I’ve been privileged to be working alongside a bit of a musical buff the past few months who has been challenging and broadening my taste in music, even branching me out into Jazz which I have touched on but never really given much time.

It’s through this colleague that I found out about Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin, a quintet from Switzerland that describe their music as somewhere between zen-funk and ritual groove music, and what better way to get to know a band than to see them live and in person.

I’m not sophisticated enough to describe Bärtsch’s music in the terms that he rightly deserves and frequently earns from passionate fans, but the structure of his compositions are really appealing even for someone only just broaching the edge of interest of this genre of music.

You have an intertwined mixture of Kasper Rast’s delicate approach to the drums (stroking even a finger over a drum to get a texture of sound from it), Björn Meyer’s versatile array of styles on the electric bass that plainly left me with my jaw hanging, Andi Pupato on a variety of bizarre percussion instruments including the wonderfully obscure hand crafted Skin-Udu, Sha’s beautiful sax and commanding bass clarinet, and of course Nik Bärtsch himself on (and in) and number of pianos squeezing out any number of sounds.

As individuals it’s clear that each of the band members have strong character, though each play a balanced part in each of Bärtsch’s compositions for the most part, as they progress through the composition the intensity builds and each gets to become the focus of play, absolutely shining.

Aside from their sheer talent as individuals I truly respect how much they appear to be enjoying themselves and I’m amazed at how they do not ever veer off from the complex polyrhythm that Bärtsch has laid out for them. Though I have to admit that I did find that I kept trying to find a beat within the organised chaos, and quickly ended up confused as the time signatures changed and shifted and I was left bopping to the wrong beat.

Nik Bärtsch is nothing short of a musical genius; you’ll see this for yourself if you ever see him live just by reading the expressions on his face; as he watches his Ronin play he looks almost franic following every little tone like a hawk. His passion is addictive.

Okay who doesn’t know about The xx yet? If you don’t already, you really ought to. Hailing from Wandsworth, London this three piece band (previously four prior to keyboardist / guitarist Baria Qureshi leaving the band late last year) have literally burst onto to the music scene in a very short space of time.

Their debut album ‘xx’ at #1 in Rough Trade’s top albums of 2009, #2 in NME’s top albums of 2009 and they have been widely tipped for success throughout the industry, it’s well deserved too in my opinion.

I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve listened to the album beginning to end since picking up a copy (and bonus mix CD) at the beginning of the year. Packed full of deep, intense bass from Oliver Sim, highlighted with the distinctive sound of Romy Madley Croft’s Gibson Les Paul and interwoven with drums and keyboards from Jamie Smith, the band produce an eerie otherworldly sound that makes for really good listening.

I wasn’t really sure how this album would translate in a live show, I’d heard rumours that we were due an amazing show, and that it’d just be a little calmer than the usual rib bruising affairs.

The stage had been completely obscured with a sheet so we had no sneak peak of what was to come, when the house lights went down we were presented with the trademark solid X of the band’s logo before the drums started to kick in and Oliver and Romy were silhouetted on the sheet by the roaming stage lights.

The xx really did not disappoint. The set had a lot heavier presence of drums and ear pounding bass not seen in their recorded material, which gave the crowd something to bounce along to (or go a little bit mental in the case of the guy stood to my right!).

Though mostly sticking to tracks from their debut album, they also threw in a cleverly put together cover of  Womack and Womack – ‘Teardrops’.

They put on a fantastic light show that punctuated every heavy beat, and finished off their set by dumping an insane amount of black and silver confetti onto the audience.

To quote my friend James (who captured this sneaky little video), for a band that spends a lot of time standing still they certainly rocked everyone else out.

Both Oliver and Romy are so humble, barely saying a word through the gig other than apologising for their lack of banter, quietly thanking the audience for their applause and finally saying what a shock it’s been for them.

Six months ago they were at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire opening for Florence and the Machine, and now here they are headlining the famous venue two nights in a row. Long may their success continue, I for one am really keen to see what direction they’ll take when they get around to recording some new material.

Also worth a mention were These New Puritans who opened for The xx. I can’t say that I’d really heard of them before yesterday despite them being tipped as one of the upcoming bands of 2010.

I was quite surprised to see a warm up act rock up with their own brass section, and though most of what These New Puritans brought to the stage was good, it was all let down by the fact that we simply couldn’t hear a word that the lead singer was putting out no matter how passionately he seemed to be going at it on stage.

Does anyone remember Hot Hot Heat, the four piece band that had everyone chanting “BANDAGES, BANDAGES, BANDAAAAAGES”?

No? Oh well that was way back in 2003 after all I suppose. That and “Bandages” was banned from play on BBC Radio 1 after someone clever at the Beeb decided the playing a song with the word bandages at a time of war was a bad thing.

Some people must have remembered these good folks though as The Scala was packed full of a young(ish) indie crowd and boy were they bouncing all over the place. Secretly I was glad to be up in the balcony though, as much as I usually like being in the thick of it, I feel like someone has been stealing my energy. Give it back please.

