NEWS
EVENTS
Alt-J : An Awesome Wave
Indie | Friday 8th June 2012 | Osh
Despite the Mac-referencing band name bringing to mind every single Starbuck’s drinking, Instagram using, skinny jeans wearing hipster I have ever hated, I must proclaim my love for Alt-J. Redeemingly however, the delta symbol created on a Mac when pressing Alt and J is also a symbol showing change in mathematical equations. This apparently reflects a turning point in the band’s lives. Or so they say. For all we know they could have been funded by the late Steve Jobs. But hey, we will never know now.
Their first release from the album was ‘Breezeblocks’ which I stumbled across on YouTube and instantly fell in love with. The music video straddles the line between brilliant and disturbed, and depicts the story of a woman who may or may not be a stalker and a couple who may or may not be happily married. Either way, the stalker woman winds up drowned in a bath weighted down by a Breezeblock. And before you shout at me for ruining the ending, this is in fact the beginning. Yeah, I think you might have to go and watch it yourself. It may or may not blow your mind. And if you’re not convinced by the video, maybe you’ll be swayed by the fact the song is based on the children’s book Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. Pretty cool huh? At least it’s not an obscure reference to some pretentious artsy novel that no one but themselves would understand. Maybe they’re not the hateable hipsters their name suggests. Good PR there boys, well done.
They slip up however with the aptly named ‘Tessellate’, as one of the lines proclaims ‘triangles are my favourite shape’. It’s a forehead slapping moment and Alt-J fall back to square one of the mission to prove themselves as something other than a crooning group of indie, beanie wearing university students who started their hip band in their ‘gap yarhhs’ looking for top-knotted, creeper shoe wearing groupies instead of an actual real job. I so badly want to hate them but feel that I have to tell you the truth: ‘Tessellate’ is a great song. Joe Newman’s vocals are undeniably strange, making you picture him singing with a variety of quirky facial expressions that I can only hope is the reality, as I have not yet had the chance to see them live.
The whole album in fact is pretty great but it does take a couple of listens. Granted, it’s not as hard to get through as that first episode of The Wire, but unless you’re prepared for the sluggish opening to the song ‘Matilda’ you may just overlook the greatness of the rest of the song and perhaps lose the entire album in the back log of your iTunes once it has disappeared from your recently added list.
Laura Tucker
