It all started with the Mac operating system…

When Jobs and Wozniak created the shortcut (alt-J) for the greek letter delta (∆), they never knew that the story behind that little feature many years later would make it famous. The simple symbol means ‘change’ in any given mathematical equation, but you’ll have to curb your enthusiasm for a further detailed explanation from me. Unfortunately, I can’t say much about the mathematical meaning.

What I can tell you is that the band alt-J, a three man British Indie Rock group, has coined the name for themselves, due to individual turning point in their own lives when the band formed.

Joe Newman (guitar/lead vocals), Gus Unger-Hamilton (keyboards/vocals) and Thom Green (drums) met at Leeds University in 2007, and from there, immediately gelled. The music they created was unlike anything else the band members had ever heard before.

The band flourished in the dorms of their college, and in fact, that atmosphere influenced their music. They couldn’t use any bass, drums, or loud instrumentation while playing in the dorms, teaching the musicians that those aspects weren’t necessary to create great music.

alt-J took flight, releasing their debut album An Awesome Wave in 2012. This past September, alt-J released its second album, This Is All Yours, skyrocketing to number 1 on British pop charts.

In the recent album, alt-J takes pop, indie rock, hip hop, and electronica and weaves them into an artful masterpiece of vocals and instrumentation.

The album starts with Intro, an instrumental that gives us listeners a taste of what’s to come, the exposition of the alt-J story, so to speak (in other words buckle up; it’s a ride through the refracting minds of alt-J).

Pitchfork named This Is All Yours as “passively aggressive” and I wholeheartedly agree. There’s a subliminal intensity beneath graceful layers of guitar and echoing synth. It can confuse the living daylights out of you at first listen, but pay close attention and you can make very clear sense of it.

So what do I mean when I say ‘confuse’? Well for instance, Miley Cyrus’s recurring lyric in her hip hop song 4×4, “I’m a female rebel,” just so happens to mesh with the pop drum kit beats in Hunger of the Pine. So what the heck, might as well throw it in there right?

I’ll admit I was skeptical when I heard people talking about putting an AWOL Disney star in such a song, but to my surprise it completed the song. Turns out, that’s what alt-J is all about; putting a blindfold on us listeners, spinning us around ten times, and then making us run in the direction we know seems incorrect, but in turn proving us completely wrong.

Continuing the album we come across songs like “Arrival in Nara”/”Nara”/”Leaving Nara” which comply with the mysterious side of the band, while songs such as Garden of England – Interlude provide little breaks of fresh air. Tracks like Every Other Freckle showcase a bluesy guitar taint in a widely thick synth backdrop.

My favorite on the list is Left Hand Free, a grooving pop rock jam that seems 90s in a sense. The shuffling drums tell a 90s tale while the “speak easy” organ solo and a horn section bridge tell one of Southern churchiness.

This Is All Yours proved to me that alt-J isn’t your run of the mill indie rock band. Where the members got their influences from, well we can only speculate. But wherever they got them from, they sure know how to use them well. They’re making music that combines apples and oranges, and somewhere in that process, they end up with ingenuity.

I’m not quite sure how alt-J pulled it off, but I do know that this album will be on my top playlist for some time.