The xx

The xx formed in Wandsworth, south London, in 2005, when Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim, friends since meeting at nursery school aged three, started writing songs together as fifteen-year-olds while at Elliott School. Jamie Smith, later known as Jamie xx, and guitarist and keyboard player Baria Qureshi joined the following year, and the four were signed to the Young Turks label.

Their music is built on restraint: clean, reverbed guitar figures, spare bass lines, programmed percussion and a great deal of silence, with Madley Croft and Sim trading close, conversational vocals about desire and distance, the words often left as bare as the arrangements.

Produced with Rodaidh McDonald, their self-titled debut, xx, appeared in August 2009, reached number three on the UK chart and won the Mercury Prize the following year, having already topped or placed high on several best-of-the-year lists. Qureshi left the band shortly afterward, leaving the group as the trio it has remained since.

Coexist followed in 2012, reaching number one in the UK and number five on the Billboard 200. After a four-year gap, during which Smith released his solo album In Colour, the band returned with I See You in 2017, another UK chart-topper that pushed the sound further toward dance music through his production. Live, the trio keeps arrangements sparse, relying on lighting and low-end weight to carry the songs across large spaces.