Rodaidh McDonald again mixing the album, starting today
London purveyors of quiet, nocturnal pop The xx played a series of shows last week, their first in two years, to premiere songs from their upcoming second album.
Though they’ve remained tight-lipped as to details of the new album thus far, Rodaidh McDonald, the in-house studio manager at The xx’s label Young Turks who mixed the band’s first record, today posted on Twitter that he’s starting behind the desk to mix the follow-up today [via FACT]. While it’s hardly much of an update, it’s further news to creep out from camp xx that the new album is steadily reaching towards completion.
When the Quietus’ Luke Turner attended one of the gigs last week he was very impressed at the direction the new material was taking, saying “another new track [is] possibly the longest, most complexly arranged XX song yet. It introduces steel drums used as a kind of fluid background melody instead of rhythm. The latter is instead provided by an excellent Burial-esque piston-clop, that has a strange breakdown before a vocal melody returns over the top. Given that sonically it’s essentially a singer-songwriter duo playing in a venue above a well-appointed nightclub, sounds meeting in the beams between, it shouldn’t work. It’s a testament to skill of The xx as balancers of melody, emotion, sound and rhythm that it does.” Read his full report here.
South London trio showcase sophisticated evolution at triumphant homecoming show.
Text:Ruth Saxelby
Back in October 2010 at the United Palace Theatre in Harlem, New York, The xx gave a grand finale to an intensive year’s touring following the release of their Mercury Prize winning debut album ‘xx’. The ornately decorated 1930s former cinema hall proved to be the perfect foil to the delicate restraint of the trio who, even against the theatre’s vast proportions, seemed movie star tall and sure. There was no trace of the shoe-gazing teenagers who’d almost whispered through their early gigs.
Almost two years on, ahead of a summer of festival appearances and their long-awaited second album, The xx had arranged three intimate London gigs this week as warm-ups. The final of the three was a performance last night at south London’s Battersea Arts Centre, in its grandness recalling that night in Harlem.
“Our second ever show was on this street when we were 16,” said Oliver Sim with a grin in-between songs, one new then one old. “It’s bringing back memories.” The audience gathered in the beautiful main hall had clearly not forgotten a thing either: as Romy Madley Croft sang “I am yours now” at the familiar climax of Islands, 800 voices sang it back to her.
Behind the two of them, Jamie xx’s set-up had grown in sophistication, assembling a mini-orchestra. Large tom-tom drums and various percussion sat to side of the stage, with steel drums and electronic kit in the centre and keyboards on the other side. Songs which in the past might have been relied on programming now had an organic, visceral layer.
Romy and Oliver’s roles had also been finely tuned, the focus on the non-duet duets of their early material seeming to have been largely foregone for separate but supported moments in the spotlight. The first song of the night, surely the shoe-in for the first single, was a new, as-yet-untitled one led by Romy. “Being as in love with you as I am,” she repeated, over a silvery, snaking guitar line as Jamie kept time on the tom-toms. Listen to a snippet from Tuesday’s show below. Even in this muddy, phone speaker recording the poignancy shines through.
Later Oliver took the lead role on another new song, setting down his guitar to cradle the mic. His deep, soulful voice struck a chord somewhere between mournful and sultry, recalling the casual confidence of Chris Rea in his hey-day. “He has the ultimate come-to-bed voice,” said a guy in the audience to his friend. This was The xx all grown up: sophisticated, seductive yet somehow still so innocent.
Throughout they’d tinkered with and tweaked the old tracks, somewhat incredibly, especially to a roomful of devoted fans, always to the song’s benefit. They changed the pace of many of them, including Crystallised which tripped the audience to sing the “ai-ee-ai-ee-ai” line sweetly out of time more than once. Everything felt more epic, more extrovert, yet the framework retained that trademark sparseness. Somehow they did it, hit that magic balance: raised the game but retained their charm. Masters of reducing complex emotions to their simplest, soul-baring form, The xx couldn’t have said it more clearly last night: we’re back.
Trio played second of three London gigs last night (May 15)
The xx played six songs from their forthcoming second album at an intimate gig at London’s Chats Palace last night (May 15).
Tickets for the 200-capacity show, which followed Monday’s (14) gig at the Electrowerkz venue, were only available by winning a lottery on the band’s website.
