Bands to watch: △ (Alt-J)

△ (SoundCloud) is the symbol you get from hitting alt+j on an Apple keyboard apparently and has resulted in a band that I would have referred to as Triangle instead taking on the name “Alt-J”. Yes it’s pretentious, and taking cues from some obscure “witchhouse” band names is not always a good idea, but thank God the music more than makes up for it. They used to be called Films, but weren’t allowed that so decided a symbol would be a solid two-fingers salute.

On the music front, however, they have me captivated. On Tesselate they throw reverb-wrapped blues/soul vocals over a variety of skittish percussion and discordant melodies, but then create a beautiful soft guitar and drum-brush ballad in Matilda. Handmade develops into mesmerising vocal harmonies that wouldn’t sound out of place on an Antony and the Johnsons record. Then just to keep us all getting they roll in with the bassline led Cameo (him of the red cod-piece) influenced Breezeblocks. Pigeon-hole these Leeds boys at your peril.

(Hat tip to the ever brilliant Ollie from My Band’s Better Than Your Band for discovering these guys)

Tessellate (demo) by alt-j
Matilda (demo) by alt-j
Hand-made (demo) by alt-j
Breezeblocks (demo) by alt-j