Angus and Julia Stone hail from Newport, on the northern beaches of Sydney. At 21 and 23 respectively, they have gotten over the inevitable sibling squabbles to become one of the most hyped Australian acts, especially in their field of gentle acoustic lamenting, to hit these shores in some time.

With only two EPs under their belt, they did not have a wealth of material to choose from, so their set lasted only an hour, a disappointment perhaps for their many fans, but a treat for the rest of us who were afforded a solid forty minutes beforehand of the understated exquisiteness of the supporting Paris Motel, complete with cor anglais, flute, bassoon and violins.

The Stones’s songs are delicate and fragile, which is both their appeal and downfall. At times, such as on Angus’s ‘Mango Tree’, this dainty beauty works marvellously, but at others, they tread a fine line between lo-fi melancholy and a complete lack of substance. Blow on some of these compositions and they’ll fall over, as they barely seem to be there, so thin are they.

They are additionally hampered by hackneyed and unsubtle lyrics, plus Angus’s voice is not strong. However, on this performance he appears to be the more musically talented of the two. But as the men in the audience will attest, Julia is a truly charismatic stage presence complete with charming quirks and twitches. Adorable, as is her curiously affected voice that wavers somewhere between Joanna Newsom and Bjork.

Perhaps I’ve painted too bleak a picture, because Angus and Julia are an extremely able pair. They also have an inventive proclivity to distort existing songs from their original shape into something ludicrously different.

Take ‘Private Lawns’, their new single, which deconstructs ‘Windy City’ from the musical Calamity Jane and puts it back together again as a simmering, sultry piece of lounge music. They have done a similar thing with ‘Tubthumping’ by Chumbawamba. Apart from the surprise factor and the fact Julia had a wonderful time singing it, I’m not sure how far this idea will take them. They need a couple of killer tunes of their own to reach the next level in the UK.

But they have youth and beauty on their side, and with maturity will come more well-crafted songs and more poetic lyrics. A very pleasant evening indeed from an act with talent to spare, if at this stage little new to say. They will get there though, it is inevitable.

Barnaby Smith