banalizes the whole thing. Still a very good record, though.

I dunno, rather than that the combination of his voice and hers reminds me -- more conceptually than in specific resemblance -- of things like Serge Gainsbourg's calmer duets, something about understated textures. It suits the songs and performances, it doesn't jar.

Does anyone know when this is being released in the US?

It's currently $30 import on Amazon, which is insane.

No idea if you mean the physical disc. But, fwiw, the XX is now on eMusic in the U.S. market.

Thanks, Daniel. I'm on the lookout for the physical disc, but I might just have to go for Amazonmp3 or something.

Does anyone know when this is being released in the US?

xxis scheduled to be released on October 20th in North America.

i posted that up thread.

I don't get it. Interesting sound but probably not for me. Should I keep trying? Maybe Spotify streams aren't doing it justice..

Stream here for those w/o Spotify access:
http://3voor12.vpro.nl/speler/luisterpaal/42404084#luisterpaal.42404084

Thanks, Bee OK.

"This is so much better than Colder, dude."

yeah I think I agree, but my point is why are people grasping at outlandish comparisons when there is a prior band/artist who did exactly the same thing.

Did they? (Not trying to be flippant but from what I remember of Colder I only sense a general resemblance. Post some compare/contrast links by all means!)

moody post-punk minimalism, electro beats, general breath fogging up the windscreen feel.

Perhaps Colder crossed with Insides to be really precise about it.

Colder were a fair bit broodier and electronic i thought

Hmmm, I like the Insides comparison but...a different kind of lyrical focus, less carefully constructed storytelling and more fragmentary perception.

i don't see the colder comparison really. this is like bubblegum teen music.

and i love the guy's voice. it reminds me of someone else but i can't place it yet. i hear the tricky, but it's something else too. something american?

Guy's voice reminded me a bit of M. Ward.

that's it!

it sounds a little like fugiya and miyagi imo, in places.

Anyone heard their cover of Womack & Womack's "Teardrops"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrVgCCUQ3fQ

ctrl f teardrops

lol

from Pitchfork:

The xx:

09-05 Stradbally, Ireland - Electric Picnic
09-06 London, England - Offset Festival
09-17 Bristol, England - O2 Academy *
09-18 Bournemouth, England - O2 Academy *
09-20 Birmingham, England - O2 Academy *
09-21 Leeds, England - O2 Academy *
09-22 Glasgow, Scotland - ABC *
09-24 Newcastle, England - O2 Academy *
09-25 Manchester, England - O2 Academy *
09-27 London, England - Shepherds Bush Empire *
09-28 London, England - Shepherds Bush Empire *
09-29 London, England - Shepherds Bush Empire *
10-01 Bristol, England - Cooler
10-02 Oxford, England - Jericho Tavern
10-03 Newcastle, England - Cluny
10-04 Manchester, England - Deaf Institute
10-05 Glasgow, Scotland - Captain's Rest
10-06 Liverpool, England - Korova
10-07 Nottingham, England - Bodega
10-13 Berlin, Germany - Lido
10-14 Hamburg, Germany - Gruner Jager
10-15 Cologne, Germany - Luxor
10-16 Munich, Germany - 59 to 1
11-19 Austin, TX - The Mohawk #
11-20 San Diego, CA - Casbah #
11-23 San Francisco, CA - The Independent #
11-24 Sacramento, CA - Sacramento State University #
11-25 Portland, OR - Doug Fir #
11-26 Vancouver, British Columbia - Venue #
11-27 Seattle, WA - Neumo's #
11-30 Minneapolis, MN - Triple Rock Social Club #
12-01 Chicago, IL - Bottom Lounge #
12-02 Toronto, Ontario - Phoenix #
12-03 Montreal, Quebec - Les Saints #
12-05 New York, NY - Webster Hall #

* with Florence and the Machine
# with Friendly Fires

so far no Los Angeles dates?

they do have two days open when in California however.

I was gonna say, all too tempting a gap.

gotta say, i'm really happy i got to see them in such a small venue the other week. a converted church hall w/tiny capacity. the perfect venue for them.

Yeah, I'll be seeing them in a c.200 capacity venue - just the job.

Yeah that M Ward song with Lucinda Williams from his last album popped into my mind when listening to a couple of these tracks - not really the arrangement but the combination of voices.

The other thing this reminded me of was LOW - who evidently aren't as fashionable a touchstone as, I dunno, dubstep or whatever.

The dubstep mentions don't really make any sense to me; it's minimalist indie with some deep bass and pop touches.

Perhaps Colder crossed with Insides to be really precise about it.

thats a mouth-watering description! i've just been listening to it, a bit low-key to come to any decisoin about it yet. dont hear too much Insides though (and i LOVE insides, no breathy bjorkesque vocals and head spinning dreampop guitar)

The xx?

More like the zz, right?

Wrong, this is a pretty nice album; quiet, contemplative, competent and simple. It won't be my favorite of the year but I'm glad I grabbed it as it's provides a nice contrast to the varying flavors of bombast I've been wallowing in (mostly Bat For Lashes and Telefon Tel Aviv).

10-04 Manchester, England - Deaf Institute

...must resist obvious joke...

dan, you're not listening to the first telefon tel aviv album then? 'cause that is seriously the most soothing album of all-time.

I'm listening to the last Telefon Tel Aviv album; I'll get to the first one eventually.

it's incredible but very different from the stuff with vocals (which i haven't listened to very much)

The other thing this reminded me of was LOW

Maybe some Bizarro World version of Low where they don't harmonise, and Alan can't sing...

Still feel like the grinch on this - it's ok when he's keeping shtum, but the songs and arrangements are so pedestrian. And the whole "they're so clever, just 19" stuff is bollocks - there's rafts of artists who've done *amazing* stuff when in the flush of youth.

yeah, but few of them have quite coincided with being feted by the uk indie press in this decade, i think is a part of the thing, there

I can't believe somebody already made the "The ZZ" joke :'(

It had to be said.

She is a much better singer than he is but I really, really, really dig their New Order-influenced minimalism.

i always know i can count on dan not to be all "hes not a bad singer because he sounds just like [bad singer from another indie band]"

Not sure how that follows...?

i dont understand it either! im agreeing with dan

Oh right, I had missed the 'not' in your first post and I'm all "Wait, what?"

I'm usually skeptical about bands citing influences 'from pixies to mariah carey blah blah blah', but this is really good

yeah digging the tautness of it

On the homepage of Cokemachineglow.com, the subtitle for their review of this record reads: "RIYL: divisiveness, Hegelian dialectics, vague hostility, red eye Greyhound trips."

^^ Winning subtitle

having avoided their recorded music, will be seeing these guys live tomorrow, yay for free festival tickets! i'm sure i'll be able to conjure a suitably damning/awed verdict.

Jeff Stelling gives them the thumbs up, 'Interesting harmonies. The song was a bit dull, I thought, but there's something there I quite like'.

when or how did jeff stelling talk about this?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/sep/06/recrod-doctor-jeff-stelling

Recrod?

jeff stelling's words pretty much sum up my feelings about what i just saw

OK, I saw this band at Leeds Festival this year having heard three of their songs once each. They were my second favourite after Radiohead and I'm loving the album, especially Islands. Much better than Florence and the Machine, who're apparently a shoo-in for the Mercury. I hope The xx's album at least gets a nomination for next year's prize.

these guys are good music for when I don't feel like hearing music at all. I mean this as a compliment

^^^ OTM. I've actually only found myself putting this on when I'm not in the mood for anything else at all, and just want something blank to hang there.

Good way of putting it.

ok having listened to the album a couple of times, i really dislike their aesthetic and their songs, sorry

it's the kind of knowing understatement in lieu of actual songwriting or developed narrative which is both cowardly and uninteresting

'infinity' is ok in a bland ham-sandwich way

so is the rest of the album, and boy they do bland soooo good.

different shades of grey: there is tedious bland and there is interesting bland. the xx belong to the latter.

looks like we have a new release date here in America, according to Amazon:

This title will be released on October 6, 2009, on Beggars Xl Recording.

i get the aaliyah thing inasmuch as I can imagine liking her for the same reasons you might like Italians do it better ie detached vocals adrift in beatscapes. Saw them at a festival with really bad sound and thought their whole schtick was The Birthday Party via JAMC (that teardrops cover sounded like Red Right Hand drowning in reverb) and was at first disappointed at the reality. But then I watched the video for Crystalised based on the fact that I saw a photo of the guy and they've made him look like he just wandered out of the Warehouse or something, he's got this streetsmart hot boy swagger thing, and I reallly like his vocals and how they just sit really unhurriedly in those lethargic grooves. I could kinda take or leave the girl, and she's a bit random indie chick sounding and her haircut is hella retarded. Still, I'll be over this in like a week and by then this'll be on a car ad.

or as this utube comment puts it:

TasselToff (9 hours ago) 0 Reply
I love Oliver Sim <3 He's sooooo hot!!!!
And the music is amazing, I love how chilled it is, yet soo meaningful!!! Dutty!

hmm...this is one of those ILX things that sort of fascinate me, like i am totally mystified by the love for this.

