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There's a very short list for the 'breakthrough' if you like bands of the 2012 NXNE music festival, they include but are not limited to: The Hundred in the Hands, Purity Ring and undoubtedly DIIV. In spite of Ghostface Killah, and Raekwon The Chef devastating an already Yonge and Dundas Square to close out the festival with a free performance one could make a handy argument that it was these young lads in DIIV (pronounced Dive) two nights prior that stole many of the hearts and minds of this years attendees.

They're perspicacious and preternaturally gifted take on whatever their influences happen to be makes one wonder seriously about the exponential rate of talent growth and craftsmanship. Primary songwriter Zachary Cole Smith (Cole will do), as distinguished from bandmate and former Smith Westerns drummer Colby Hewitt, declared at outset that they'd be playing their forthcoming 2012 release for Captured Tracks in its entirety: Oshin.

Later Cole conceded that despite dropping in a few 'new' songs (Big Joke) the set largely followed the analog flow of their distinctive release. My listening companion heard the obvious strains of homage and reference to Ian Curtis and Joy Division, but also Echo and the Bunnymen or even the Stranglers. Though not fully evident on the recorded product, the relatively terse and succinct pop numbers, were stretched out into filetted slivers of sound and dense guitar interplay that belied their tender years. This listener was reminded fondly of two concerts he'd seen Built To Spill play in the selfsame venue a couple of years back. The appeal of DIIV seems to lie somewhere between the Christopher-Robins-In-Never-Neverland waifish (and very Ian Curtisian) charm of Z. Cole Smith and the long soloed crunch of influential guitar based bands like Dinosaur Jr. and the latter Built To Spill albums. They're short, wistful inspired bits of (sometimes maudlin) songwriting brought to life on the backs of a wooly improvising beast. It may be also that the band prefers the effects, pedals and signal processing sound associated with the 80's but that their pushing magnificent solos inspired by the 90's through vintage setups.