CMJ’s Music Marathon wrapped up late this Saturday night, marking a soggy end to a thrilling week that featured hundreds of up-and-coming indie bands playing the New York City concert circuit.
Britain’s minimalist pop quartet the xx were the reigning buzz champions of the festival, and their live shows did nothing to quell the fervor surrounding them. This group of lovelorn 20-year-olds specializes in a quiet brand of pop that eschews typical indie sonics in favor of quiet storm R&B production sheen. The co-ed lead vocalists— Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim—straddle the line between lo-fi breathiness and Top-40 soul.
In spite of the softness of their music, the xx’s unexpectedly gorgeous genre-alchemy is one of the more exciting things on the scene today and audience reactions backed this up: the crowd’s whoops of approval easily exceeded the volume of anything on stage. Check out some fan footage of the xx playing the Music Hall of Williamsburg below (as well as more CMJ coverage after the jump):
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