Freak.

haha yeah i guess.

they sound like a local band.

xxp I have a very opposite reaction, I think the chick sounds totally cool and the dude is the most dead-sounding person on Earth

"dude you should really come with us friday, our graphic design guy ryan has this band with his girlfriend, they are really cool, really unique, they do a lot cool stuff that mixes rock and more electronica, i totally think you'd dig it, it's really different"

Yeah but your local band would just be doing bad Garbage impressions.

haha Ned otm

hmmm i might take that actually

like i liked what everyone was saying on this thread, and minimalism is dope usually

but i guess to me good minimalism sort of uses the space to suggest something "outside" of what's there, like some sort of magic happens, and it sort of hypnotizes you...but this just seems like...modern rock songs that are unfinished or something.

anyway y'all are digging it and i'm just being a dick so i am over and out.

yeah there's definitely an unfinished-ness about it, that in some songs is just fine or unnoticeable and in others a bit of a drag. unrelatedly they all look really strange and not-how-i-would've-expected, in press photos atleast. where did they put all that attitude when they record this darling little album?

m@tt what do u think of young marble giants?

fwiw i do agree w you to a degree

i kind of think the songs themsevles are pretty hit or miss & theyre getting a lot of love for an aesthetic that is glossing over some so so traXX

think 'shelter' is a banger tho (& yeah the dude's voice sounds totally put-on in an annoying way)

got about half way through the album but i'm afraid to say it hasn't really grabbed me. kind of sounds like the knife, but more deadpan, less european, less melodic and synthy.

In what way does it sound like The Knife?

deadpan vocals, icy drums'n'synths

admittedly i've listened to half the album once, but those were my first impressions.

Are you sure you were listing to The XX and not something completely different?

maybe fever ray?

That's what his description reminded me of as well

I'm not sure 'deadpan' is an adjective I'd ever apply to Karin's vocals either.

i'll go back and listen again... i haven't really got the hang of these slow-lectro groups (chromatics, glass candy). that's more what it reminded me of, but yeah i only gave it a cursory listen so far.

It does actually sound like the Chromatics to be fair.

chromatics are a lot more deliberately blank though - the xx's style is fairly obviously emotional. they're also a lot warmer than the knife.

i like that they're not the sort of band that you'll get after one cursory half-listen.

i'm still a bit wtf @ the lex liking this btw

No, it makes sense if you know The Lex's taste a bit deeper.

No, I mean this sounds like it could go next to the Moderat album on someone's shelf but I'm just surprised he wasn't immediately gung-ho about hating it based on it having guitars in it since it really does sound a lot like the Chromatics and he could barely contain his vitriol over them iirc.

yep and the real mystery is that the dude actually gets paid to write about music

chromatics are alot more melancholic and melodramatic than just "deliberately blank", and if you can't see that the "blankness" is clearly a deliberate part of the xx's mystique, even down to the all black uniforms and sullen photo shoots, then you need to try harder

I didn't like the Chromatics, and I do like the XX. There's some other quality there.

forgive me that burst of vitriol in my first sentence

those who have seen the band live - does drummer dude actually play drums on the pads of his MPC or is it all sequenced?

i just like that they're very quiet a lot of the time. the traded off vocals remind be of the bit at the end of that damien rice song tho :-/

he plays the pads, I think he had a snare and tom too but I was very far back

dude actually gets paid to write about music cos he's good at it: it's not exactly a mystery.

the drummer is super intense! i remember more sequencer-fiddling and button-pressing than hitting pads w/ sticks but he certainly wasn't pressing play and leaving it at that.

yeah well people don't tend to hit mpc pads with sticks, but if you watch the "crystallised" video he's playing the pads with his fingers, thought that would look pretty cool onstage

Not as good as Potter from LOTP's "electronic battle tapping" tho.

Am listening to Chromatics right now, and the problem is - all the sparseness, all the minimalism seems to be leading up to something... that never HAPPENS. The song just meanders off.

With The XX, the HAPPENing may be subtle, but it builds a sense of tension and then relief when it is delivered. The songs have a sense of movement and direction. They feel like they are going somewhere interesting. It can take a few listens to make you realise what is interesting about the HAPPENing - but still, something about the music compells you to listen again until you hear it.

m@tt what do u think of young marble giants?

― BiG HoOs is the one claim!!! (deej), Tuesday, September 15, 2009 4:37 AM (11 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

not super familiar but i am listening to them on myspace (YMG) right now.

they seem pretty okay...i can see the comparison to a degree...though i guess this is a lot more charming to me...it's got a certain handmade, eccentric quality to it that is more inviting to me...whereas just the texture of The XX is more dead to me...

I don't know if I'm saying this in the right way, but maybe Young Marble Giants feel like some cool old modern 50s kitchen table you run across at Goodwill, and The XX feels like a sort of stylized knockoff of that style you'd buy new at Target.

yes, one is old and one is new

I don't know if I'm saying this in the right way

yeah i know, but one seems charming to me and one doesn't

i dunno. i don't even LOVE the YMGs the more i listen.

anyway it's not my job to be a rock critic thank god.

actually i'm gonna listen to The XX again, i kinda want to like this, it sounds good on paper.

plus they are from england and seem like they are trying to be a cool band with pretty decent aesthetics and i had to discourage UK from at least trying.

the fact that ppl keep saying them in the same breath as dubstep makes me read all this sub-frequency spacey stuff that maybe isn't them. Aping YMG is pretty risky since Colossolol Youth is pretty unique sounding.

they didn't ape shit, they didn't know YMG until people started saying "hey you sound like YMG"

^i totally believe that. like one time i wrote a guitar riff for practice and it ended up being "uncle tom's cabin" by warrant : (

I don't really buy that, ppl would have said it to them in london after a couple of songs and it would have been self-conscious by then

i dunno, are Young Marble Giants like a way bigger deal in the UK? cuz like i'm a total nerdbait and i dont own any YMG....

if the ppl going to see them were younger kids and shit i could see them having gone a while without it...they probably played for awhile before they got press coverage

Yeah, in the UK YMG are pretty standard issue "obscure stuff I like" for indie fans

The reissue of Collosal Youth a couple of years ago was pretty big and got a lot of mainstream coverage.

YMG are almost totally unknown/forgotten by anyone under the age of 30 who is not a massive indie music geek/Plan B reader type.

What are the chances that a bunch of teenagers who grew up listening to, like, Dubstep and Missy Elliott, had never even heard of YMG, let alone actually heard them to ape them? Pretty fucking good, I'd say.

yeah that's what my gut would say.

plus when you're writing stuff it's so weird the shit that can happen.

like my last band had this riff that we wrote, had had for like a year that was EXACTLY this bloc party riff. someone didn't point it out to me until after our CD was out, i hadn't really checked out bloc party

Yeah, in the UK YMG are pretty standard issue "obscure stuff I like" for indie fans

I'm not sure about this, I mean yeah maybe among hardcore music geek indie fans, but I doubt your average NME reader has any idea who they were.

guys do you not remember the young marble giants reissue being inescapable? number one christmas present record that year iirc

number of times i heard it in woolworths

etc

i thought they were all 20. it's not that far a stretch of the imagination that they'd know who Young Marble Giants are, perhaps they downloaded it from one of those "blogs" the "youth" are all using these days.

okay, so this band are like two years younger than me but grew up in London instead of rural Ireland and yet me and my friends at school (when Missy Elliott was mainly what I listened to fyi) knew who YMG were. I think you are totally underestimating the shit that twenty year olds have heard did you know we grew up with soulseek yeah?

it's kind of irrelevant tbh given that they don't actually sound like young marble giants

i'd never heard of YMG before i saw the xx being compared to them.

