The xx can trace their origins to when Romy Madley-Croft and Oliver Sim, the two founding members of the band met at the Elliott School, a school best known for a number of famous alumni including Hot Chip, Four Tet, and interestingly enough, Pierce Brosnan. Madley Croft and Sim started the xx as a duo but within about a year of their first live performances, Baria Quareshi and Jamie Smith, better known as Jamie xx, joined the band, turning the band into a quartet. Quareshi was later fired from the band and the band has since been a trio. 

The band’s debut self-titled effort and their sophomore effort, Coexist were released to almost universal praise. But interestingly Jamie xx has managed to do a number of solo side projects on his free time – including a collaborative reinterpretation of Gil Scott-Heron‘s I’m New Here, titled We’re New Here, and an album of solo material, as well as remixes of Four Tet, Radiohead, Adele and his primary band the xx. 

Girl/Sound is Jamie xx’s first solo release in three years, and is slated for a May 6 release through Young Turks Records. “Girl” the first single from the new effort is a breezy and slickly produced track that consists of icy synths, swirling electronics and eerie vocal samples that seem to come out of an ethereal haze. It bears a bit of a resemblance to Dirty Beaches Drifters/Love is the Devil but slightly more anxious.