Gang of Youths Win Australia’s J Award With ‘Angel in Realtime’

Gang of Youths’ third studio set Angel In Realtime wins triple j’s J Award for Australian album of the year.

The alternative rock act took the main prize at the national youth broadcaster’s annual J Awards, to beat out a list of LPs by the likes of Eliza & The Delusionals, Flume, Julia Jacklin, King Stingray, Meg Mac and others.

Angel In Realtime blasted to No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart in March, for their second leader.

It’s the rockers’ first J Award win in three attempts. GoY’s debut album The Positions was shortlisted in 2015 (won by Courtney Barnett’s Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit); and again in 2017 with Go Farther In Lightness (won by A.B. Original’s Reclaim Australia).

“We’ve been nominated for this award before but for some reason this one feels super-meaningful because it’s about my dad,” frontman Dave Le’aupepe told triple j hosts Bryce & Ebony, adding he was “totally blown away.”

The multiple ARIA Award-winning band “spent years working on this project,” Le’aupepe explained ahead of its release. Along the way, the Sydney act “scrapped it three times, recorded in various studios both commercial and informal in London, New Zealand and Budapest, and hopefully, have managed to capture something vital and beautiful in the process.”

Now based in London, GoY returned to Australia in July and August for a national arena tour. Several U.K. concerts are locked-in for this month.

The result is a recording loaded with textures and ideas on “Indigenous heritage and identity, family, god, life, death, grief, sport, forgiveness, and the Angel Islington,” he continued.

Also at the J Awards, Kenyan-born, Adelaide-based creator Elsy Wameyo scooped the Unearthed artist of the year prize; rock legends Midnight Oil won Double J’s artist of the year award; and electric Korean-Australian hip-hop act 1300 snag Australian music video of the year for “Oldboy,” directed by Raghav Rampal.

The J Awards were launched in 2005 to coincide with triple j’s 30th anniversary celebrations. The flagship award is given to the LP considered by a panel as the most “outstanding achievement as an Australian musical work of art – for its creativity, innovation, musicianship and contribution to Australian music.”

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