(ps fuck you "rio natsume")

that is blatantly untrue xp

i dunno about anyone else but i first heard about ymgs like a million years ago when hole covered them.

the "they sound like dubstep" angle is bizarre too - they sound nothing like dubstep, though they're dubstep fans

There's a fuck of a lot more to do in London than in rural Ireland, you know? WHo the heck has time to muck about on Soulseek when there's warehouse parties in Dalston to go to?

x-post I was gonna say "let's get The Lex in here and ask him if he knows who YMG is..." ha ha.

it's kind of irrelevant tbh given that they don't actually sound like young marble giants

― thomp, Tuesday, September 15, 2009 11:55 AM (43 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

they very much do

lol @ the idea they sound anything like missy elliot or dubstep, tho

i was actually familiar w/the hole cover but for over a decade had actually assumed it was a hole original!

deej they grew up listening to missy elliott, aaliyah, mariah, dubstep, hence kate mentioning that. the press release ill-advisedly trumpets these as "influences", which...they don't sound like any of those people at all, you can just tell they've listened to them.

yeah, but I think the coverage of them linking them with this dubstep sound world does actually enhance the experience of listening to them, it makes the guitar on Crystallise remind me of the Burial/4tet track wolf cub and in that context I like it a bit more than I would prolly.

There's a fuck of a lot more to do in London than in rural Ireland, you know?

I trust you're speaking from experience.

1) they don't sound anything like YMG to my ears

2) I never said that they sounded LIKE Missy Elliott or Dubstep. However, if that's what they grew up listening to, then they're perfectly entitled to list them as "influences"

Missy, Aaliyah and Dubstep yeah, but for some reason I have a real problem with Mariah being mentioned?

well, take it up with them! they're the ones talking about mariah. you can vaguely hear it in the way the voices are layered, and something about the way they phrase their lyrics.

aw i'm sorry "lex pretend". well done on being ignorant about Young Marble Giants though.

they don't sound much like ymg no, just like they don't sound much like missy elliot, or much like dubstep. i just hate that rock critic romantic shit where young people couldn't possibly be aware of any music made prior to 2003

haha, its just that the other influences actually make sense to me beyond "hey they just like them" a little, but I honestly can't hear Mariah at all. (the missy song I think of most is pass the dutch btw)

I mean, I grew up listening to a load of dodgy goth because I was a teenager in the 80s, so sure, that's part of mine own "influences" but I'd be surprised if you could listen to any song I've written and say "that sounds like Bauhaus" despite the fact that being a Bauhaus fan was hugely important in my process of growing up and artistic development.

think of late mariah. layered vox and subtle, bassy production. "breakdown"!!!!

the missy this kinda-sorta reminds me of is early missy, with tons of space, before she started bellowing.

You know, any indie fan in england over the last five or so years would have heard mention of a few dozen "seminal" post punk bands in write ups for Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand etc and sometimes they look them up inbetween going to raves in Dalston (aren't these kids from south-west London?). I doubt pretty heavily that these kids only listen to RnB and Dubstep and were all "hey, we should form an indie band." So I'm gonna take it as given that they have a pretty similar frame of reference as I do having grown up with pretty much the same indie stuff as well as pop stuff.

uh i am in my twenties and grew up in london a massive music geek, with a circle of music geek friends, and while i probably read the words "young marble giants" in a music mag a few times, no-one i knew ever talked about them. I have to this day never heard anything by them. You are more special than you think you are, plaxico!

IKR, you are sounding more and more like The Onion's Area Man who can NOT believe that his girlfriend has NEVER seen Appocalypse Now.

i think i always assumed young marble giants sounded like throwing muses?

I remember walking into a julian graves a couple days after the reissue came out (they have this fancy licorice that I totally love) and Salad Days was on the sound system and the teenage goth who was working there had the cd left on the counter.

you can just tell they've listened to them.

― lex pretend, Tuesday, September 15, 2009 11:57 AM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

no you cant, unless you read the press release

i dont pretend to know to what extent they consciously, unconsciously or simply did not cop their style from YMG's but in terms of approach to songwriting & performing, the entire understated minimalism of it is 999x closer to YMGs than any attempts to legitimize themselves by pretending that they're direct descendants of mainstream R&B

IKR, you are sounding more and more like The Onion's Area Man who can NOT believe that his girlfriend has NEVER seen Appocalypse Now.

― girls just wanna have mixtapes (Masonic Boom), Tuesday, September 15, 2009 6:09 PM (3 minutes ago)

only if the girlfriend made kinda surreal war movies. I'm not trying to put on like YMG are this totally FM friendly band that everyone knows, it just reminds me of when Bloc Party had never heard of Gang of Four, I find it hard to swallow that even if they didn't cop straight off that they sounded like this band (who even if a few of you don't think they sound like, a lot of other ppl do) that nobody would have pointed out the similarity or brought YMG to their attention off the back of it BEFORE they released an album and got massively hyped.

you can just tell they've listened to them.

― lex pretend, Tuesday, September 15, 2009 11:57 AM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

no you cant, unless you read the press release

― BiG HoOs is the one claim!!! (deej), Tuesday, September 15, 2009 6:13 PM (3 minutes ago)

I DO think that they sound more interesting in the context of having Burial and Timbaland as influences than Young Marble giants, but deej otmfm pretty much.

*TOUTED as influences

yeah i dunno, at the end of the day it's hard to say unless you're in that person's head...i guess it's either good or not at the end of the day.

plus lots of times stuff gets kind of put out there by the press, like all those bands that were supposed to sound like joy division but sounded way more like echo and the bunnymen IMO

I'd kinda guess that the people who are being all gobsmacked open-mouthed and doubting their stated influences have never actually been in a band, or written music, or had the experience of how "listening to and wanting to sound like X" can actually lead to "sounding like Y instead."

This is part of the nebulous problem with this idea of "influence" - that it doesn't always work as straightforwardly as casual music critics would like it to.

Part of the amazingness and creativity of music is when you start out aiming to sound like one thing, and end up sounding like something totally different.

I could see how you could refuse to believe it would happen if you've never experienced it, but it still seems a ridiculous (and slightly arrogant) thing to insist that a band MUST be influenced by a band they'd never heard of.

you can hear it in retrospect if you actually pay attention to how they're using their voices and instruments, rather than just what they sound like.

xps

k8 otm

kate has it right, and I don't know why this is being so strenuously debated. my own stance on this record is similar to m@tt h3lg3son's, and I will keep an open mind towards them

oh jesus guys -- i dont care if they took from the bible & jesus, im talking about what influences are readily evident.

& no, theres basically nothing in these vocal performances that makes me go "Hey this is missy elliot x dubstep!!"

well that's cool, but i wasn't

xp

i mean, you're right, a lot of times, influences dont work in a straightforward, obvious way. And other times, artists like to say they're influenced by things that make them sound more interesting

you can just tell they've listened to them.

― lex pretend, Tuesday, September 15, 2009 11:57 AM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

xp???

well, I think that the listing of influences thing has always been used almost as a consumer guide "if you like that..." thing, but that's not really something we need anymore given how easily accessible any music we want to hear is now with the tiniest bit of internet savviness so maybe this RnB Dubstep thing is a way of putting the band in a context where different nuances are picked up on such as the groove or the spaciness or the electronic flourishes and atmosphere, or the compactness instead of the standard indie lineages that makes killjoys like me say "well you know there's this band that you sound REALLY like btw." Because I think there is a feeling that those lineages reached a point where they were starting to strangle the experience of listening to new music because (and I believe this truly) there is no real way of denying obvious precedents anymore given how easy it would be to check them out in this day and age (remember all those handwringing "record collector rock" editorials that music magazines were full of about five years ago?)

it's what kate said about influences - listening once you wouldn't hear certain things, but once the band have specifically cited what they grew up listening to, it becomes apparent in retrospect.

xp

this RnB Dubstep thing is a way of putting the band in a context where different nuances are picked up on such as the groove or the spaciness or the electronic flourishes and atmosphere

exactement

still think it was a bad press line though...probably the sort of thing which it's best to make known in an interview

i wouldn't really have thought about this that much if I didn't think the guy was smokin hot btw

hmm...this is one of those ILX things that sort of fascinate me, like i am totally mystified by the love for this.

― President Emeritus, Fancy Chord Club (M@tt He1ges0n), Monday, September 14, 2009 7:19 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

based on the two BORING ASS songs at the top of the thread this. theres gotta be better stuff to hone yr critical chops on people jesus

reminds meeeeeeeee of shiny toy guns actually

listening to shelter, theres something here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIC0R2wjZ8s

tremendoid see if u are feeling this

ha xp

totally! slowness totally appropriate. she's in love with bending the note at the end of lines, she finally found a place for it (like a jeopardy contestant who says some wrong shit three times until its the right answer)

i usually don't judge so quick but i cant deal with the pacing atm. certain artist you just want to push em or shake them like a baby (like you shouldnt shake a baby) chelonis jones hits me like that on some songs. shelter though..

