RHUM

I was away from the music scene for quite a long time. I missed many Next Big Things along the way, began to make jokes about not knowing anything about 'young people's music', now suddenly I find myself back in the thick of it.

So I come to The Corner on a balmy Wednesday night with the usual trepidation. Particularly since I have to interview Jamie from The xx tomorrow. Oh I hope this doesn't suck!

A band is always largely responsible for the energy at their own gigs. The vibe tonight was friendly and generally respectful of personal space. After years of getting rammed into and sometimes even kicked at shows, I find this refreshing.

Support for the night is Melbourne band, Love Connection. The name conjurs up all sorts of horrible images of dating game shows and dodgy commercials for singles websites. And yet, while watching the band onstage it begins to take on new implications, to paint a whole different mental collage.

Love Connection embrace their influences in a similar way to The xx using them to create their own sound without feeling derivative. It's electronic-organic with a psychedelic vibe. Gorgeous music played by gorgeous people.

Getting back to Next Big Things, the buzz is absolutely on The xx at the moment. Tonight their sound was marred on a couple of fronts. Firstly they were down a member, due to exhaustion I was told (not really surprising if you've seen their touring schedule). The rest of the band covered like pros and the audience wasn't left feeling like they got a sub-par show. Secondly there were problems with the mix, particularly around the middle of the set. There were points where the reverb threatened to shake the whole place to bits and the feedback clearly wasn't intentional. Not so great.

Problems aside, we we received a set that was a lush mixture of influences and sounds. And the crowd clearly loved them. A Berlin sound with elements of shoe gaze and electro via 90's Bristol, without being dominated too heavily by any of these styles. Sure it's minimalist, as has been stated many time, not music to jump around to, but they proved at the end that they can rock out too.

They're still in their teens remember, you just never know where they could go, what directions their music could take from here. They're off to a determined start.

To read what our man, Rupert De Paula had to say about their debut LP click here!