Alt-J: David Gilmour’s favourite indie band
As indie trundled along across the 2000s and well past its sell-by date, a handful of secret hippies sought to inject doses of psychedelia and elements of dance culture into a run of electronically coated outfits flecking a little sonic acid across the conventional band set-up. Cue groups like MGMT, Battles, Animal Collective, and Ariel Pink’s myriad of spectral kitsch projects.
Forming at the tail-end of the 2000s was Leeds’ Alt-J. Officially called Δ, the Greek letter delta that’s created by pressing ‘Alt’ and ‘J’ on Apple keyboards, the art-rock trio wowed the music world with 2012’s debut An Awesome Wave, a swirling chromatic hue of post-punk grooves and synth washes that thrust indie’s corporate stult into a relatively freer and unreined kaleidoscopic realm.
One giant of psychedelia and classic rock paying attention was Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour. Floating around the band with semi-membership status before officially joining following original frontman Syd Barrett’s departure in 1968, Gilmour for a long stretch was the best thing about the band. The heady space rock heights of The Dark Side of the Moon were a few years off yet, but through all the mushy conceptual half-bakes and unfocused Ummagumma-style jams, Gilmour’s soaring guitar technique shone from day one.
Deep, expressive, and immersed in slow melodic build over-indulgent fret virtuosity, Gilmour’s electrifying solos were the first flashes of greatness to come.
Eventually, in the aftermath of principal songwriter Roger Waters’ bitter departure in 1985, Gilmour stepped up behind the mic to steer the band onwards. Results varied, 1987’s A Momentary Lapse of Reason a soggy new age squelch but 1994’s follow-up The Division Bell an infintely more admirable effort. Jump 20 years later, and gearing up to record his fifth LP Luck and Strange sought the Pink Floyd legend to approach one of contemporary alterative music’s biggest names as both a collaborator, and simply a fan.
“I don’t really listen to an awful lot of modern music,” Gilmour let slip to The Guardian in 2024. “But the band I have been listening to is Alt-J, and they are what brought me to Charlie Andrew as a producer for this album. The work that they do with his help, I have found inspiring. He showed a massive lack of respect for my past and what I’ve done and, believe me, that is something one needs in life—to have people that come at you on a level playing field!”
Having produced all four of Alt-J’s albums, Andrew’s production chops certainly pushed him to the band’s ‘fourth’ member. By 2022’s The Dream, a shimmering dwell into a more raucous and rootsier mulch of programmed indie may well have coaxed Gilmour to reach out to Andrew to harness the same straddling energy of organic performance and ethereal flourish.
Some artists need a big character to waltz in, unintimidated by an artist’s heritage, and just call the creative shots. Much like Nigel Godrich’s testy but rewarding work with Paul McCartney, Andrew’s channel of Alt-J’s fluorescent psych-sonics saw even space rock stalwart Gilmour taking notes.
