alt-J - Tessellate - An Awesome Wave

alt-J have only really just appeared on the radar in the last few months or so really. Their album, An Awesome Wave, is a big favourite of Radio 1, who have been promoting it quite heavily recently. It's out currently and is DEFINITELY worth a listen. Top tracks for me at the moment are Breezeblocks (the biggy), this track, Tessellate, and Dissolve Me.

Another band I like called Seasfire are a bit similar to alt-J, in terms of being a breath of fresh and individual air to most of the stuff in the charts at the moment. Don't get me wrong, I'm not gonna lie and say I don't like chart music because I really do, and yeah I'm sold on the whole dubstep and drum and bass thing at the moment, but it is nice to hear music that isn't buying into that whole shebang for once. Anyway, listen to the song Falling by the band Seasfire, I was literally obsessed with this song for a while.

I reckon they're similar because they're both so chilled, and if you listen to more of their stuff you'll see it's all quite chilled. Note I say chilled, not bland. So, not chilled in the way that supermarket music is chilled (and bland)... I think I'm getting off the point. Hopefully you know what I mean...!


But yeah, so back to Tessellate. Tessellate the word means the way in which shapes fit together, so it's already quite intriguing. The song starts off with four chords in the piano and then another one, the same chord but at a higher interval. Then this clunky-sounding drum beat hits. It sounds almost mechanical, and it's like perfectly in time; I'm thinking maybe a drum machine? Dunno though. After the piano bit, the singer, Joe Newman, kicks in. His voice is so distinctive, unlike most generic singing at the moment. It's really odd, but so listenable and intriguing. In this verse, it is just Newman, the bass guitar and the mechanical sounding drums. Very cool. I forgot to mention this pretty cool riff being played by the bass; it's awesome, and continues throughout the song.

"Awesome" CD case

The chorus starts with the line "Triangles are my favourite shape", maybe a nod to the symbol of their name, the Delta sign? Maybs I'm just reading too much into it. Maybe he actually just full on loves triangles. The chorus doesn't actually sound like it's a chorus. As in there's not really much change to distinguish between the end of the verse and the start of the chorus apart from a bit more rhythm with the drums/machine. The last line of the chorus is "Let's tessellate", and now I finally get what he's on about... Think about it... The way in which shapes "fit together"... There you go.

After this it's more of the backing, which is just so chilled (I'm gonna try and stop saying chilled now). It's brilliant. Then it all slows down and it sounds as though it's just voices with the drum joining in after a while, it's quite haunting. Everything fits together perfectly, almost tessellating... HA.

The next verse picks up a bit compared with the last one; there's a bit more going on, a bit more colour. The piano has joined back in, with a third interval being played reeeallly high up in the right end of the piano keyboard. It's tinkly and pretty. There are sounds in the background that I am presuming are effects but I'm not really sure what they're called in all honesty. They help build up the texture a bit more.

When it comes back round to the chorus, there are some ahh's in the background, making it sound a bit like it does in those old movies where someone's about to meet their doom, like get their head chopped off as they walk up to the stage. It's building up and building up, and as soon as it gets to his "Let's tessellate" bit again, it's all dropped suddenly. Noice. Then it's the drum machine, weird sound effect thing and awesome bass riff til end. I reallllly like this song. Defo gonna buy the album! Please give it a listen :)