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| Allmusic Biography : English rock outfit Alt-J -- named for the delta symbol that appears when pressing "Alt" and "J" on a Mac keyboard -- deliver eccentric indie rock that experiments with rhythm, song structure, percussion, and space. Following the 2012 release of their critically acclaimed, award-winning debut, An Awesome Wave, they expanded their scope with 2014s This Is All Yours and 2017s Relaxer. First formed in 2008 under the moniker FILMS, the founding quartet -- all of whom met at Leeds University -- spent two years rehearsing before inking a deal with Infectious Records in 2011. Their signature blend of layered, folk-inflected dub pop and soaring alternative rock was first heard on the 2012 singles "Matilda" and "Fitzpleasure," with the groups full-length studio debut, An Awesome Wave, arriving later that year. The album would eventually go on to earn the prestigious Mercury Prize, alongside three Brit Award nominations. They soon became mainstays on the U.K. and European festival circuit, expanding outward with tours in the U.S. and Australia as well. The bands increasing success and heavy touring schedule eventually led to the amicable departure of bassist Gwil Sainsbury at the end of 2013. The remaining trio of singer/guitarist Joe Newman, keyboardist Gus Unger-Hamilton, and drummer Thom Green continued undeterred, and their sophomore record, This Is All Yours, was issued in the autumn of 2014. Critically well-received, This Is All Yours debuted at number one in the U.K. and fared similarly well in Europe and the U.S., where they earned their first Grammy nomination. In early 2017, Alt-J issued a trio of singles, "3WW," "In Cold Blood," and "Adeline," in anticipation of the release of their third studio long-player, Relaxer, which dropped later that June. While not quite as successful as its predecessor, the album sold well and earned them a second Mercury Prize nomination. In 2018 they released a remix album, Reduxer, which featured a selection of tracks from Relaxer reworked in conjunction with a raft of hip-hop artists including Danny Brown, Little Simz, and Pusha T. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 13 Title: Breezeblocks (Remixes) Released: 2012-05 Tracks: 4 Duration: 17:45 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Breezeblocks (03:47) 2 Breezeblocks (Tom Veks SFX remix) (05:18) 3 Breezeblocks (B-Ju remix) (03:59) 4 Breezeblocks (Rockdaworld remix) (04:41) |
 | Album: 2 of 13 Title: An Awesome Wave Released: 2012-05-28 Tracks: 13 Duration: 48:46 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Intro (02:37) 2 ❦ (Ripe & Ruin) (01:12) 3 Tessellate (03:02) 4 Breezeblocks (03:47) 5 ❦ (Guitar) (01:17) 6 Something Good (03:38) 7 Dissolve Me (03:59) 8 Matilda (03:48) 9 Ms (03:58) 10 Fitzpleasure (03:39) 11 ❦ (Piano) (00:53) 12 Bloodflood (04:09) 13 Taro / Hand-Made (12:41) |
| An Awesome Wave : Allmusic album Review : Named after the Mac command also used as a mathematical equation to show change, formed while studying fine art at university, and prone to throwing in the odd geometric reference within their lyrics, there are signs that Cambridge-based quartet Alt-J might be a little bit too clever for their own good. Produced by Charlie Andrew (the Laurel Collective), their debut album, An Awesome Wave, is occasionally guilty of pretentiousness, particularly the irritating a cappella vocal warmup of the interlude "(The Ripe & Ruin)." But for the most part, its 13 tracks do for nu-folk what Everything Everythings equally ambitious debut did for indie rock, breathing new life into the genre with an intriguing but accessible series of art rock twists and turns. Indeed, other than frontman Joe Newmans impassioned -- if occasionally bordering on parody -- vocal style, theres little here in common with the tweeness of Mumford & Sons. "Tessellate" combines the glitchy electronica of Thom Yorkes solo career with the wistful wintry harmonies of Fleet Foxes; "Fitzpleasure" fizzes along with its dubstep-lite beats and acidic basslines before its interrupted, first by a burst of jangly post-rock and second by the kind of shimmering guitar twangs youd expect from a Tarantino soundtrack; while "Taro" somehow melds together the unlikely bedfellows of Americana and bhangra to produce a fittingly oddball but enthralling finale. Its to Andrews credit that these eclectic arrays of sound are woven together in a manner so effortlessly that the results never feel forced or contrived. There are a few more straightforward moments such as "Matilda," a gentle acoustic folk ode to Natalie Portmans troubled character in Léon, and the sparse, haunting "Ms." But Alt-Js wave is far more awesome when its at its most schizophrenic. | ||
