Alt-J

Alt-J
alt-J at the Melt Festival (2013)
General information
origin	Leeds , England
Genre (s)	alternative
founding	2007
Website	www.altjband.com
Current occupation
Guitar , vocals	Joe Newman
Keyboard	Gus Unger-Hamilton
Drums	Thom Green
former members
Bass, guitar	Gwil Sainsbury (until 2014)

Alt-J (proper spelling: alt-J , also Δ) is a British alternative - folk - band from Leeds . Her greatest success so far is winning the English Mercury Prize 2012.

history

The beginnings of the band go back to 2007. It was then that Gwil Sainsbury, Joe Newman, Gus Unger-Hamilton and Thom Green met at Leeds University, where Sainsbury, Newman and Green studied art and Unger-Hamilton studied English literature. In her sophomore year Newman Sainsbury played a few of his songs that were inspired by his guitar-playing father. Then the two decided to start a band. The first recordings were made in her bedrooms at the university. After Green, Unger-Hamilton was the last to join the band, which in the following two years first appeared under the name Daljit Dhaliwal and later as The Films, mainly in Leeds. In order to avoid confusion with the American indie rock band The Films , they then adopted a new band name with alt-J. On November 1, 2012, alt-J won the prestigious Mercury Prize . At the BRIT Awards 2013 the band was nominated in three categories.

On February 11, 2014, alt-J announced on their official Twitter account that Gwil Sainsbury had left the band, but two days later they confirmed on Facebook that the band was still working on their second album. The album This Is All Yours was released on September 22, 2014, the pre-release single Hunger of the Pine was first played on June 18 on the BBC 's program.

Band name

The band name can be traced back to the key combination that is used to represent the ∆ character on English Mac keyboards , which has a deeper meaning for the band. The delta sign is used in math equations to symbolize the difference . The band calls themselves Alt-J.

Music style and reception

According to their own statements, the band plays alternative pop, which is based on folk verses, synthesizer sounds, hip-hop syncopations and close vocal harmonies. The British daily The Guardian , in which alt-J was named "Band of the Day" on May 24, 2012, describes the music as a modern Fairport Convention .

The album This Is All Yours , released in 2014, achieved the first highest rating of 10/10 since 2006 on the e-zine Plattentests.de .

Discography

Studio albums

year	Title music label	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
2012	An Awesome Wave Infectious	-	-	CH39 (11 weeks) CH	UK13 platinum (72 weeks)UK	US80 gold (61 weeks)US	First published: May 28, 2012 Sales: + 935,000
2014	This Is All Yours Infectious	DE8 (5 weeks) DE	AT7 (5 weeks) AT	CH3 (11 weeks) CH	UK1 gold (37 weeks)UK	US4th gold (28 weeks)US	First published: September 22nd, 2014 Sales: + 700,000
2017	Relaxer Infectious	DE13 (4 weeks) DE	AT4 (7 weeks) AT	CH3 (6 weeks) CH	UK6th silver (7 weeks)UK	US14 (2 weeks) US	First published: June 2, 2017

Live albums

• 2016: Live at Red Rocks

Remix albums

year	Title music label	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
2018	Reduxer Infectious	-	-	-	-	US38 (1 week) US	First published: September 28, 2018

EPs

• 2011: ∆
• 2013: iTunes Session
• 2013: Summer

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
2012	Matilda An Awesome Wave	-	-	-	UK83 (2 weeks) UK	-	First published: January 10, 2012
	Breezeblocks An Awesome Wave	-	-	-	UK75 gold (1 week)UK	US- platinum US	First published: May 18, 2012 Sales: + 1,555,000
	Fitzpleasure An Awesome Wave	-	AT47 (3 weeks) AT	-	-	-	First published: May 18, 2012
	Something Good An Awesome Wave	-	-	-	UK76 (2 weeks) UK	-	First published: September 28, 2012
2014	Hunger of the Pine This Is All Yours	-	-	-	UK59 (7 weeks) UK	-	First published: June 19, 2014
	Left Hand Free This Is All Yours	-	-	-	UK85 gold (3 weeks)UK	US99 gold (1 week)US	First published: July 7, 2014 Sales: + 935,000
	Every Other Freckle This Is All Yours	-	-	-	UK58 (4 weeks) UK	-	First published: August 14, 2014
2015	Warm Foothills This Is All Yours	-	AT73 (1 week) AT	CH51 (1 week) CH	-	-	First published: March 2nd, 2015
The following songs did not appear as single, but were made available for download and streaming through the album and were thus able to achieve a placement:
2014	The Gospel of John Hurt This Is All Yours	-	AT75 (1 week) AT	CH53 (1 week) CH	-	-	Chart entry: September 21, 2014
	Pusher This Is All Yours	-	-	CH54 (1 week) CH	-	-	Chart entry: September 21, 2014

more publishments

• 2011: Bloodflood / Tessellate
• 2012: Tessellate
• 2012: Something Good
• 2013: Dissolve Me
• 2017: 3WW
• 2017: In Cold Blood
• 2017: Adeline
• 2017: Deadcrush
• 2017: Pleader

Awards for music sales

Golden record  Australia 2015: for the album This Is All Yours 2017: for the single Left Hand Free  Italy 2017: for the single Breezeblocks  Canada 2013: for the album An Awesome Wave 2015: for the album This Is All Yours  Netherlands 2015: for the album An Awesome Wave 2015: for the album This Is All Yours

Platinum record  Australia 2015: for the album An Awesome Wave 2 × platinum record  Australia 2019: for the single Breezeblocks

Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.

Country / Region	silver	gold	platinum	Sales	swell
Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources)
Australia (ARIA)	-	2 × gold2	3 × platinum3	280,000	aria.com.au
Italy (FIMI)	-	gold1	-	25,000	fimi.it
Canada (MC)	-	2 × gold2	-	80,000	musiccanada.com
Netherlands (NVPI)	-	2 × gold2	-	50,000	nvpi.nl
United States (RIAA)	-	3 × gold3	platinum1	2,500,000	riaa.com
United Kingdom (BPI)	silver1	3 × gold3	platinum1	1,260,000	bpi.co.uk
All in all	silver1	13 × gold13	5 × platinum5

swell

1. ↑ … met at Leeds University in 2007. In: soundcloud.com/alt-j. Retrieved July 8, 2012 . 
2. ^ Andy Welch: Alt-J member takes 'personal decision' to leave the band. In: nme.com. January 11, 2014, accessed June 19, 2014 . 
3. ↑ alt-J (∆) 's name takes a little explaining. In: soundcloud.com/alt-j. Retrieved January 6, 2014 . 
4. ^ Paul Lester: Alt-J (No 1,275). In: guardian.co.uk. May 24, 2012. Retrieved July 8, 2012 . 

Web links

Commons : alt-J  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• The band website (English)
• Alt-J at laut.de
• Alt-J at Discogs (English)
• Alt-J on MusicBrainz (English)
• Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US