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Alt-J star on the release of album Reduxer which is made up of other acts’ interpretations of tracks from band’s smash-hit original Relaxer
IT WAS the last throw of the dice for Primal Scream when Andrew Weatherall ripped up a garage song I’m Losing More Than I’ll Ever Have and turned it into an Acid House anthem, Loaded.
Loaded appeared on the 1991 album Screamadelica and turned the Scots band’s fortunes around, winning them the first Mercury Prize.
Alt-J have gone even further and, unlike Primal Scream, aren’t desperately looking for a breakthrough.
Reduxer, out on September 28, is an album of other people’s interpretations of the trio’s third album Relaxer.
The original album reached No6 in the UK and No14 in America, following their second album This Is All Yours which got to No1 in the UK and No4 in the US and debut album An Awesome Wave which won the 2012 Mercury Prize.
So why allow others to try to make your music sound better?
Gus Unger-Hamilton, the band’s keyboard player, claimed he didn’t even know Screamadelica before coming up with the idea of Reduxer.
“We didn’t grow up with Screamadelica or Primal Scream, said Gus who pointed out that the band have always been influenced by hip hop more than indie music.
“It’s not that we don’t like the music, we just didn’t know about them.
“We decided to do it because we have had a lot of offers to collaborate in the past but we’ve always turned them down.
“We worried the magic that works with the three of us together wouldn’t BY RICK FULTON work with someone else there. So we’ve always been quite afraid of collaboration.”
The change in the band’s stance came when they were writing Relaxer and felt the song Deadcrush “sounded like a hip hop tune without rapping”.
“So we thought it would be cool to get someone rapping on it,” Gus added. “It went from there. We thought maybe we could do a whole album like that. The label were excited about it so as we were making Relaxer the label was finding people to re-imagine the songs. “It started as a remix album but once it was done we realised it was a lot more than that.”
The results are incredible. Sometimes only snippets of the original song or a phrase are used in the new tunes which turn the electronic trio into an urban collective with shades of Gorillaz. Some of the world’s most influential hip hop acts and producers have got involved from legend Pusha T, Grammy nominated American act Goldlink, platinum-certified Parisian rapper Lomepal and breakthrough acts like Rejjie Snow from Dublin and Puerto Rican rapper PJ Sin Suela. Even Gus is impressed. He laughed: “I like this album more than the original album at the moment.
“I suppose I’m prouder of Relaxer as it’s a piece of work we wrote but I love Reduxer as a fan.
“It hasn’t made me look at Relaxer in a different way but it’s been very gratifying to know that there was this
amazing potential to go different places in the songs we wrote.” The band, Gus, singer/guitarist Joe Newman and drummer Thom Green, left the label to find the acts to rip up and rebuild Relaxer. Luckily, everything that came back sounded amazing – so much so that while all eight songs on Relaxer have remixes, a further three have been doubled up. Gus said: “We couldn’t choose which one. We commissioned more than we needed and felt it was a shame to put one on and not the other just to keep it to eight tracks like the original.” Fans will get to hear Alt-J play some of Reduxer when they tour in October including a date at SEC Armadillo, Glasgow, on October 21. Gus said: “We are going to try and work in some of the remixes. I’m in the studio at the moment trying to work it out. “I think our fans would be disappointed we didn’t play the songs they know and love but also disappointed there isn’t some stuff from Reduxer in there too.” Despite having Hamilton in his name, Gus can’t boast any Scots blood. He said: “Sadly not. My family added it to Anglify our German Jewish name in the 30s and got it out of the phone book. My gran thought it sounded smart.”
Reduxer is out on September 28. Tickets to show at Armadillo, Glasgow www.altjband.com/