Showcasing newly-reworked tracks from their 2009 Mercury Prize-winning debut ‘xx’ alongside the new songs, the band unveiled a slower version ‘Crystallised’ alongside more dance orientated new material.
Jamie Smith took to centre stage on one new track to play steel drums, reminiscent of his instrumental track ’Touch Me’, which debuted on Australian radio station back in February.
You can hear a snippet of the first, untitled new song of the night captured by a fan by clicking on the video below.
The xx played:
Untitled new song ‘Islands’ Untitled new song ‘Crystallised’ Untitled new song Untitled new song ‘Basic Space’ Untitled new song ‘Shelter’ ‘Infinity’ ‘Intro’ Untitled new song ‘Stars’
The band are due to complete this week’s dates at the capital’s Battersea Arts Centre. In December they posted a demo of a new song titled ‘Open Eyes’ on their blog.? However, the track wasn’t played last night.
The band will hit the festival circuit this summer, having been lined up for Primavera Sound 2012, where they’ll be joined by Bjork, Spiritualized and The Drums. They will also play Bestival along with The Horrors, Two Door Cinema Club and Azealia Banks. To check the availability of Bestival tickets and get all the latest listings, go to NME.COM/TICKETS or call 0871 230 1094.
The xx returned to the stage for the first time in two years this week, with a series of very low-profile shows in London. Luke Turner managed to buy a ticket, and went along to hear a first glimpse of their new material. Pictures by Jenna Foxton
Given that The xx made their rise to mainstream acceptance through music that spoke of the terror of intimacy, and secrets whispered between confidantes, lovers and friends, it’s perhaps unsurprising that their series of three small London dates for Eat Your Own Ears are low-key affairs. There’s talk that no press were permitted to any of the events - in which case, full disclosure, the Quietus paid for entry because, y’know, we’ve very much been long-term fans of this most curious of English pop groups.
Fans applied to a lottery for tickets to the three gigs (the first was Monday 14th at Islington Electrowerkz, the final date taking place on Friday 18th at Battersea Arts Centre), with this middle date taking place at a seldom-used converted chapel in Homerton, one of East London’s few remaining rather sketchy areas. It’s a rapt, strikingly young audience tonight, who greet tracks new and old with voluminous, and deserved, applause. Then again, The xx (their black outfits judiciously set off with silver jewellery) hardly seem to have aged a day in the long while since their last show.
“We played our first show in two years yesterday and a lot went wrong,” says Oliver Sim. “Bear with us if it does… and thank you for being here.” He needn’t have worried. For tonight the mixture of reworkings of older songs (which the Quietus last heard at their excellent performance at Matt Groening’s 2010 All Tomorrow’s Parties) and new material suggests that The xx’s sparse blueprint is far from tired.
Lyrically the new songs suggest a continuing untying of the fragility of the knots that bind together human to human, whether as lover or inseparable friend. “With words unspoken / silent devotion / being in love with you as I am” runs one; “Wake up alone / the daylight between us… fiction when we’re not together”, another. In that track, sparse guitar interplays with electronic drums, creating something akin to Talk Talk playing a gig to a lonely penguin atop an iceberg, lost in the Arctic. Needless to say, that is a very good thing. As well as Sim and Romy Madley Croft’s bass, guitar and double vocals, the breadth and expansion of sound comes from Jamie XX, who seems to have gear spread across the width of the stage - floor tom and snare as well as electronic drumpads, MPCs and other hidden devices.
These are used to terrific effect on another new track, possibly the longest, most complexly arranged XX song yet. It introduces steel drums used as a kind of fluid background melody instead of rhythm. The latter is instead provided by an excellent Burial-esque piston-clop, that has a strange breakdown before a vocal melody returns over the top. Given that sonically it’s essentially a singer-songwriter duo playing in a venue above a well-appointed nightclub, sounds meeting in the beams between, it shouldn’t work. It’s a testament to skill of The xx as balancers of melody, emotion, sound and rhythm that it does. Like the electronic music that inspired them and the city which gives The xx their character and detached definition (they’re probably the most ‘London’ band of recent years) this is entirely immersive, like those black uniforms merely part of the armoury that to create this special world.