The music reminds me of Breathless, or 17 Seconds era Cure. You can hear a bit of dubstep in there but it's kind of 'under' the songs. A bit 4AD too, maybe Dead can Dance or something. The man's voice gets very annoying and the girl has a tendency to try and bend the note in the last word of every line she sings.

I can see the YMG thing too, in the space the songs have, what's left out, but they don't atcually 'sound' like them.

quick note: it's possible for people to be in bands, and make music, without being encyclopedia-brained muso types; i know most of the people i know who are in actual regularly playing bands aren't the people who also know a shit-ton about music. - have actually been asked of a ymg cd i was playing "hey, isn't this a hole cover?"

i think maybe musos want the mental processes of making music to be identical to those of knowing about music

& i don't think this band is a point you'd arrive at starting from the young marble giants

I think, actually, being an encyclopaedia-brained muso type can actually be harmful to being a music-making person. Like, you can never do anything new without thinking "argh, that's not new, that's a b-side of some obscure indie band from the 80s!" which can be kind of crippling. I imagine that not having this weight of history hanging over you can be very freeing.

Dude, THIS is name-dropping. So far in the thread this band reminded of:

Aaliyah
Cocorosie
Rhianna
The Cure
Missy Elliott
The Chromatics
Mariah Carey
The Pixies
Young Marble Giants
Morcheeba
Chris Isaak
Whitest Boy Alive
Cassie
Shriekback
Everything But the Girl
Tricky
Jesus and Mary Chain
Massive Attack
Felt
M. Ward
LOW
The Birthday Party
Red Right Hand
Moderat
Breathless

...you left out Dead Can Dance.

see? It was not easy.

getting big Vengaboys vibes from this myself

^ didn't want to be the first person to say this. also, rednex

this thread is just a pale rip off of ____

Their cover of 'Boom-Shack-A-Lack' really brings out elements I'd never really noticed in the original.

can we add Chairlift to that list pls?

Red Right Hand is a Nick Cave song, it was part of me saying I thought they sounded a bit like the birthday party but then saying that it was only because the sound was so crap where I saw them that they sounded completely different.

I think the funny thing here is that this band are so minimal that it's VERY easy to project lots of soundalikes or thinkalikes on them as influences.

If I wrote for The Guardian I'd write some crap like 'this record is the history of pop music from 1981 to these days'.

and then I would rule the world.

what is funny is how easily this is sitting on my ipod with clubroot, distance and that fourtet/burial, not suggesting that it sounds anything like them, just that the transition doesn't jar.

i was serious when i said shiny toy guns btw. probably rong but serious, haven't heard stg in at least a year

really liking "crystalised" so far and the album reminds me a bit of the awesome D Lissvik album from last year. I still play that one all the time.

u forgot Tim F's Insides meets Colder comparison. which is true tbh now that ive listened to this more. esp. 'heart skipped a beat'. im loving this now. def. up in my top 5 of the year.

Ha if the Insides album came out now people would probably believe it was dubstep influenced. Given dubstep in the broad sense means atmospherics + bass + torpid tempos any such "influence" can be real and still meaningless. Any well-produced UK post-post-punk can make the same claim.

The R&B references strike me as kinda misleading unless you're the kind of person who thinks Aaliyah's blankness is good because it makes her sound like an indie singer. To flip it the other way round and put it more sympathetically, I get the sense that what The XX like about R&B is stuff they also like in music closer to their own style, and then try to emphasise it - reserve, brittle perfection, emphasis on phrasing etc. So the real meaning of "woah these guys like dubstep and R&B" may be "therefore they probably also like and make the kind of indie that we who like R&B and dubstep can get with."

All that said I think The XX would do a totally life-changing cover version of Missy's "Hot Boys".

In fact it shocks me that no-one has tried that trick yet.

(if any indie group wants to hire me as a svengali this is my real email address)

All that said I think The XX would do a totally life-changing cover version of Missy's "Hot Boys".

ha, oh shit, yes.

unless you're the kind of person who thinks Aaliyah's blankness is good because it makes her sound like an indie singer.

Excuse me while I take a hammer to my cranium.

the bit on islands where he goes "that bridge is on fi-er" is so great, each line of that voice has this little gap that makes the following symbol sound like the extension of a yawn.

*verse, not voice

All that said I think The XX would do a totally life-changing cover version of Missy's "Hot Boys".

In fact it shocks me that no-one has tried that trick yet.

Actually Casiotone for the Painfully Alone and Dear Nora did that a couple of years back...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAaFrln3wGU

...WHY DID I STOP LISTENING TO CASIOTONE TWO ALBUMS AGO >:(

That's fucking awesome.

See, you miss out on these things if you're not careful. :-D

This album is great, it sounds like the followup to Stars' "Nightsongs" which Stars are clearly never going to make, having been corrupted by Broken Social Scene. Except Nightsongs is all Smithy while this album is all Curey.

having been corrupted by Broken Social Scene

that's crazy talk, and if Teh XX ever write a song fit to touch the hem of Stars' garments I will take back what I said miles upthread. But it'll never happen.

Broken Social Scene has poisoned a lot of good individual artists, FACT.

Still think this album is mostly a dud, though. Except for "Crystalised," which I'll rep for until the end of time.

What I mean is that BSS may have poisoned others, but their necrotic grip has never had done anything bad to Stars who are the shining jewel of the whole A&C stable by a country mile.

I'm still not convinced by these guys, but I'm hoping one day it'll click and they'll become my favourite band ever.

I'm just saying Stars have yet to revisit the icy coolness of Nightsongs, which the XX have so effortlessly tapped into on their debut album. And I can't help thinking it has to do with exposure to beards.

They're on Jools Holland tonight for anyone with BBC.

Thanks!

"their TV debut"

She looks like Fat Bob, no?

I really like that "You've Got The Love" cover/remix they've done for Fat Machine.

It helps that she doesn't really appear on it.

Way late to the party, but this just came out in the States. Really, really fucking good.

This was out in Boston at the beginning of September!

Hmmmm, I don't know. It still is a $30 import on Amazon and most of the stores I asked at told me an October 20th date, but it happened to pop up in Best Buy of all places last week.

Nevermind, scratch that part about Amazon, I can't read this morning.

Anyway, I'm really really loving this.

you are right, it came out just this week in America or on October 6.

I certainly didn't pay import price for it! huh

i like the mention of similarity to stars "nightsongs"--hadn't thought of that.

I tried listening to this over the weekend, but failed to make it more than three songs deep. It is not understated and spacious. It is empty and more empty. Why do people want to be so rong about thigns?

I don't know, why don't you tell us? Kidding aside, I still think this is a beautiful album, I'm not sure why it is so confounding that people might love this.

Wasn't being all that serious. I'm used to people digging stuff I don't get. Would have to give a closer listen to provide a useful critique, and I'm not drawn to do that anytime soon. And who knows?, maybe I'll like it next time around.

They make emptiness a virtue.

^^^ This really is key. And I know this was discussed upthread, but I think the Young Marble Giants comparison is very apt. Not that the bands sound similar, but they both make fantastic use of the open space in their songs.

they're prob a v good example of what rtc hinted at in the dizzee thread - an act you have to go 75% of the way to meet, and you have to already value very specific traits. like emptiness and stillness. i like this: they weed out the people who demand to be whacked over the head w/hooks from the first listen.

I don't demand to be whacked over the head with hooks. I just demand to be whacked over the head by something other than a denatured, style-conscious aping of far more interesting things (my first impression, admittedly incomplete). Say this as a YMG & Burial fan.

you have to already value very specific traits. like emptiness and stillness

Yes, and yes indeed.

oh yeah style-consciousness is another of those traits u have to be down w/ to appreciate the xx

But now I'm curious. Will try again...

IMO don't try to listen to the whole album at once; focus on "Crystalised" and "Basic Space" first, then play the whole album.

Also I completely disagree that they are about de-emphasizing hooks; their arrangements are sparse but there are hooks aplenty in their songs.

i got irritated by so much dee-dee-dee-dee barney-style guitar playing but there are some real wow! moments on here... as per possible intent i've forgotten what they were or what songs they were in

On Crystalised. This is GREAT. Like moody soul/disco with 90% of itself erased. Getting chills at the chorus. Either I was not in the mood for good things when I heard this, or I bailed after the first two. Which still suck, IMO. Big part of my initial reservation was that I just did't like her reserved & breathy vocal approach, and that's still true. She's okay in small doses, but gets boring when she has to carry the whole sound. He's fantastic though, slippery & rich, pulled way back to suit the mood.

