The XX, soft spot as opposed to flavour of the month (we hope), released their self-titled debut last August to much acclaim, reintroducing us to some much-missed stripped down dream pop, and the magic of boy/girl vox-combo, thus making fierce competition to some of their influences in Chromatics and The Kills. Their first two singles 'Basic Space' and 'Crystalised' are out, and no need to say, worth a listen!

This month they embark on a tour of the UK, supporting fair-player Florence and The Machine (whose 'Lungs' just lost the Mercury Prize to Speech Debelle's 'Speech Therapy'), from September 17th in Bristol to September 29th, which will see them play the cities of Birmingham (Sept. 20th), Glasgow (Sept. 22nd), Manchester (Sept. 25th) , among others before ending at London Shepherd's Bush Empire with three consecutive dates on Sept. 27th, 28th and 29th. After this bout in touring academies, The XX will headlines some dates of their own in October in smaller-sized venues such as the Bristol Cooler (Oct. 1st), Newcastle Cluny ( Oct. 3rd), Liverpool Korova (Oct.6th) and Nottingham Bodega (Oct.7th), among others (their Oxford, Glasgow and Manchester gigs are now sold out).

Tickets for The XX's October tour are all under a tenner (+ booking fee), so catch them while you can!

Solange Moffi