Tonight was the last night of Hot Hot Heat’s tour, unsure if it was meant to be promoting their new album “Future Breeds” or not as most of the material played were known hits, not that anyone complained!

Wasn’t really sure what to expect but was really quite impressed with the huge amount of energy that was put into the performance and the dynamics between the group, they gel amazingly well and they have just the right amount of twiddly extra bits and solos in their set to make it interesting. I think the lead singer Steve Bays can only be described as being a bit mental

Hot Hot Heat have a new bass player amongst them, Parker Bossley, sporting a gorgeous Fender Jaguar Bass he pretty much played lead on bass throughout the majority of the set. Full of energy and funky playing, made it well worth going.

Opening for Hot Hot Heat were Official Secrets Act. I’ve managed to forget their name countless times this evening because there are an awful lot of bands with similar names.

Afraid to say that it wasn’t really for me, despite the fact that a lot was being put into the performance I just didn’t feel like there was enough cohesion and ooomph. Technical terms there obviously. I’d love to have seen more involvement from the bass player, and more lead guitar from the lead vocalist/guitarist Thomas Burke, that and make sure the sound engineer cranks that poor Fender Jaguar up next time.

To be fair to the guys they’ve only been on the scene for a few years though, so a bit of refinement and who knows where they’ll be next.

As part of the run up to the NME Awards 2010 on the 24th of February, the folks over at NME have been hosting a number of gigs including the first time Courtney Love has played with Hole in 11 years (which I am gutted I missed, and in fact knew nothing about!).

Tonight’s gig was at the Islington Academy and featured an action packed line up of Teeth, Lyrebirds, Chew Lips and the all new material from the New Young Pony Club.

In typical fashion, James caused us to be late (nothing to do with me being fussy about not eating at McD, Burger King, KFC, Subway or any other fast food joint) so we missed Teeth, but I wasn’t too sure about them having poked around their MySpace.

We arrived out of the icy cold in time to catch the beginning of the Lyrebirds set and though I think whichever guitarist plays the Stratocaster needs to stop wearing his guitar just over his cock, they were pretty good. Could have done with more showcasing of individuals rather than just all playing the who can thwack the strings the loudest game, that really does my head in.

Chew Lips came on after Lyrebirds. I’ve only just found out about Chew Lips today after poking around on Last.fm and finding them listed on the event page for tonight’s gig, and I may have to admit that I then spent all of the morning listening to the tracks that they have up on their MySpace page. Live they were even better than their recorded material and good deep bass and quirky melodies, definitely had everyone moving.

Quick nip to the loo and a refill of the old JD and coke and we’re back at the front of the crowd in time for New Young Pony Club. Out they burst onto the stage with the lead singer Tahita sporting bright blonde hair.

This is the first time in a fair while that they’ve played London (or possibly anywhere?), having been locked in a cage writing new material for their new album due to be released mid next week.

For the first night of the tour and the first time they’ve played the material live, I have to admit they were a lot more refined than they were when I saw them at the Astoria a few years ago, Tahita has always been full of crowd moving energy but this time it was great to see the bass player really getting into it. Shame about the lead guitarist mostly looking frustrated with his guitar and the sound engineer, and madame keyboards still feigning boredom after how many years!

The new material was a bit of a mixed bag, some of the songs have lost a bit of that energy that I loved NYPC for when I first got into them, however others definitely embrace that feeling and kick it up a notch, should have grabbed a set list so I could work out which ones I liked!

All of the old material however was absolutely rocking and had the crowd bouncing away, I left the Islington Academy a very sweaty man. Good luck NYPC for the rest of your tour!

Cake please. Never has there been a bakery or patisserie that I have walked past and longed quite so hard to have one of everything behind the counter.

I have been a very good boy on every occasion that I’ve been to Princi in the past though and merely left a nice puddle of drool on the counter, then walked out empty handed mumbling to myself and wishing that cake could be consumed without the side effects of causing spontaneous man boobs or faux male pregnancy.

Today to mark the first holiday of 2010 (not to mention the first holiday I’ve had since the end of 2008), I decided why the hell not, I will have cake please.

For those that have yet to fall in lust with Princi, talk a walk down Wardour Street and it’s really quite hard to miss it. It’s the one with the gigantic glass window that lets you see straight into their huge traditional ovens and see their squat of immaculately presented Italian staff pulling fresh delights from the oven and putting some new interesting treats in.

You get the real deal at Princi, it’s the first branch in London of a Milan boutique bakery chain by gourmet baker Rocco Princi. The layout is a bit crazy, all the seating is communal and service is hectic at best, shove your way to the front and try to get the attention of one of the crazy Italians serving.

Incidentally, I did not eat both cakes shown in the picture, I had half of each and the other halves are being given to my mum as a token of thanks for kindly offering to give me and my luggage a lift to the station tomorrow before I catch a plane to somewhere considerably warmer than London!