(Single from album, "An Awesome Wave")
This is one very weird song indeed...
To start, any band that names themselves ∆ is asking for it, aren't they? We all know how popular the last guy to name himself as a symbol was, don't we? Ok, so things didn't go so well for 'the artist formerly known as Prince' after his own infamous name change, but still, it didn't detract too much from the fact that the artist formerly known as Prince, had some talent; and hey, let's face it, production values were still astronomically high on the music, even after he lost the bloody plot and went mad...
This band, known affectionately as Alt-J in place of the illegible title they choose to bestow upon themselves, have a similarly experimental, contemporary and geeky edge; though its more indie than Prince. In fact, its so indie, its actually annoying...
Instrumentally, a quiet keyboard and bass open the track with a repeated vocal effect in place of a guitar, thrown in at about 0:12 with a trippy (and, at first, irregular) drum track. The vocal effect is loud and feels a bit folky, imitating the momentary guitar shred effect from Santigold's "Disparate Youth". The music gets better as the track progresses with an assortment of bells appearing at 1:47, and a standard guitar track towards the middle. Then everything gets very excitable and quite Radical Face, at 2:10 when the distinctive second half of the song begins; intense vocal layering, irregular/regular drum fills, and a moody synth in the background with the meandering bass behind.
The whole thing is quite confusing and feels a little demo-like, and, subsequently, rather cheap and far too complex; its probably very interesting to watch though.
The lyrics absolutely kill the song. The whiney cockney-esque winge-and-moan rap-esque delivery of the lead vocal is intensely irritating and, perhaps, even worse, for the most part, it is unintelligible; what is this guy saying? Someone tell me...please!
Maybe it will help to explain the kick-ass but very, very, very bizarre music video. The music video is rarely mentioned in these reviews, but, aside from the alien sound of the song, its what gives this track its edge and makes it so noticeable amongst the chart landfill of One Direction and Labrinth; its reverse footage of a man killing a woman as he drowns her in a bath by putting a breezeblock over her head whilst under the water, following a particularly violent altercation. The odd, weird, bizarreness of the whole thing matches the song excellently, and even if the actual music is not something you want to own or hear very often, as this track is, the video is at least thought provoking and interesting, to say the very least...
Overall, this is just an oddball; strange, but endearing; the captivating and perverse video encapsulates the viewer, and that...well...you don't see that very often nowadays...
★★★★
Versions of "Breezeblocks"
Album/Single Version - 3:47
Tom Vek's Remix - 5:18
B-Ju Remix - 3:59
Rockdaworld Remix - 4:41