99. Alt-J - ‘An Awesome Wave’ + Americano

Alt-J - ‘An Awesome Wave’ + Americano

Ingredients: 1 1/2 ounces Campari, 1 1/2 ounces sweet vermouth, 3 ounces soda water, orange slice for garnish.

Mixing Instructions: Fill highball glass with ice.  Add Campari and sweet vermouth, top generously with soda (don’t exceed 1:1:2 ratio).  Garnish with orange slice.

Notes: My first contact with British quartet ∆ (pronounced Alt-J) was via their floating and beautiful, “Something Good”, a song about the mending of a broken heart told through the death of a matador.  It delicately strums many of the same emotional strings as Radical Face’s “Welcome Home, Son” welling up in the listener an inexplicable torrent of nostalgia and longing.  What raises the band’s credibility, however, is the rest of the album.  Rather then a let down one finds oneself going from song to song saying, “This is my favorite…wait, no this one is.”  Each song is a unique and compelling character on its own, but fits perfectly into the larger story.  This is music to listen to when you’re bored with music.  It’s a refreshing reminder of what’s possible when people mix love and risk into their art. 

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