Watch out for XXYYXX

While parents worry about what their very incommunicative adolescent children are getting up to in the corner of the house they have staked out, perhaps they are giddily becoming the next internet hype. A musical hype, in this case. Last year, it happened to the parents of the now seventeen-year-old Marcel Everett aka XXYYXX.

The songs Marcel Everett produced in this bedroom under the pseudonym XXYYXX – there is no hidden message in the name – are now huge hits on the internet. We wonder how he explained terms like chill wave, glitch hop, and experimental bass to his parents. We’ve settled on a blend of electronica, R&B, and hip hop, though wrapped in a sultry base layer of mysterious and fragmented vocals. He has no qualms, for example, about chopping up Amy Winehouse’s voice and scattering it between his beats. You might compare him to artists like Burial, Jamie XX, and Balam Acab. Or perhaps even James Blake, though you’d better not tell him that. But the music is great if you want to chill out or sway ever so gently. In any case, the slightly bashful American’s huge success is now bringing him across the pond to tour around Europe live. He will be sharing the stage with artists he himself was a fan of until recently. At the AB, he will be performing with like-minded musicians like Blackbird Blackbird, Slow Magic, Dream Koala, and Giraffage.

If you didn't manage to get tickets for the sold out show, you might head for the after party at Bazaar Brussels, where XXYYXX, Giraffage, and Dream Koala will offer an exclusive performance in a party-like atmosphere including a 3-D mapping show. Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/525722084133060/

XXYYXX • 3/5, 20.00, SOLD OUT!, ANCIENNE BELGIQUE, boulevard Anspachlaan 110, Brussel/Bruxelles, 02-548.24.24, www.abconcerts.be