Wow, I think this alt-J band would have reached so much more acclaim and popularity if they had just instituted a real drummer… I mean this programmed beat they have on the An Awesome Wave opener definitely isn’t very complex. It’s like something a little kid would do. Now, granted, the computer program and digital mixing (Garage Band, et. al.) is cheaper than a drum set and a sound board, and finances might have been an obstacle for this group of young Britons. Sure enough, if you look at the Wikipedia page for this album, there is no drummer credited. In such a case, once the band got off the ground a little bit, got some air on Pandora and lined its pockets a tad, maybe a new thing could be reconvening with an actual drummer and kit and doing a “rock version” of the album, instead of the usual “remix,” “vinyl reissue” or “remaster,” all of which, with all due respect, can be KINDA friggin’ pointless.
A guy I work with had recently been playing the song “Breezeblocks” off of An Awesome Wave and I marveled at the effortlessness, swagger, sense of rhythm and perhaps most importantly the knack the singer had for sounding black (he sounded like a version of Jamiroquai that didn’t suck). One possible stopper in the song is when the guy’s crushed out over his female (apparently) subject matter and he’s like “I’d eat you whole”, me never having been particularly a fan of Led Zeppelin’s “Candy Store Rock,” the rest of Presence “sitting” a little better in my stomach, so to speak. “Breezeblocks” was freeing to me in a way, but also made me uncomfortable. Wow, I sound like one of those crusty old dinosaurs complaining about the Beatles or Elvis, don’t I?