XamVolo @ Magnet, Liverpool, 20 Sep

Offering a short but sweet set at Liverpool's resurgent red leather dive joint, The Magnet, soulful vocalist and producer XamVolo has the audience lapping it all up with his cool, calm and collected stage presence and a selection of perfectly crafted tracks.

Decked head to toe in black, his round black sunglasses lambent beneath The Magnet's primary colours, Volo glows achingly cool under the lights. Backed by a five-piece band, a mixture of a classic analogue players with added electronic elements, the singer and producer mainly performs tracks from his latest EP, Chirality. Its closing track Foolish Kids appears early on in the set; a dark and brooding number, punctuated by flourishes of saxophone.

Rescue Me, from February's The Closing Scene EP, is one of the few offerings from his earlier releases but it stands out with its layered sound and an anguished vocal that never falters. With the quality of the songwriting it’s almost easy to forget to applaud his unwavering vocal performance but recent single Down provides a powerful reminder of just how versatile that voice is; the track grooves through the jazz spectrum with ease, while the electronics provide a beat persuasive enough to get even the most self-conscious of the audience moving along. 

Playing live offers an antidote to the rigidity that recorded versions can confine artists to, and XamVolo cleverly takes the opportunity to draw out some of his songs, seemingly improvising with his band. This aspect of his talent is especially obvious on Down, where the outro is extended into a jam session with Volo's powerful and captivating voice let loose amidst jarring sax and guitars. Like the rest of his short but sweet set, it leaves the room wanting more.