Could definitely see this album being a grower, but I'm not sure I'll ever really enjoy her singing. She deflects my attention and highlights a dispiriting sort of stylization -- the "emptiness" I was complaining about earlier. Otherwise, it's better and more independently interesting than I initially gave it credit for. Cryztalized does seem to stand head and shoulders above the rest, though.

lol most ppl like her and hate him

Though I'm more favorably inclined towards The XX on a relisten, the YMG comparisons, though valid, seem a bit too generous, IMO. This isn't anywhere near as distinctive, risky, personal or strange as Colossal Youth. I'd be more inclined to describe it in terms of Hot Chip and Chris Isaak.

also I sort of felt that way about "Crystalised", then I got into the first track and "Basic Space", and then before I knew it I was digging the whole album

lol most ppl like her and hate him

― HI DERE

rly? Her approach is so familiar and one-trick ordinary. Plus she just doesn't convince me. I don't get any sense of her connection to the music, the rhythm. It's not a good kind of aloofness, either: she just sounds generic. Do have the feeling that I'll grow to like her and this record more in time.

I think it's more of an "she sings in tune and he doesn't" issue

btw i have no style-consciousness, generally don't care about minimalism, love hooks, and i think this is a great album. i like the dude's singing but i also have a thing for "bad" singers so

I like him too but I do think she's a better singer.

Yeah, but I'm an indie, so I'm listening less for quality and more for character.

NP: Credit In the Straight World - such a great goddam band

I'm in the same boat as contenderizer, 'cept after a month and half, the weaker tracks aren't' growing for me. I'd like it better, in a weird way, if they was more filler. It would show off the best tracks. Crystalised is perfect, yep, and Islands and Infinity are close. But some of the songs aren't just empty (good!) but empty headed. And it bugs me. It's like half the record is this sexy new lover, and the other half is like having these annoying roommates who are always going at it.

They're really vital and original though. Major talent. Just wish I could take it as a whole. I like both their voices, when I like them.

Also I completely disagree that they are about de-emphasizing hooks; their arrangements are sparse but there are hooks aplenty in their songs.

oh yeah, i didn't mean to imply that their songs are hook-free - they're certainly there and they stick in my head. but they're not the first things to grab you, and you kind of have to accept the other traits before you can access the hooks.

i prefer her voice but he's a great foil for it, and also much deeper and richer live than on record.

listening to this all the way thru for the first time....i think i like dude's voice better???

listened to the whole thing once from start to finish. altogether quite solid but much less exciting than portishead's 3 from last year which is covering similar wild ground. lots of tracks i skip. many songs are too dense and compressed for my likes. coyne's voice is less embarrassing than usual. not too much falsetto on this. i don't think i will purchase it. i would trade it in for the last yo la tengo though.

I am almost 100% certain you are not talking about The XX at all.

habba?

in fact, I am going to assume you meant to post on this thread and call it a day:

The Flaming Lips - Embryonic

Don't you see? The dude is actually Dwayne Coyne, he records under a pseudonym. Alex just spoilt it for us all.

yes sorry, wrong thread, you are right, dan i meant the flaming lips album...

It's like Burial turned out to be famous after all.

This was confusing, 'cause there is a similar starkness to Portishead. And after all the other comparisons, I can't believe they just got mentioned for the first time.

I was half joking when I mentioned it before, but "Infinity" is so so strongly reminiscent of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game". Especially the gtr (tone, phrasing, melody).

Ooops, the Chris Isaak cop's been mentioned by at least two people. Should have searched first.

Yeah, but I'm an indie, so I'm listening less for quality and more for character.

― a bleak, sometimes frightening portrait of ceiling cat (contenderizer), Tuesday, October 13, 2009 2:11 PM (5 hours ago)

ha

it's nice to hear somebody figured out how to bottle the vibe of the chromatics

i finally bought this and it is so goddamn good.

I wish more of the album was in the vein of "Intro"

Just bought tix for the xx/Friendly Fires show in a few weeks.

The album is growing on me exponentially - "Islands" is lovely, would be curious to hear it remixed in either a dubstep or electro treatment.

yeah, there's def a couple tracks on here that seem like they've been primed for remix

also got tix for mpls show

am i the only one who likes "VCR" the best?

i really like VCR!

Love VCR, yeah.

VCR = awesome, although I don't know if it's the best. Need to contemplate.

dan i agree with you about "intro"--feels bigger and even roomier than some of the other songs.

also got tix for mpls show

― rad bandit (gbx), Monday, October 19, 2009 7:00 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

sheeit need to get on this!!

i finally own this on CD tonight. i kept from listening to the MP3 because i knew this day would come.

i think the last debut album that gave this overwhelming feeling was Funeral. this is truly a special record for this particular moment in time...

to clarify, i did listen to the leak a couple of time. i wanted to wait to fully absorb the power of this record. i, for instance, loved the way "Islands" was able to breath and so on and so forth.

thanks for the clarification!

i really like them, theyre really original sounding

I <3 Bee OK.

this here is one damn elegant debut lp.

Nice they did an extra track 'Hot Like Fire' on the LP too.

btw everyone who i have turned on to this band has become insanely addicted to them too. Islands still kinda kills me.

They played as a three piece for the first time last night.

If you have tickets to see them in the next week or so, the gigs may have been cancelled due to Baria leaving/having some time off.

The show was amazing - the did the album and 'Teardrops' but they were visibly gutted that one of them was missing.

Just saw them open for Friendly Fires. The set was fucking incredible, pretty much all I could wish for in terms of commanding the SOLD OUT crowd. Somehow they played everything off the album EXCEPT for Crystalized and Heart Skips a Beat (granted they started ten or fifteen minutes late, so maybe that's why). Nothing off the Bonus EP either, although as the left the stage, Jamie threw their remix of Florence over the speaker system.

It looked as though a decent number of people were only there for the xx and cleared out after, but it was still pretty packed for Friendly Fires whose set was completely next level compared to their album - horn section and discofunk. Possibly the most disparate bill of bands I've seen stylistically but a great show.

They'd substantially reworked one or two tracks with new beat and different arrangements that were interesting and maybe better? Also had an extended instrumental jam in the middle of a song or two. They're fucking with their standard m.o. and it's paying off.

It looked as though a decent number of people were only there for the xx and cleared out after,

Same was true of the Chicago show.

Tbh, the acoustics at the venue here were pretty horrible and made the xx sound muddy and distant, which is a shame. But Friendly Fires definitely brought it.

this lot did tit-all in a tent at a festival but then i don't think that's really their stage

How did I manage to miss this show? I walk by the venue everyday and I never noticed they were comming :-(

downloaded this a while ago, but went to a store about a week and a half ago to buy a copy of the lp. as i walked into the store, i saw them signing stuff at a table in the back, roadies and store folks breaking down their gear. i'd apparently missed them playing there by about 15 minutes. no idea. :'(

sounds like chris isaak

Yeah, Montreal show was wonderful. Adding little things to the songs, but showing the same discipline and care.

Can't get a fix on the male singer, though - he's this really singular "type".

She sort of reminded me of Tracy Thorn a bit:
http://i48.tinypic.com/a0uyh0.jpghttp://www.kalamu.com/bol/wp-content/content/images/everything%20but%20the%20girl.jpg

"Can't get a fix on the male singer, though - he's this really singular "type"."

How so? His vocal style? His appearance? Confused by this statement.

That said, his big necklace of keys-as-bling was wonderful in a post-apocalyptic sort of way.

Christgau loves the new record.

this threadis tl;dr- what would you guys recommend to me for liking this?

She sort of reminded me of Tracy Thorn a bit

Just a bit?

I love this record. Unique sound and unique songs.

riding this album on a bus through south london A+

"Can't get a fix on the male singer, though - he's this really singular "type"."

How so? His vocal style? His appearance? Confused by this statement.

both I think? his vocal style is really idiosyncratic and his personal style seems to be goth chav, which is a new one on me

what would you guys recommend to me for liking this?

if you like it, pat yourself on the back

lol badly wording things

Just a bit?

She was partially hidden by a speaker from my vantage point, so I couldn't see her too well.

Their remix of Florence and the Machine's "You've Got The Love" is astonishing, one of my favourite things of this year.

It truly truly is. That they blasted it from the speakers at the end of their set almost made up for the lack of "Crystalized".

As much as I adore the album and their aesthetic as a band, there's a kineticism in Jamie's remixxes that isn't present in most of their music - I'd love to hear him become a regular mixer on the singles circuit while they tour and write new material.

He has a wonderful ear for anticipation - it's not the sparseness per se, but knowing when to pull everything back for a moment, or insert a long xylophone build, or delay the chorus by an extra bar or two. Also, the tweaking of Florence's "You know it's real" is this delightful ping-ponged present to my ears.

