In November 2012 the band were announced as the winners of the Mercury Prize for their album. They also did concert tour in the United States in December 2012 and performed at the Laneway Festival tour in Australia. The band have featured regularly on summer festivals, including Latitude, Bestival, Reading and Leeds, T in the Park, Green Man, Pukkelpop, and Lowlands. Īlt-J supported Wild Beasts in April 2012 and played a minor headlining tour around the United Kingdom and Ireland in October of that year. The album received largely favourable reviews and was described as a "captivating blend of insatiable grooves and profound poignancy". Their debut album was released on in the UK, Europe, and Australia, and on 18 September 2012 in North America via Canvasback Music. An Awesome Wave was also produced by Charlie Andrew and compiled at Iguana Studios, Brixton, where the band recorded tracks during the studio's spare time. It was followed by " Breezeblocks" which preceded their first album. Their first 2012 release for Infectious Records was the triangle-shaped 10" " Matilda"/" Fitzpleasure". A 7" single containing " Bloodflood" and "Tessellate" was released by Loud and Quiet in October 2011. Their self-titled 4-track demo EP, ∆, was recorded with producer Charlie Andrew in London and featured the tracks " Breezeblocks", "Hand-Made", "Matilda", and " Tessellate". An Awesome Wave and touring: 2011–12Īfter graduating, the band moved to Cambridge where they spent a number of months working on their music before signing a deal with Infectious Records in December 2011. As a result, he is now about 80 percent deaf. Thom Green suffers from Alport syndrome, a rare genetic disease which causes hearing and kidney failure. The band's unusual sound stems from the fact that due to living in student halls, where noise had to be kept to a minimum, they were unable to use bass guitars or bass drums. In their second year of studies, Newman showed Sainsbury a handful of his own songs and, inspired by his guitar-playing dad, the pair began recording on GarageBand in their hall rooms with Sainsbury acting as producer. According to Newman "I basically went to art school to start a band." Unger-Hamilton (younger brother of Ferdy, head of A&R for Polydor Records) studied English, the other three Fine Art. History Formation and early years: 2007–10Īlt-J (∆) was formed when Gwil Sainsbury (guitar/bass), Joe Newman (guitar/lead vocals), Gus Unger-Hamilton (keyboards/vocals) and Thom Green (drums) met at Leeds University in 2007. 1.3 Departure of Sainsbury and This Is All Yours: 2013–present.1.2 An Awesome Wave and touring: 2011–12.