Given the recent, openly flirtatious state of affairs between the indie world and mainstream R&B, the emergence of a group like inc. — two Los Angeles brothers specializing in seductive, buttery-smooth slow jams — feels like an almost preordained consummation. Even two years ago, an indie institution like 4AD releasing an album as lustfully luscious as No World (or a Making Time performer this unabashedly well-suited for, well, making time) would’ve been practically unimaginable, or at least greeted with foregone presumptions of irony-mongering. It’s not like they’re reinventing any wheels here: Andrew Aged’s doe-eyed, smolderingly earnest vocals could pass for any number of bedroom crooners down the decades, while his brother Daniel’s equally voluptuous bass playing, Timbaland-style electro skitters and minimal-minded stutter-step beats would’ve slotted right in on late-’90s radio (or, perhaps, a more organic variant of the first Junior Boys album). But it’s revelatory, and just plain hot, to hear indie-soul this forthright and unapologetic, with none of The Weeknd’s fashionably faded mumblings, How to Dress Well’s arty lo-fi, or The xx’s distancing post-punk twitches.
Sat., Feb. 16, 9 p.m., $10-$12, Making Time with Parquet Courts, Crystal Ark DJ and Making Time DJs, Voyeur, 1221 St. James St., 215-735-5772, igetrvng.com.
