ITunes Won't Let Xylouris White Name Their Genre 'Goatish'

Lauded Cretan lute player George Xylouris first crossed paths with indie-rock drummer extraordinaire Jim White (Dirty Three, Cat Power, Nina Nastasia) decades back during a stint living in Melbourne, but it was only recently that the pair joined their considerable talents to form their avant-leaning but joyous vehicle Xylouris White.

Having first laid down their distinctive blend of Cretan music and intuitive improvisation on 2014 debut Goats, they've now expanded their aesthetic and tapped into the more raucous nature of their live show on new album Black Peak (both albums being produced by former Fugazi mainstay Guy Picciotto).

"We tried using it officially but iTunes wouldn't let us call it that."

"It's based on some Cretan forms and stuff for sure, but it's also coming from Crete and coming from Australia so it's from both of those places," White explains of the pair's distinctive sound. "I feel like it's very rooted in Crete in dances and melody in many ways, but they're all our own compositions except for one, which is really old world — I think it's 500 years old - called Erotokritos (Opening). It's like an epic poem and we just did a little excerpt out of it. But it's Cretan and it's 'goatish' - 'goatish' is our chosen genre. We tried using it officially but iTunes wouldn't let us call it that."

They even took Xylouris White to Crete recently - where Xylouris is part of a dynasty of revered folk musicians - and their hybrid stylings apparently went down a treat — even though traditional Cretan music doesn't feature drums at all.

"I went there for the first time about three years ago when we first started this, and now I've been there so many times I can't even remember how many," he chuckles. "And they've embraced it wholeheartedly actually, it's been quite amazing. I was quite nervous about that and how they were going to react to the drums and everything.

"The first show we did in Greece was in Athens at a festival and there were quite a few Cretans there, and all of the people that I met through George - who were supposedly really opinionated about music - really embraced it. And now we've actually played in Crete itself a number of times this year and it was just incredible: we did six shows and people came along and they loved it. I think they were also excited to see George moving in different worlds as well, and bringing new music home.

"But it's a pretty fun and pretty joyous band - we did a tour in the States earlier this year with Kurt Vile and were accepted by people everywhere there as well. I just think that Cretan music and rhythms are totally accessible and a lot of fun to experience as well as to play."