Alt-J Win Mercury Prize For An Awesome Wave

Recent Australian visitors Alt-J (or ∆) have been awarded the Mercury Prize for 2012 – largely considered the top music prize for albums released in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The subject of commercial acclaim – when people actually noticed it – and a rapidly growing fanbase, the Leeds indie-pop outfit recently visited Australia on the back of their prize-winning –and debut – album An Awesome Wave for a brief showcase visit. They will be returning to Australia for the Laneway Festival in 2013.

Earlier this year we called An Awesome Wave “a triumph on all fronts, with its instrumental and vocal sophistication making it both powerful and poignant; to say nothing of the fact that it is the band's debut record.”

But we do hope they've refined their live show in time for their return.

The prize was first won by Primal Scream's Screamadelica in 1992 and since then the likes of Portishead, Pulp, Dizzee Rascal, Franz Ferdinand, Klaxons, Artic Monkeys and Elbow have all picked up the award.

This year's nominations were:

Alt-J – An Awesome Wave
Ben Howard – Every Kingdom
Django Django – Django Django
Field Music – Plumb
Richard Hawley – Standing at the Sky's Edge
Michael Kiwanuka – Home Again
Lianne La Havas – Is Your Love Big Enough?
Sam Lee – Ground Of Its Own
The Maccabees – Given To The Wild
Plan B – Ill Manors
Roller Trio – Roller Trio
Jessie Ware – Devotion