Δ (ALT-J)
An Awesome Wave
Canvasback (2012)
Calling your band a shape is probably a bad career move. It’s corny, at the very least, which is part of the reason I didn’t pick up ?’s album sooner. It turns out you pronounce the delta symbol like “Alt-J” in the instance of this up-and-coming British indie rock group. Their debut, An Awesome Wave, is a special breed of delightful weird – the kind that enlightened hipsters and psychedelic drug users everywhere revel in. An Awesome Wave has thirteen tracks, including one titled “Intro” and three interludes throughout. Joe Newman’s vocals set the group apart from standard pop and rock music immediately – his sometimes nasally, sometimes raspy, always chilled out sentiments are layered over Gus Unger-Hamilton’s comprehensive key work and Thom Green’s drums. Gwil Sainsbury also contributes guitar and bass. The effect is alluring and unsettling, not entirely unlike Animal Collective on a bad trip (or after puberty). In the same sense that nobody ever really knows what Bon Iver is saying, most tracks on An Awesome Wave are nigh impossible to fully understand without the help of printed lyrics but it doesn’t detract from the overall effect of the music. The music paired with the vocals have … Read more
Continents
Idle Hands
Victory (2013)
Continents from South Wales, UK are a Moshcore band that formed in 2010. Their self released video for “Trials” was … Read more
Dawn McCarthy and Bonnie Prince Billy
What The Brothers Sang
Drag City (2013)
The Everly Brothers were a staple in my house musically when I was growing up back in the early ‘60s; … Read more
