Arguably the best aspect of a flurry of activity from the country's most inanimate band – The xx – is in the response and subsequent reaction of other artists towards it. Whether that's
the sultry sparring of Martina Topley-Bird and Mark Lanegan as they recompose Crystalised, or Kieran Hebden giving the otherwise unexceptional Angels a 70% electro slowdown, it's the bits bred alongside
Coexist that've inspired the greatest intrigue. This
Four Tet remix is your standard celestial fare, Romy Madley Croft's vapid monosyllabics of "love" offset by the warm plinks of what sounds a jangling mobile made from dismembered marimba keys; one to send even the most resolute of insomniacs into the softest of slumber. And as with everything Hebden does, it's an irrefutably excellent recording indeed. Radio 1 idents aside, it's a subduedly special reconsideration of something that until last night merited little meditation at all.
Slated for release "in a few weeks", or so says Jamie xx.
