Xx

Still the biggest selling title in RT Shops’ history and still sounding fresh today. The XX are four precocious youngsters from South West London who provide the hushed minimal strokes of Young Marble Giants and early Cure but through the minds of a young act obsessed with the r&b turns of Ciara and Aaliyah, having gone so far as to cover the latter’s Hot like fire as the b-side for their first single, Crystalised and having first been picked up after recording a sensational version of Womack and Womack’s Teardrops. Having signed to XL sub-label Young Turks earlier in that year the band began to record with a host of the finest producers going, including Diplo and up-and-coming hotshot Kwes the four eventually settled with the option of recording at XL’s in-house studio, with XX eventually produced by the band themselves. This is an inspired, broken and uplifting record, packed with melancholic charms that recalls the suburban disillusion of the previous Burial records and Portishead’s Dummy. This is a remarkable debut record from a remarkable new act. CD available here.