alt-j

Formation and early years: 2007—2010

Alt-J was formed when Gwil Sainsbury, Joe Newman, Gus Anger-Hamilton and Tom Green met at Leeds University in 2007.

In the second year of study, Newman showed Sinesbury the texts of his songs and then they began to create music with him. They rehearsed in a dormitory. The unusual sound of the group is due to the fact that in student dormitories it was impossible to make noise, and therefore they were not able to use bass guitars or bass drums.

An Awesome Wave and Tours: 2011-2012

After graduation, the group moved to Cambridge , where the guys worked on their music for several months before signing an agreement with Infectious Records in December 2011. Their four tracks “Breezeblocks”, “Hand-Made”, “Matilda” and “Tessellate” were recorded with producer Charlie Andrew in London.

After the songs “Matilda” and “Fitzpleasure” the song “Breezeblocks” followed, so the album An Awesome Wave began to be formed. Charlie Andrew also worked on this album. The album was recorded at Iguana Studios and in Brixton ( Brixton ), where the group recorded tracks in their free time from the studio. The debut album was released May 28, 2012 in the UK, Europe and Australia and September 18, 2012 in North America via Canvasback Music. The album received positive reviews.

The group began to regularly perform at summer festivals, including Latitude, Bestival , Reading and Leeds, T in the Park, Green Man, Pukkelpop and Lowlands. They also had an American tour in December 2012 and performed at the Laneway Festival tour in Australia. In 2012, the group was announced the winners of the Mercury Prize for their album. Soon, the album reached 13th place on British Charts. The group explained these events as follows: “Life is changing, there was a feeling that we were impostors, that we were the group that received all this, far from being a real group, we are just Leeds guys who went through everything complicated and won magic with the help of Mercury Prize ".

Gwil Sainesbury and This Is All Yours Care: 2013-Present

Gwil Sainesbury left alt-J on January 13, 2014. It was announced on Twitter that he was forced to leave, but the group would continue to exist.

In early June 2014, alt-J announced the start of their tour, which will take place in North America during October and November. The 23-day tour began on October 14 in Vancouver and ended in Washington, DC on November 19. On June 9, 2014, the band announced the release of their second album, This Is All Yours, which was released on September 22. He straightaway became number one on the British Official Charts. ^[2]

The symbol of the group is the delta sign, Δ, which is traditionally used in scientific research to indicate “change” or “difference”. The Δ character can be entered on the Apple Mac using the комбинации Option + J key combination (Option corresponds to the Alt key on the PC keyboard). “Alt-J” were formerly known as “Daljit Dhaliwal” and “Films”, but were later forced to switch to “alt-J” because an American band with the name “Films” already exists. ^[3]

In 2012, the debut album An Awesome Wave won the Mercury Prize . alt-J were also nominated for three Brit Awards (British Breakthrough of the Year, British Album of the Year and British Band of the Year). An Awesome Wave was announced by BBC Radio 6 Music Album as the best album of 2012. This Is All Yours was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album. ^[four]

Studio albums

• An Awesome Wave (2012)
• This Is All Yours (2014)
• Relaxer (2017)

Live Albums

• Live At Red Rocks (2016)

Remix Albums

• REDUXER (2018)

Mini Albums

• Films (2009)
• Matilda / Fitzpleasure (EP) (2012)
• Breezeblocks - Remixes (2012)
• Matilda - Remixes (2012)

• iTunes Session (2013)
• Summer (2013)
• This Is All Yours, Too (2015)
• Deadcrushed (2017)
• 2017 Live EP (2017)

Singles

• Bloodflood / Tessellate (2011)
• Matilda / Fitzpleasure (2012)
• Breezeblocks (2012)
• Tessellate (2012)
• Something Good (2012)
• Dissolve Me (2013)
• Hunger Of The Pine (2014)
• Left Hand Free (2014)
• Every Other Freckle (2014)
• 3WW (2017)
• In Cold Blood (2017)
• Adeline (2017)
• Deadcrush (2017)
• Pleader (2017)

The song "Breezeblocks" is the soundtrack to the Russian television series " Treason ". The group also presented the soundtrack to the series " Major ". The song “Tessellate” sounds in the final credits of the series “ Atypical ” 2017. In addition, “Tessellate” (opening) and “In Cold Blood” (ending) sound in the animated series “ Ingress: The Animation ”. Their song, Left Hand Free, also plays in the movie Captain America: Civil War. During the awakening of the main character at the beginning of the second episode of the computer game “ Life Is Strange ”, you can hear the song “Something good”.

• Jacob Wyatt. Interviews AltSounds (July 23, 2012). Archived on October 11, 2012.
• Stereoigor . Interview (Russian) Alt-J in the radio show "Stereobaza"