Besides her performance of “Take Me To The Sky,” a huge highlight of the Tori Amos concert I attended a week ago was the opening act, One eskimO.

I didn’t know what to expect from the four guys who unassumingly made their way to the front of the stage. Lead singer dressed in a brown hoodie, with his eyes cast downward and/or closed, they launched right into their set, without a word about who they were (I don’t recall anything being said for a song or two). But I was pretty quickly won over by Kristian Leontiou’s voice, so reminiscent of Mick Hucknall of Simply Red.

While the London-based One eskimO plays acoustic, they pair their live instrumentation with pre-recorded samples and loops, adding a richer depth to their sound, and indeed, the performance itself. Immediately after the band had wrapped the short set, I headed straight for the lobby to grab their EP.

Among its four tracks are two versions of “Kandi,” built around an old Candi Staton track, “He Called Me Baby” (also recorded by Dinah Washington and Patsy Cline)

One eskimO’s debut LP, produced by Rollo Armstrong (Faithless, Dido), will be released on September 22. But if you’ve watched any TV here in the last few months, you’ve heard a preview of another One eskimO track. “Hometime,” was featured in a visually arresting Toyota commercial.

Purchase One EskimO – “Kandi” via iTunes, Amazon MP3 (which also has a “Kandi” remix EP).