Jamie T, Panic Prevention
Rating: 
Life is full of little nuggets of bizarre, incongruent delights. Cases in point: banana, chocolate and mozzarella pizza; salt & vinegar crisps dunked in Nutella; those unforeseen feats of culinary genius compiled around 3 a.m. when you’re still swaying to Baywatch. Jamie T reminds me of Nutella & Walkers butties–his music is an erratic amalgam of anything and everything, fused together in a sozzled haze. Punk-funk, ska, garage, bit of hip-hop, all jammed together and recorded in a bedroom on budget equipment – this shouldn’t work, frankly it should be disastrous.
The unfathomable thing is that not only does T make work, he does so with brilliance. The “let’s just bung it all together and see what happens” feel of the tracks is just cunning pretence, as the genius lies in the subtle detail. Brackish bellows of “Loonndoon!”, hollered “lalalas” and snippets of John Betjemen’s poetry frequently puncture the melodic texture, never skipping a chance to provoke or pique. The music constantly revivifies itself, with every play exposing new harmonies and unpredictable kitschy beats, so all you have to do is plug it in your ears, go for a walk somewhere and revel in the “blue blooded murder of the English tongue”.
Out now.
