Lots of drama going on in the Facebooks. So Im gonna go and sidestep it all and talk about a musical artist that is on the fringes of everything that you all probably havent heard of, with inspiration from Jeremiahs occasional album reviews. The name of the trio is Δ, more commonly known as alt-J. Theyre classified in Google Play Music as 10s Alternative, but I think they sort of defy classification. I honestly cant compare their music to anything else Ive heard, and with their newest album spanning an extremely wide gamut of different sounds, I dont think thats going to change anytime soon. Their first of two full albums, An Awesome Wave, is rather paradoxical in how it treats you. Joe Newmans vocals are near-unintelligible, but every song makes you want to sing along. The short a cappella Interlude 1 serenades you with a story about a womans compulsion to partake in a ritual every 18 steps. Tessellate is a weird mix of calm guitar and xylophone interlaced with periods of intense drums and rumbling bass. Dissolve Me take a sharp turn towards more electronic influences. Matilda sets you down to sleep with gentle vocals, and Fitzpleasure awakens you with sharp guitar riffs and heavy distortion. Its all incredibly emotionally involved, and you want to listen over and over. But after some time, you begin to realize that some of these songs actually describe in detail horrendous acts of human cruelty. Taro speaks of landmines: A violent wrench grips mass, rips light, tears limbs like rags. Breezeblocks on holding a lover captive: She may contain the urge to run away/But hold her down with soggy clothes and breezeblocks. Fitzpleasure goes even further down the rabbit hole than Im willing to go here. It turns out that many of these songs are graphic retellings of either events in history or events in fictional stories, shrouded in some metaphor and some slurred vocals. But the musical brilliance always draws me back -- I still have never been able to escape the beauty of the much more tame song, Bloodflood -- Breathe in, exhale/Ive poked a nerve, hell slap me like a whale/slaps the C-O-double-M-O-N. Their second album, This Is All Yours, is musically an evolution of the first album, with one track standing out as an exception. As is common in music today, their label decreed that the album didnt have any radio-friendly songs, and Left Hand Free was alt-Js middle finger raised to the powers that be. Its an extremely formulaic but catchy rock song allegedly written in 20 minutes that includes a completely atonal, randomly played keyboard solo and lyrics that subtly hint towards... er... pleasuring oneself. Dont worry about that; just focus on the overt meanings of wooing a girl and duelling another guy. With that track put aside, this album is much more tame lyrically than the previous one, while maintaining and expanding on the musical brilliance theyve developed. Every Other Freckle is a song that consistently catches you off guard with a variety of different instruments and sounds. Hunger Of The Pine does the same thing with a completely different set of sounds and an insanely memorable sample of a female singer. Theres even a trio of songs bookending the album that form what I call the Nara arc, but I havent had time to really examine that yet. One other song I want to make particular note of in the album is Bloodflood pt. 2. This track is particularly beautiful, with not only memorable lyrics, but also a number of musical hooks that keep me coming back. But the really amazing thing about this song is that it actually includes quotes from at least three other alt-J songs, and weaves them together into a completely new package. Its a truly amazing little tribute to the history of the band. Overall, if youre interested in trying something radically different from the standard musical fare, and youre willing to bear some occasionally difficult lyrics, Id wholeheartedly recommend alt-J. Below are a few links to songs Ive mentioned in this post that can provide a gentle introduction to the artist. (Note that alt-J tends to make very strange music videos, but nothing grotesque.) Tessellate - https://youtube/watch?v=Qg6BwvDcANg Taro - https://youtube/watch?v=S3fTw_D3l10 Matilda - https://youtube/watch?v=Q06wFUi5OM8 Left Hand Free - https://youtube/watch?v=NRWUoDpo2fo
Posted on: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 20:21:24 +0000
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