Alt-J are finally coming to Iceland! I really love this band so I’m thrilled to have a chance to see them live. The music is brilliant; catchy feel good music with a mix of folk and indie. Their use of acoustic instruments give it a slightly electronic touch. If you haven’t heard them before, here are three of my favourite songs by them:
7 Interesting Facts about Alt-J:
- The group was established in 2007, and their first album, An Awesome Wave (2012) won the Mercury Award in Britain.
- Recently they’ve been touring around the world promoting their second album “This is All Yours” (nominated for a Grammy). The band has become really popular in a short time so we’re extremely lucky that they want to come to Iceland to play. (Actually it’s not so surprising: Iceland rocks!)
- The drummer, Thom Green iis around 80% deaf, because of a rare genetic disease. Despite that, his drumming is excellent, his main distinguishing characteristic being the absence of cymbals. This unusual way of drumming a huge part of the success of the band.
- The band’s signal is the delta sign; ∆. For probably a year I had no idea really what the name of the band was…the triangle band or the greek D thingy worked fine. Anyway, For those who don’t know, it’s the greek letter “delta” which is the mathematical symbol for “change” or “difference”. The symbol can be typed on certain Mac computers with the keys alt + J (I bet you’re trying it now..)
- Their songs have been used in various sectors, for example some advertisements and the David O. Russel movie “Silver Linings Playbook”
- They actually once performed wearing Viking costumes. It was a corporate gig for a Russian telecommunications company who had a team-building weekend in Iceland. Will they do it this time here in Reykjavík? I certainly hope so!
- The Icelandic electronic music group Samaris will be heating up for them and I couldn’t ask for a better combination.
I’m looking forward to June 2nd. Apparently Alt-J are insanely good live with visual shows, lights and whatnot. Then I just have to hope that they will ramble into the What’s On office, or that we can spot them somewhere soaking in a geothermal pool with their cool Delta-shaped sunglasses.