Of the older material, ‘Crystalised’ has reverb on guitar, aurora borealis abstract electronics that reflect the oily projections, a synth line that comes and goes like a gull caught in the night lights of a trawler. What you’ll never get off The xx from those endless TV idents and clearly lucrative publishing syncs is the bass which, in ‘Crystalised’, is deployed in huge lumps. This is in part what keeps The xx fresh, what has stopped their ubiquity from hampering them. The same goes for ‘Intro’, which as Jude Rogers reminds me was the theme song for the BBC’s coverage of the 2010 General Election. That a track that accompanied this bastard government sniveling and sneaking into power hasn’t been ruined by that says something, especially tonight with a brilliant quiet white roll of a bassline, ice-tear OMD synth and key down a well echo. First date sees their palette expanded further, three or four elements (Tube running some way beneath rumble, detonation bass, croon) bouncing in and out of each other as if elasticated.
From the textures and beats deployed in the new material played tonight, it seems that The xx’s second record might well prove a valiant effort to reclaim what one might be forced to call ‘post-dubstep pop’ away from yumping numpties like Skrillex. You imagine there must, surely - after a meteoric rise, endless touring, the pressure, the second album thing, Jamie XX seemingly turning up to DJ anything from nightclubs and festivals to the openings of village fetes - be some kind of tension. If so, it’s immaculately hidden behind this elegant performance and new material. As Oliver Sim, a person - like the rest of the group - of few words, remarks, “it’s a fun time at the moment.” It is this audience’s quiet pleasure to be along.
Drake explains that he would rather work with someone like Jamie xx over David Guetta
Many artists including Nicki Minaj and Usher have collaborated with electronic dance music musicians to expand their reach worldwide, but Drake says he won’t follow the trend.
During an interview with NME (via MixMag), the Young Money rapper said that he has no interest in making “David Guetta stuff” because it isn’t true to his artistry.
“For me, the David Guetta stuff just doesn’t work. I don’t really wanna go there,” he said. “There’s other artists, that’s their sound. They feel in order to thrive internationally that they gotta do straightforward, four to the floor, David Guetta, Pitbull music.”
He says that he’d rather collaborate with someone like Jamie xx, who worked on the title track for Take Care. “For me, I’d rather go to somebody like Jamie xx and tell him, ‘Look, I really wanna turn the club upside down, but I wanna do it with integrity, with soul.”
XX and Zola Jesus Photo Courtesy of Flickr user got80s
The XX, tUnE-yArDs and Zola Jesus, among others, will be featured on a new compilation fromStudio Brussel(StuBru).
The Belgian radio station announced that it will be releasing a new vinyl compilation of live, in studio, performances, recorded at their headquarters, for Record Store Day. The compilation will featureJay Retard performing “Fading All Away”, Zola Jesus performing “Skin” and Chairlift doing “Met Before”.
Below is the tracklist, and a video of The XX performing the Womack and Womack cover, “Teardrops.”
Tracklist:
1a The xx: “Teardrops” (Womack & Womack cover) 2 Jamie Lidell: “I Wanna Be Your Telephone” 3 tUnE-yArDs: “Bizness” 4 Holy Fuck: “Latin America”
It’s been less than six months since the release of his sophomore album Take Care, but in a new interview with Kiss FM, Toronto hip-hop pin-up Drake has openly talked about the third.
Exciting for fans of UK dance music will be the fact that he’s continuing to work with Jamie xx [above], who revisited his remix of Gil Scott-Heron’s ‘I’ll Take Care of You’ for Take Care‘s Rihanna-featuring title track. This time around, he wants Jamie – the percussionist and the producer in Mercury Prize winners the xx and an acclaimed solo artist in his own right – to “have a big presence on this next album … I’d rather get with someone like Jamie xx and bring that soul and island feel to it [in reference to not working with David Guetta].”
Drake goes on to say that he wants to “take [his work with Jamie xx] further” than ‘Take Care’ this time around, and will also be working with Atlanta’s 2 Chainz, as well as his regular collaborator Noah ’40′ Shebib. Oh, and Justin Bieber – but on Bieber’s album, rather than Drake’s.
You can watch the full interview below and stream Jamie xx’s 2011 FACT mix here.
