alt-J (GB)

About

Also known as: ∆

Alt J are a Leeds indie rock band with a sound genuinely unlike most of their peers: their debut album An Awesome Wave was built partly around drummer Thom Green's refusal to use cymbals, swapping them for things like the back end of a saucepan. That kind of lateral thinking paid off when the record won the 2012 Mercury Prize, which the band later described as life changing, admitting they felt like impostors who had somehow muddled through to one of UK music's biggest honours. Their name comes from the Mac keyboard shortcut that types the triangle symbol ∆, the Greek letter delta meaning change, which the band adopted at what they called a turning point in their lives. After guitarist Gwil Sainsbury departed in early 2014, they pressed on as a trio and their second album This Is All Yours went straight to number one in the UK. A third album, Relaxer, followed in 2017, and a fourth, The Dream, arrived in 2022.