Yes. Also you only realise how slamming the beat is when he allows an extended beat outro at the end.

i am listening to the youtubes on this thread again and still can't quite get it...does remind me of the band scrawl in a weird way. like an 00s r&b scrawl.

xp The low end, especially. When I first downloaded it and heard it on my computer speakers, it didn't hit me. On headphones, it's massive.

jamie xx rmx of "basic space" >>>>>>> original "basic space"

popjustice's hatred of the "you got the love" rmx = proof if it were needed that no one should ever click on popjustice again

Here's a nifty post about the evolution of that remix from Candi Staton/Frankie Knuckles (with mp3s):

http://www.stanford.edu/~gdegroat/NT/oldreviews/lady.htm

LOL Ooops!!! Talking to Pashmina while posting music links is a no-no. Here's the link:

http://music-addiction.com/2009/10/you-got-the-love-digital-archeology/

ha, just got back from a night time mile run listening to their florence and the machine remix. it's like the perfect song to do a mile to, got the right peaks and ascensions, and i finish about 10-15 seconds before the mix drums at the end start. so i get basically the whole song.
it's so rad

This record is what I hoped the Young Marble Giants would sound like. When I finally got around to hearing that "classic" it left me cold. This is far better.

NME voted the album its no2 album of 2009.

this album is holding up very well for me. thought at first (when i first came to appreciate) that it might fade quickly. pop that seems to consist of little but pretty sounds, a fistful of hooks and a seductive vibe often has a short shelf-life for me. and perhaps that's too reductive a description, but this was the question going in...

as it turns out, XX keeps getting deeper and more intriguing to me. nice trick when there's seemingly so little going on in the first place. and i've come around 180 degrees on the vocals - on romy's singing anyway, which initially struck me as pleasant but bland. the more i listen, the more i find myself anticipating and remembering her lines. love how rhythmically precise and expressive her phrasing is, given that it all sounds so offhand drowsy. jamie's slur is a wonderful foil, but she's clearly the star (shelter for ex).

thanks again to all who pushed this hard over the last few months.

"to me" x3 [rolleyes]

Yeah I really got into the whole album while in hospital. The other point of similarity between XX and Insides for me is that Romy's vocals are just so perfectly placed, there's a real sense of restrained tension in the way she holds herself back.

Insides? Don't see it referenced elsewhere on the thread.

I said upthread that they reminded me of Insides X Colder.

Oh shit. Searched without expanding the thread. That kind of day, apparently.

In the YMG's defense, I don't think they were trying to leave anyone feeling warm.

welcome back, Tim!

I hope this remix represents a direction they'll evolve in.

can't wait to see these guys play a small show in my hometown, nobody ever comes here really (tho fuck buttons r playing the next night) so its sortof a sign of how crazy the touring they're doing is.

kinda suprised no one has mentioned drums and guns by low in this thread

Yeah, I think Low is a huge (and largely unacknowledged) influence here...

I said upthread that they reminded me of Insides X Colder.

― Tim F, Wednesday, 9 December 2009 02:08 (14 hours ago) Bookmark

Also Circlesquare maybe?

Ahem:

The other thing this reminded me of was LOW - who evidently aren't as fashionable a touchstone as, I dunno, dubstep or whatever.

― Tuncay Stryder (Matt DC), Wednesday, September 2, 2009 9:25 AM

huh they didn't remind me of low at all

oops sorry mattdc

This record is what I hoped the Young Marble Giants would sound like. When I finally got around to hearing that "classic" it left me cold. This is far better.

^insane

^^^

Low tend to harmonize much more often - like, almost constantly. The sense of intimacy is somewhat similar.

Further ahems:

Maybe some Bizarro World version of Low where they don't harmonise, and Alan can't sing...

― Bill A, Wednesday, September 2, 2009 10:20 PM (3 months ago)

As long as people keep repping for this lot, I'll keep hating.

you could say low, but that only makes as much sense as young marble giants and the cowboy junkies' trinity sessions. that is, pin-drop quiet, maximum loveliness, lots of space & reverb, a taste for understatement that perversely makes high drama of every nuance.

main difference IS the set of reference points and function. this is built around post-punk, r&b, disco and yeah maybe reflects dubstep. don't hear any of that in low, who rise more from doomy country & folk, vaguely gothic ambient stuff, and slowcore. so while the XX's fragile, silvery hush resembles lots of other "fragile, silvery hush" bands, it doesn't make them the same as.

actually, low = an entirely career built around liking the trinity sessions makes much more sense to me than the idea that either have anything to do with this.

"entire career" ahem

i dunno. i'm not saying it SOUNDS exactly like low, but i hear some in it, and frankly i could just as easily see low being a band these kids like as young marble giants, low is way more well known.

yeah, not saying that there isn't a similarity or that influence is unlikely, just that i don't see any "LOW WITH BAD SINGING HA!" kinda copycat thing going on.

Also Circlesquare maybe?

― Neil S, Thursday, December 10, 2009 3:53 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark

ayo anyone digging this should def check out the really really good Circlesquare album from earlier this year 'songs about dancing and drugs' you will like it

finally got round to hearing this. no idea if anyone else feels similar as i cant scroll through this thread right now, but i like the dreaminess of what they do, but it does become a bit one-note after a while, and oddly a bit depthless. almost too wilfully mono-dreamy. as if they can do something else too but chose not to for some reason. at times im sure it sounded like the girl was almost going to giggle from all the straight faced oh so sincere innocence/sweetness. i like the idea of a band like this doing hot like fire and the cover is interesting but its so fucking coy in how it removes all traces of sex and suggestiveness from the song. pretty weird. i am going to keep listening to it but theres something a bit pastichey about what it does with its dream poppy showgazy influences, something missing. all perfectly executed, just not much gravitas to it.

*shoegazy

sudden vision of a shoegaze night on American Idol, kids belting out "Head On" and "Feed Me With Your Kiss" Broadway style.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jte8gzCKsYs

kinda wish they capitalized "XX" tbh

xx is just smaller XX

In the New Yorker, SFJ excellent on The xx:

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/musical/2010/01/25/100125crmu_music_frerejones?currentPage=all

The article makes them sound not commercial...this is the reason I hate this group, they sound too packaged. There are any number of lesser known groups that do the lazy singing and minimalism but they don't sound as expen$ive.

pls name names

cozen beat me to it, genuinely curious.

prinzhorn dance school?

so inauthentic...so 'packaged'

i really like that piece. i sorta suspect i like it because he had to write about them from a position of dislike at some level

i love the idea of sfj storming out of an xx show "unexpectedly cross"

"Madley Croft and Sim exchange lyrics on iChat, and never discuss what they mean."

ugh. Makes me dislike this band more than I already do. I find it so unbelievably cheesy

why's that cheesy?

how dare people communicate via the internet this is an outrage

AN OUTRAGE

SERIOUS LYRICS MAY ONLY BE TRANSMITTED VIA CARRIER PIGEON

i still use telegraph tbh

prinzhorn dance school?

These guys are like The Fall Redux, and the xx are nothing like 'em.

It's not about "authenticity", it's about bad recording that doesn't do any justice to the chops of the singers. They are talented singers but they don't sound HUMAN. Also they sound so high school talent show, no distinctive personality. This has nothing to do with ideology, and I have no "authenticity" fetish, sometimes the recording doesn't fit the style of music.

how should they have been recorded?

Like, someone upthread mentioned the Cowboy Junkies, at least their records have a sense of naturalism to them. People are being sold a bunch of rubbish here, I am afraid, the reviews and marketing are manipulative like I'm supposed to "feel" something when listening to derivative high school talent.

w/humanity

so bummed to have been lied to, thx for getting these dang scales off my eyes

they're beat happening with all the noise sucked out & rough edges sanded off so that the space is pristine. variations on the same aesthetic choice imo.

u s steel i really don't think most people are having the same experience you are with this record.

I don't disrespect people for liking it, it is an appealing style, it's just that I think the press aren't doing their job if they don't realize how many artists are currently mining the same turf and have been for about ten years.

pls name names

― I think ur a probotector (cozen), Monday, January 25, 2010 8:26 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

cozen beat me to it, genuinely curious.

― you gone float up with it (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, January 25, 2010 8:27 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

For example, I have a subscription to emusic where every day I find twenty-two bands with this style. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. Why is it so important to you?

Try Colder or, as someone mentioned above, The Chromatics, both better groups. What rock are you living under if you don't realize the eighties thing is too influential right now?

what a disaster for humanity, and the press

wow dude pretty amazing you find 22 bands/day with this style yet can't remember their names well enough to type them out to me. a little concerned for you tbh.

on a related note, i fucking listen to the chromatics and have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

As a journalist, you are supposed to do research as part of your job, not just repeat what some marketing department tells you.

