Alt- J (∆) Live at The Academy 2 Dublin -Thurs May 24

hoggie-bear

Alt- J (∆)

Live at The Academy 2 Dublin- Thurs May 24

The critically acclaimed quartet, Alt-J (∆), have announced a headline Dublin show at The Academy 2, April 24.
Tickets €12.00 inc booking fee are on sale from Ticketmaster outlets nationwide or online at www.ticketmaster.ie

Alt-J (∆), pronounced ‘alt-J’ after the delta sign, is more than an un-Google-able symbol that looks good on a T shirt. In mathematical equations it’s used to show change and the band’s relatively new name came at a turning point in their lives.
Gwil, Joe Newman [guitar/vocals], Gus Unger-Hamilton [keyboards] and Thom Green [drums] met at Leeds University in 2007. Joe had played Gwil a handful of his own songs inspired by his guitar-playing dad and hallucinogens, and the pair had begun recording them in their dorm rooms, ready for sharing with a world still hung up on MOR, cookie-cutter indie. The response to Joe’s hushed falsetto yelps and Gwil’s rudimentary sampling skills was good. When Thom was played the tracks he joined the band straight away.
Gus completed the band’s line-up and together the four friends spent the next two years playing art-show fundraisers and venues around town, developing a precise and unique brand of alt. pop that draws on poignant folk verses, crushing synths, smart hip hop syncopations and tight vocal harmonies. Attention, admiration and favourable comparisons have come thick and fast for alt-J (∆) within the first six months, their Soundcloud managed to generate over 70,000 plays, with little to no promotion
So much of the band’s sound is their own, From Joe’s high soul cry and Thom’s refusal to drum with cymbals (a rule first born out of necessity, because he couldn’t fit a full drum kit in Gwil’s bedroom where the band first practiced, so instead used saucepans), to the sparse guitars and Gus' delicate key clunks on songs like 'Bloodflood', a neat sound-bite for ∆’s music is yet to be coined, and perhaps never will be. And by challenging what constitutes folk, hip hop, indie and pop music, the band have quickly found themselves in the studio at the beginning of 2012, recording their debut album for Infectious Music with long-time producer Charlie Andrew (Micachu & The Shapes, Eugene McGuinness).
Their debut album will further explore alt-J (∆)’s varied soundscapes and percussive, experimental grooves, but it’s also a record that isn’t as stringently leftfield as some might be expecting. Veering wildly from psychedelic avant pop to skeletal folktronica, the finished album promises to trade in understated beauty one minute and epic oddities the next. Others seem to have come to the band as unexpectedly as they come to us, sounding like great experimental pop acts we already know about, yet somehow only ever completely like the band with a triangle for a name.

Tickets for Alt-J are now on sale from Ticketmaster outlets and online at www.ticketmaster.ie

For more see: http://www.altjband.com / www.mcd.ie