Alt-J: REDUXER 7.5/10

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If there was ever a personified Marmite, Alt-J are it. Even within the indie/anti-establishment demographic, a review of their latest song or gig from two individuals will never be the same. We may never know definitively whether they’re good or not, but what we do know is the British group have just released their fourth album to date and named it REDUXER.

Are they genius? Are they overly ambitious? Or are they just a quartet from Leeds saying “F*** you!” to the Spotify algorithm? Their latest album certainly asks these questions, both to the group themselves and to us. REDUXER doesn’t appear conform to any convention that we have heard from the group before, but Alt-J have succeeded in maintaining their unique identity on each of the diverse tracks. It’s ambient/punk/hip hop/dance soundtrack is a fluently produced demonstration of what well fused genres can achieve in creating original music.  One song that summarises this is the group’s version of The Animals’ ‘House of the Rising Sun’. It’s an eloquent homage to where music has been and, arguably, where it’s going. After Joe Newman (vocals and guitar) sings the main lyric to the classic track, a dramatic synth solo follows. Indeed, some may say that it taints the legacy of The Animals’ ‘hard act to follow’, but it neither disrespects the lyric nor does it go too far in exploring what may have been for the original version of song if it were produced today.

Alt-J, who formed in 2008, have indeed put a stamp on what it means to not follow the trend of particular modern artists and their upsettingly predictable binary crowd pleasers. Their folk-vocal-dub-pop sound has become something of a cult favourite, and, rather frustratingly, I dislike the quartet from Leeds just as much as I love them. This album is no exception. As a follow up to 2017’s RELAXER, REDUXER plays host to the same songs, but remixed by artists from all over world. The band announced on Facebook earlier this year, “It’s no secret that we love and are influenced by hip-hop, and it’s always been a dream of ours to work with hip-hop artists in re-imagining our music.” Redux itself is a phrase commonly used to refer to a reimagining of work, so it’s not like they’re trying to disguise the album as being completely new, more just revised. The first track, 3WW (featuring female rapper Little Simz) starts with the lyric “play it seven times over,” which is ironically what I’ve had to do to the album to form a basic opinion about what can only be described as a musical experiment. I can honestly say it’s my favourite Alt-J album to date, but I have no idea why.

As someone who’s grown up to the sound of a musical purist’s heaven, featuring the likes of Michael Jackson, Queen, The Ramones, ELO and more, I get the feeling that this is an album I shouldn’t really like. It’s stop-and-go, rather repetitive use of technology within the tracks does get tedious to listen to. For god’s sake, can we listen to you without the weird robotic electronic vocal effect please, Joe? REDUXER is made up of 11 tracks, with Alt-J using an arsenal of artists including; Twin Shadow, Rejjie Show, The Alchemist, Lomepal, Kontra K and Paigey Cakey. Recognise any of those names? No? I didn’t either. (Luckily, if you’re after finding an Alt-J album featuring ‘bigger’ names, fear not! Pusha T and Danny Brown both make an appearance as well). Regardless, I have to give credit where it’s due, all of the supporting acts have brought something original and unique to a sound incredibly hard to put another identity over the top of. Not only this, but the ‘musically satisfying’ elements within the whole album are absolutely something for a purist to dig their teeth into. For example, Deadcrush is a stylish fusion of electronic hip-hop, with the sophisticated use of daylight giving the track a dry edge and real attitude which is enhanced by the non-musical samples over the regular beat.

Whether you’re an Alt-J fan or not, I absolutely recommend giving this album a listen to. If you’re looking for a new genre to get into, want to feel inspired, or are even just curious, this album hopefully has something for everyone to enjoy. The group have always seemed to have an ability to rollercoaster their popularity in the extremes, but with the release of REDUXER (and last year’s RELAXER), I can see the quartet finally finding their niche within electronic music.

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