You would think "I'm just not feeling it" would be inoffensive criticism. As for the Chromatics, I am not the one who mentioned them upthread.

I am sorry, perhaps if you get defensive enough on this thread you can convince me of the emotional power of The XX. You want people to do you favors for free, you could be nicer about it.

lol honestly i was genuinely curious as to what bands you considered to be similar to this one. i care fuck all whether you like them or not.

but please carry on being a complete dick and not engaging with people who are trying to engage with you, i'm going to bed.

i don't think anyone really cares if u s steel is convinced of the emotional power of the xx, gotta say

altho i will say that i think call all destroyer is shirking his journalistic duties to ilx

really really liked that Sasha Frere-Jones piece - explored the strengths of the band without relying on the same old shorthands.

I don't disrespect people for liking it, it is an appealing style, it's just that I think the press aren't doing their job if they don't realize how many artists are currently mining the same turf and have been for about ten years.

― US EEL (u s steel), Monday, January 25, 2010 11:22 PM (21 minutes ago) Bookmark

not even sure why i'm bothering BUT -- clearly this isn't the point. "how could anyone like this band that plays the musical instrument electric guitar?! they've been playing guitars for 60 years now!"

they sound like radiohead (when they don't sound like chris isaak)

what Radiohead songs do you think they sound like?

They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names. They are so ubiquitous it is impossible to name names.

kudos

xpost that one with the bleeps and the bloops? and lots of reverb?

that's their best song imo

I stormed out of the ilx thread unexpectedly cross

<3 hoos

this part is better imo: "Why is it so important to you?"

uh, i dunno, because this is a message board about music

w this thread & vampire weekend i find myself spending time defending shit that i only kinda like

also Girls

all the ILXOR yaysayers will hate this in a year. Just u wait.

does that matter? surely that's all the more reason to be a yaysayer while a person still can.

'oh no i like a band that one day i might not like i'd better just not listen to music then'

all the ilxor yeasayers

was just going to zing based on similar bands being so ubiquitous it's impossible to name names but I am genuinely curious, pls?

I think the thing with The XX is that they are such a blank canvas that people can, and are, projecting wildly onto them in terms of reading influences, references, meanings, emotions, etc. I quite like the album but I'm certainly not that blown away.

it says something about the current state of rock/pop music that a dullish band like the xx is so much in the limelight. in the 80s they would have been nothing special and nobody would have talked about them. i kind of like them but don't get all the fuss about them. on the other hand i don't know a new band making more exciting music than the xx right now. my main problem with them is their minimalism, stereolab eg were minimal too but somehow there was more to them, maybe because of the groove?

I don't think the xx are particularly exciting, their appeal isn't excitement or novelty

lol I don't even like them all that much - think they're ok but a bit like the music ur little brother wd make after he got into ur low records

Dunno whether anyone has said this yet, but I can hear quite a big Interpol influence in there. I'm guessing Turn On The Bright Lights was a big record for them in their early teens - timing would be about right I think? Hearing the same thing on the Wild Beasts record too.

Now i feel old. Up there with Sum 41 citing Nimrod as the album that got them into music.

I don't think being young automatically means "no depth". A lot of the younger people I encounter online listen to classic rock, progressive rock, or oldies. These problems are as old as the eighties (hyped band being held up as "representative" of trends), maybe older.

I am not a Radiohead fan at all, but I tolerate Radiohead fans because I think that as a group they can handle all the attention.

I loved the Low reference, another group I don't think is terrible but I wouldn't go out of my way to buy just because it's the one alterna-group everyone has seized upon.

imo xx have been caught in that magical stage before they've started worrying about what they're doing and that's a nice thing to hear in a record in an age where lots of stuff tends to sound super self aware. i like that comment on thequietus where mpc dude is like "i don't think anyone else is rocking an mpc like me" and cites rjd2 as a major influence. i guess some people will be all like omg haven't you heard of hiphop and btw rjd2 sux didn't you read the resident advisor review u noob. other people will enjoy the fact this dude has such enthusiasm and self believe in what he's doing. i'm def in the latter camp and think that innocence/enthusiasm is one of the things that makes this record pretty special in 2010 especially when presented in an indie/hipster context.

I loved the Low reference, another group I don't think is terrible but I wouldn't go out of my way to buy just because it's the one alterna-group everyone has seized upon.

I know I'm out of touch but Low "the one alterna-group everyone has seized upon"? o_O

I am curious as to how can I find this "innocence" and "enthusiasm" in the actual recordings, as opposed to the band's background or press. All the self-belief and RJD2 fandom in the world isn't going to make your CD not suck.

It would be nice if people didn't bring issues here that they got in some flame war on some other forum.

x-post: Low - you had to be there, I guess. Or not ten years old in the nineties.

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I assumed you were talking about nowadays.

I wasn't ten years old in the nineties, and I don't remember Low being anything more than the odd small article in NME once every couple of years or so.

us eel u really think they sound too packaged and expen$ive? that's insane.

u are wrong. this album sounds like a bunch of myspace demos tarted up for cd release. using a *really* basic sound palette- lovingly. hence the innocence and enthusiasm.

this album is really easy to critisise but u are doing a really bad job of it. you want to focus on how the songs don't go anywhere, the vocals have lame 09 singer songwriter affectations, that they take themselves really seriously, the drums are really thin like he's downloaded a sample pack of freedrumsamples.org, there is automated spaceverb on everything etc etc

i'll never understand why "taking oneself seriously" is so often used as a diss - that's a GOOD THING imo

I'm sorry I am doing "such a bad job" at it I'll work harder to impress you next time since you take this little thread so seriously.

By "expensive", you ought to know what I mean, they sound like groomed talent, they do not sound spontaneous. If School of Seven Bells is opening for you, perhaps you think too highly of yourself. Or someone thinks too highly of you. How can you be this naive about the industry?

How can you say they don't sound Xpensive when that last track someone posted sounded more like Alanis Morissette (whom I like) or some other commercial chick singer nonsense than any alterna-shit.

Taking oneself "too seriously" is a problem when you expect others to take you as seriously as you do yourself.

ok alanis morissette is pretty much the most, uh, leftfield comparison to the xx in a thread full of leftfield comparisons

Bizarre.

THEY SOUND LIKE GREEN DAY

WHOM I LIKE

Ironic

is alanis morrisette one of the artists in the bunch that are so ubiquitous as to be not worth naming?

I don't like it when female singers are marketed or presented (or received) as they are with this group. It just seems like there is a perpetual market for "inoffensive alterna-pop with female singer". It's like you are selling femininity as an ingredient. I think the female singer would be better off trying her hand at jazz or real singer-songwriter styles, clearly she has talent, the canned nature of the music and underwhelming songwriting don't do her justice.

x-post: cozen, what is your point? It is creepy you can't get over a post I made last night. You seem more interested in my opinions than in discussing the actual music.

I'm just interested in hearing about this rich seam of bands who are currently doing what the xx ('lazy singing and minimalism') are doing but are going unhyped

actually scratch tht I'm not even that interested

c u l8r xx

A woman's place is opening for Duffy. The indie scene is not befitting a true female sensibility.

This album was a huge grower for me. I think the melodies are really beautiful (esp. on the first half of the album) and would stand up in any kind of arrangements (and with any kind of singer, to be honest). I don't really hear almost any of the bands mentioned thus far (def. not Beat Happening at all outside of the superficial spareness; not really Interpol; I suppose Low, but the xx stuff is so much more torch-y).

prinzhorn dance school?

the xx are nothing like 'em.

i don't think they are either but they do sound like lazy singing and minimalism.

i like this record but i find it the opposite of a grower.

someone convince me that doing another lecture on what "minimalist" means in music is a bad idea

Maybe "grower" isn't the right term. I just thought it was terribly dull at first superficial glance, and then when I got a vague urge to put it on again I was suddenly completely overtaken by it.

Dan, I would welcome your lecture.

Because I'm a big fan of the Field and Pantha du Prince and can't stand all these indie-rock goons trampling all over the good name of their genre.