 | Album: 3 of 13 Title: Tessellate (Remixes) Released: 2012-07-13 Tracks: 5 Duration: 21:38 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Tessellate (03:02) 2 Tessellate (04:26) 3 Tessellate (Dam Mantle remix) (06:17) 4 Tessellate (Anstam remix) (03:58) 5 Tessellate (Marlais remix) (03:53) |
 | Album: 4 of 13 Title: Something Good Released: 2012-09-28 Tracks: 5 Duration: 28:13 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Something Good (03:38) 2 Something Good (Blackbox remix) (06:29) 3 Something Good (Tong & Rogers remix) (08:22) 4 Something Good (Fort Romeau remix) (04:36) 5 Something Good (The Invisible remix) (05:08) |
 | Album: 5 of 13 Title: Matilda (Remixes) Released: 2012-12-07 Tracks: 4 Duration: 19:24 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Matilda (03:48) 2 Matilda (Johnson Somerset Remix) (07:20) 3 Matilda (GeN0 Remix) (04:09) 4 Matilda (Julian Neumann Remix) (04:07) |
 | Album: 6 of 13 Title: Dissolve Me (Remixes) Released: 2013-03-15 Tracks: 6 Duration: 31:23 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Dissolve Me (03:59) 2 Dissolve Me (live at Shepherd’s Bush Empire – 19/01/13) (04:13) 3 Dissolve Me (Romare remix) (06:25) 4 Dissolve Me (Marlais remix) (04:53) 5 Dissolve Me (Fryars remix) (05:16) 6 Dissolve Me (Planet of Sound remix) (06:37) |
 | Album: 7 of 13 Title: iTunes Session Released: 2013-04-16 Tracks: 8 Duration: 25:32 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Interlude 1 (01:10) 2 Tessellate (03:02) 3 Fitzpleasure (03:30) 4 Breezeblocks (03:45) 5 Buffalo (03:17) 6 Matilda (04:01) 7 A Real Hero (01:58) 8 Taro (04:49) |
 | Album: 8 of 13 Title: Summer Remix Released: 2013-11-25 Tracks: 6 Duration: 24:25 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Fitzpleasure (04:30) 2 Fitzpleasure (04:20) 3 Fitzpleasure (Dave Sitek remix) (03:18) 4 Dissolve Me (Ben Lovett remix) (03:37) 5 Tessellate (Ben de Vries remix) (04:06) 6 Ms (Hanz remix) (04:32) |
 | Album: 9 of 13 Title: This Is All Yours Released: 2014-09-18 Tracks: 13 Duration: 1:04:32 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic Wikipedia AlbumCover | 1 Intro (04:38) 2 Arrival in Nara (04:13) 3 Nara (04:56) 4 Every Other Freckle (03:36) 5 Left Hand Free (02:53) 6 ❦ (Garden of England) (01:07) 7 Choice Kingdom (04:17) 8 Hunger of the Pine (04:59) 9 Warm Foothills (03:45) 10 The Gospel of John Hurt (05:15) 11 Pusher (03:29) 12 Bloodflood, Part II (05:19) 13 Leaving Nara / Lovely Day (16:02) |
| This Is All Yours : Allmusic album Review : The 2012 Mercury Prize winners begin their sophomore outing with the subversively titled "Intro," a four-and-a-half-minute highlight reel of whats to come that pairs the monastic chanting that prefaced An Awesome Waves first single, "Fitzpleasure," with a pastiche of new age and worldbeat-blasted ambient pop that suggests Mogwai by way of Peter Gabriels Real World studios circa 1990 -- its both planetarium laser light show and art installation ready. The muted yet equally heady "Arrival in Nara," all fingerpicked electric guitar and diffusive synths, and its more muscular yet no less monkish second half, "Nara," do little to rein in the holistic atmosphere thats so decisively laid out in the remarkably potent This Is All Yours opening moments, which makes the arrival of the punchy, carnally minded "Every Other Freckle" and the meaty, Anglo-Motown thump of "Left Hand Free" so thrilling, but hardly unexpected. After all, this is a band that proved with its debut that it can go from icy, distant, and often excruciatingly beautiful to downright feral at the crack of a snare drum (or pots and pans, as the groups humble, dorm room beginnings often required), and This Is All Yours does little to tarnish their reputation as choirboys with dark passengers. That penchant for edgy refinement, along with frontman Joe Newmans elastic voice, remains the bands most effective weapon, but its hard to pinpoint where and when that magic occurs, as its so effortlessly woven into the groups sound. Its somewhere in between the autumnal and apocalyptic, Miley Cyrus-sampling "Hunger of the Pine," the bucolic, recorder-led "Garden of England," and the oddly soulful, midnight-black posturing of "The Gospel of John Hurt," and it gets under your skin, where it somehow manages to both hurt and heal. | ||
