London, summer, 2009: The xx arrive with their debut album xx – a whole new sound of love, loss and longing. The xx are a few kids who formed at London’s Elliot School in 2005. Gingerly dodging the storm cloud of hype hysteria that plagues seemingly every other new buzz act of the moment, Romy Madley Croft (lead vocals, guitar), Oliver Sim (lead vocals, bass) and Jamie Smith (beats, samples) are edging into our hearts. Set amidst a shivering soundscape of beats and plucks, their bedroom-reared concrete-soul is being justly heralded as the UK’s most original and treasured alt-pop artifact of late.