Basic Space has grown on me quite a lot, or at least, i love the Sampha mix (don't expect anything mindblowing, its just v nice)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvMlQz5IYYQ

I don't think the xx are particularly exciting, their appeal isn't excitement or novelty
me neither. but what is these days? so in relative terms their music is exciting.

opening myself up to my own pls name names here but: there's lots pf exciting music!

i'm perfectly aware of what minimalist means in music. the music is pretty minimal although if it sounds nothing like philip glass et al. you can use minimalism without referring to the minimalist movement. i was using the word because someone else already had (not that i think it's an inappropriate word).

this record sounded instantly wonderful and seductive and fully realised, to me. i just found that it didn't have much more to give me than it gave me on an initial listen. i'm still boggled by the sophistication and maturity of it considering the age of the band.

hey can 40+ year olds not complain about the sad state of music or whatever? nagl, thanks.

By "expensive", you ought to know what I mean, they sound like groomed talent, they do not sound spontaneous.

you must uh, not like pop music. this is such a dumb criticism

there's lots pf exciting music!
name just one name! i would love to be proven wrong!

the ubiquity of exciting music renders such a task meaningless!

kevin k this forum does not allow me to waste people's time by spending paragraphs refining my remarks. I personally don't take the word "groomed" in the same sense you did. They seem coached or manipulated. Their own marketing doesn't match the picture of the actual band that is posted upthread - they look like perfectly likable and ordinary college-type kids, but are packaged and presented and recorded in a way that does not convey that (cf. their own website). This is what I mean - I don't like the presentation. Clearly some people on this thread have had bad experiences with "hipsters" or "music connoisseurs", please take it up with the "indie hipsters" and record collectors who have offended you in the past instead of aggressively projecting opinions, attitudes and sentiments on someone who does not possess them. You are ascribing values to me that I do not have, I do not do the same with those I disagree with.

Back to the original subject - for historic context on similar issues WRT somnolescent-type music w. female vocals, you could try PORTISHEAD: classic or dud?!. I happen to have liked Portishead at the time, but I also think their marketing and their press made them fair game for a big fat "yawn".

If School of Seven Bells is opening for you, perhaps you think too highly of yourself. Or someone thinks too highly of you.

Who cares? They're bad because ... they're popular?

Genuinely sorry that marketing/image/press/etc. affects your ability to like music.

who gives a fuck about marketing or presentation?!?!???

Yeah that's not particularly fair since image/marketing turns people off to music all the time.

see also cockfarmer fanbases

Is this what I said? I don't think so. I didn't say this, go punch the person in the face who said this to you in whatever conversation you had elsewhere, I am not the one who said this.

I don't like popular music now. Creepy.

Should I get therapy now that sometimes stylistic packaging (which includes choice of talent and production) is off-putting?

x-post to jaymc and his "popularity" remark, not HI DERE.

looking forward to I Love Marketing board btw

Kind of lolling that people are getting this irate over The XX, who are kind of like mood stabilizers pressed onto a CD.

The X(ana)X

Is that evil corporate refined mood stabilisers or natural organic home grown mood stabilisers?

Is this what I said? I don't think so.

Sorry, I might have jumped to conclusions here. I thought you meant that you were put off by the fact that *anyone* was opening for them, like how dare they be smug enough to think they can headline a show. (Obviously, they are headlining shows because a lot of people like them.) I don't know anything about School of Seven Bells to get what their association with that band in particular means.

tbf SOSB supporting the xx does seem a bit weird/undeserving but obv a reflection of greater critical buzz towards the latter.

They seem coached or manipulated.

By whom, do you think?

Satan!

the ubiquity of exciting music renders such a task meaningless!
ok, in other words there is so much exciting music out there that the concept of exciting music is per se refuted. whatever time you take, most music is always dull as fuck, only a small, hard to find portion is exciting.

I sort of feel like people who think most music is "dull as fuck" don't actually like music all that much.

If you sell enough product, you deserve to headline, I suppose. I never accused them of being smug - this isn't a personal attack on the artists themselves. I just don't like seeing SOSB compared unfavorably to them, they sound nothing alike. The point of having them as an opening act is not to put SOSB down or mark them as "inferior", it is sad if people take them that way, as if we're talking about boxing matches not music.

I think there is an appropriate place for "dull as fuck" music, but I don't like Emusic or whoever telling me that as an electronic music consumer I have to get this XX record. It seems better suited to the general pop market.

wait, waht

u kno u don't have to do what emusic says

the xx don't seem to be selling much at all (probably a bit less than GAPDY in the UK). so much for "packaging".

All that coaching didn't pay off after all, you mean?

Kind of lolling that people are getting this irate over The XX, who are kind of like mood stabilizers pressed onto a CD.

― in the name of the purple and gold (HI DERE), Tuesday, January 26, 2010 9:50 AM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark

i'm only irate at ppl who don't understand the concept of discussing music on a music message board

they have sold one less album than the last Mastodon. what a blow for people who dress as if they chop wood and stalk deer on the regular.

The X(ana)X

i love the xx but am astonished that i've never seen this joke made before!

I've always thought The XX sounded massively amateur (while still being accomplished enough to be minimal); it's one of the things I'm NOT keen on about them.

not really - amateur-sounding bands tend to sound a bit ramshackle, a bit as if it's all guesswork; the xx sound like they know exactly what they're doing at every point, that they're executing a very specific aesthetic. one that you need to go halfway to meet them for, but still.

i don't think they sound amateur, just precise! not a wasted note.

curious why you think so, though, Nick. a lot of the press surrounded the record was all about how incredible it is that this isn't the bands' third record or whatever. i kind of agree.

*band's

The singing sometimes sounds amateur. The rest of it, not so much.

I know, I know, and I can totally understand that inference from the music; I just... to me it almost seemed as if they played so slow, and so economical, was because they were hesitant about what they were doing. I know this is counter-intuitive if you take the punk = playing-badly-fast idea, but that's just how I feel (felt) about them.

i could get on board with calling the dude's singing amateur, but it'd be difficult for me to say that about the girl's

Male singer still reminds me of Tricky somehow.

I don't like Emusic or whoever telling me that as an electronic music consumer I have to get this XX record.

I guess if that is what eMusic is saying, it's poor marketing. I think fans of electronic music might be into the xx more than they would be into other indie bands, but it's not like they obviously belong in that world. When I think of people I know who are into the band, it's certainly not all electronic/dance fans. And I don't know anywhere else that's marketing them that way.

It seems better suited to the general pop market.

You're going to have to define "pop" here. I think the band has a fairly broad fanbase, but at least in the U.S., it's still pretty much an indie thing. At least until Todd Terry remixes them.

the best example imo of how the band are completely control of their music is "Night Time." everything is precisely placed and paced. it doesn't sound like they're playing slowly because they're being cautious, it sounds like they're completely in control (as lex said) and deploying every sound at the exact moment the song calls for it.

That's subjective, though.

You're going to have to define "pop" here.

This should be amusing.

sure, totally! i agree.

but i'd be more inclined to agree with you w/r/t to their music being amateur if you were talking about their playing live, esp. as evidenced here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYcxX-SOtY4

they sound significantly more tentative there imo

that sounds pretty sleek and confident to me.

Yeah, not feeling hesitancy there; no more than on record.

i feel it ~2:38 on the second guitar, and the whole thing just doesn't feel as tight as the record to me but, as you said, it's subjective

I think if u read through this thread you will see that a lot of ppl start off being "ugh this is really like a pretty blatant remake of something i already like" and end up going "xx r taking over my brane from inside", nobody is really praising them for novelty or invention, more for how they are a minimal rock band that sound sleek rather than austere and they have a subtlety that creeps up on you and means that the album sounds really lush despite its relative bareness

Individual instruments are pretty lushly mixed, if a little antiseptic sometimes. Not so much an issue with the guitars, but I'm getting really tired of drum machines / maxed-out compressed drums. Not so much of an issue here, though, given the size and warmth of the kick drum.

Gave this 2 listens today; once off iPhone through headphones while updating our virus FAQs (niiice) and then again through the big B&Ws while making paella. Also nice. Lex, still don't get why you're not into hi-fi when you're so into style and sense; fewer things more sensually indulgent than playing a lot of the stuff you and I crossover tastes on through a big, well-balanced system while sitting on a big sofa with a glass of wine.

nobody is really praising them for novelty or invention, more for how they are a minimal rock band that sound sleek rather than austere and they have a subtlety that creeps up on you and means that the album sounds really lush despite its relative bareness

― plaxico (I know, right?), Tuesday, January 26, 2010 12:48 PM (1 hour ago)

but dont u see, only music that is novel or inventive is worthwhile

only music without crap vocals is worthwhile

liked this record for about two listens when it first came out, think it is shit the more I hear it. this is dinner party music...you hear it everywhere you go because it combines being fashionable with being incredibly bland and easy to listen to. doesn't stand up to the amount of play it's getting. not their fault but doesn't stand up to much play at all...it's more tedious and mopey and wet each time.