 | Album: 10 of 13 Title: Live at Red Rocks Released: 2016-04-16 Tracks: 18 Duration: 1:14:32 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Hunger of the Pine (05:21) 2 Fitzpleasure (03:44) 3 Something Good (04:02) 4 Left Hand Free (03:11) 5 Dissolve Me (04:10) 6 Matilda/Interlude 2 (05:25) 7 Bloodflood (04:25) 8 Bloodflood Pt. II (05:01) 9 Interlude 1 (01:08) 10 Tessellate (03:21) 11 Every Other Freckle (03:53) 12 Taro (05:16) 13 Warm Foothills (03:09) 14 The Gospel of John Hurt (06:39) 15 Lovely Day (04:16) 16 Nara (04:56) 17 Leaving Nara (02:20) 18 Breezeblocks (04:15) |
 | Album: 11 of 13 Title: Relaxer Released: 2017-06-02 Tracks: 8 Duration: 38:59 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 3WW (05:00) 2 In Cold Blood (03:26) 3 House of the Rising Sun (05:20) 4 Hit Me Like That Snare (03:37) 5 Deadcrush (03:52) 6 Adeline (05:50) 7 Last Year (06:06) 8 Pleader (05:48) |
| Relaxer : Allmusic album Review : A heady and sometimes capricious piece of work that vacillates between pastoral folk, classical crossover, proto-punk, and progressive rock, the Mercury Prize-winning trios third LP is never clear about its overall intentions. The same could be said about Alt-Js two previous albums as well, but Relaxer is a thornier beast than either of them, carefully concealing its myriad barbs beneath bucolic washes of meticulously forged comeliness. Bookended by what are for all intents and purposes a pair of augmented English folk ballads, the first ("3WW") a patient, swoon-worthy pagan love song, and the second ("Pleader") an impossibly lush, choir-led anthem/hymn inspired by mining in 19th century Wales, Relaxer is aptly named, as between those two cuts lies a swath of idyllic sonic farmland that yields fruits both honeyed and acrid. Only the nervy "In Cold Blood" and the cringe-worthy, Velvet Underground-aping misfire "Hit Me Like That Snare" hint at the flashy, decisive indie rock posturing of past pleasures like "Left Hand Free" and "Dissolve Me." As per usual, Alt-Js lyrics remain elliptical, with frontman Joe Newman espousing a narrative persona thats both arthouse Dickensian villain and boarding school poet -- that lines like "Well that smell of sex, good like burning wood" and "I just want to love you in my own language" manage to elucidate their contrasting amorous perspectives within the same song is notable. Clocking in at just under 40 minutes, the albums dizzying stylistic shifts and offbeat arrangements are rendered refreshingly palatable, and even when the bands artistic hubris is drawn front and center, as it is on the aforementioned "Hit Me Like That Snare" and a spectral, almost completely rewritten version of "House of the Rising Sun," theres usually enough craftsmanship on hand to offset the overall air of importance. | ||
 | Album: 12 of 13 Title: 2017 Live EP Released: 2017-12-11 Tracks: 5 Duration: 20:21 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Dead Crush (03:58) 2 Hit Me Like That Snare (03:32) 3 Dissolve Me (04:03) 4 Every Other Freckle (03:39) 5 Pleader (05:09) |
 | Album: 13 of 13 Title: Reduxer Released: 2018-09-28 Tracks: 11 Duration: 43:04 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 3WW (OTG version) (05:07) 2 In Cold Blood (Twin Shadow version) (02:46) 3 House of the Rising Sun (Tuka version) (04:53) 4 Hit Me Like That Snare (Jimi Charles Moody version) (03:32) 5 Deadcrush (Alchemist x Trooko version) (04:03) 6 Adeline (ADP version) (03:46) 7 Last Year (Terrace Martin version) (04:17) 8 Pleader (Trooko version) (04:46) 9 3WW (Lomepal version) (03:15) 10 In Cold Blood (Kontra K version) (03:34) 11 Hit Me Like That Snare (Rejjie Snow version) (02:59) |