The xx @ Captain's Rest, 5 Oct

The xx are a music hack's wet dream, and, correspondingly, have been showered in praise (pardon the phrase) by the Guardian and Pitchfork among others. The London quartet are barely out of school and boast a list of influences that bear the hallmark of Spotify, provocatively juxtaposing Rihanna with The Cure, while sounding in reality like neither. Instead, they're like Young Marble Giants if they'd never seen the countryside, or Pixies on industrial quantities of cough syrup. It's music for holding hands late at night in multistorey car parks, and how it will translate live is anyone's guess. Our money's on it being a nice post-work comedown, with the extra satisfaction of saying "I was there".