This attention to detail though paid off in spades as the boys picked up last year’s Mercury Prize and have seen their popularity soar exponentially since.
After relocating from Yorkshire, post-uni, to Cambridge, they recorded their debut in Brixton, south London, and unleashed it in April 2012.
The work enjoyed a slow-burn rise from being the cult album everyone was talking about to being the bookies’ fave for November’s annual gong for the UK’s best album.
Taking a highly creative and individual approach (as their name suggests), An Awesome Wave fuses the likes of indie, folk, electronica, trip-hop beats and synths into a literate, reference-drenched melting-pot that is individual enough to surprise, yet charmingly accessible and, most importantly, catchy enough, to win over the mainstream, too.
It has been for this reason that their debut not only picked up the Mercury award but was named as BBC 6 Music’s album of 2012. An atmospheric proposition on the stereo, in the live arena they filter this sound into a multi-layered, mood-drenched affair that is hypnotic and addictive.
If 2012 was a big year for them, then 2013 looks to be even bigger.
After these two nights in London, they have a stack more shows to come, including the Laneways tour Down Under, followed by a US trek and a UK headline tour in May to boot. Symbol-ic, literate, smart and unassailably cool, check them out.
O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, W12 8TT
Fri, Jan 18 & Sat Jan 19 | Doors at 7pm | £40+
Tube |Shepherd’s Bush
o2shepherdsbushempire.co.uk
Photo: Getty
