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AAA Music | 29 March 2024

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Younger Brother @ XOYO

| On 04, Apr 2011

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London, 30th March

Trying to classify Younger Brother is a difficult task. Their music lies somewhere between ambient dance, dark electro and even, at times, pop rock. The band’s nexus is Benji Vaughn and Simon Posford, who both have extensive backgrounds in psytrance in various incarnations.

They began their set with the mysterious and slowly building ‘Happy Pills’. By resisting the temptation to come on and break into a fast-paced, crowd-grabbing number, the band in fact drew the audience in even more. The song’s clubby beats soon take over the ambient bleeps and throw the audience into a frenzy. Standing in the front row, I was pretty blown away.

After this instrumental piece, vocalist Ru Campbell appears for ‘Shine’. Obviously well loved by the audience, there is much leaping around and arms thrown into the air. Despite this passion, I couldn’t help but find I was enjoying myself much more in the instrumental and more dancey sections. Songs like ‘Night Lead Me Astray’ are almost getting into, dare I say it, Killers territory. This is only my personal take and the crowd seemed to love singing along, but for me the vocals do not add to the power of the music, they merely water it down.

Simon Posford casts an intriguing figure onstage with his wild hair and feathered hat. Switching regularly between guitar and synths, he’s an enigmatic musician, lost in the music.

The band ended with the overwhelmingly awesome ‘Psychic Gibbon’.

At times, Younger Brother are one of the most exciting and moving bands I’ve ever seen. And this is not something I say lightly. Though, for me, this sadly doesn’t hold up throughout their music.

Happy Pills

Shine

All I Want

Pound a Rhythm

Safety in Numbers

I am a Freak

Crystalline

Night Lead Me Astray

Ribbon on a Branch

Train

System 700

Spinning into Place

Psychic Gibbon

Author & Photos: Laura Oliver