Panic Prevention

Young and restless

A search for new talents led Virgin records to signing a contract with currently unknown musical rascal and experimenter named Jamie T. According to the rules of logic a skinny lad with a twang voice and an acoustic bass guitar under his armpit just couldn’t have a chance to arouse an interest from the major label, but we see just what we see – the first official album of this 20 year old performer from London Panic Prevention is finally released due to Virgin. During the last year Jamie T has committed an incredible jump from the half empty pubs up to the Hot Twenty hit singles and a status of a hope for the British musical scene. At any case NME has already called him “the next big thing”. Being inspired by The Clash, Tom Waits, Rancid he creates a peculiar musical product, which is really hard to categorize. The album is based on the concepts of primordial punk, which are almost completely forgotten nowadays, reviewed through the modern urbanistic prism. Panic Prevention reproduces blurry, boozy, chaotic world where does the youth that strives to spend all their money on alcohol and drugs lives.

A big role on Panic Prevention is given to a bass guitar

The material and the sound of the album may seem a bit strange at a first glance, but still there is something special in Panic Prevention that makes you listen to this record over and over again. The very first song brings the listener to the point of the matter at once. Brand New Bass Guitar is a pretty energetic and frolic song, though only an acoustic bass and vocals were used here. The song became a demonstrative example of Jamie’s art works, not in the sense of musical material, but rather in its energy. The album is rich for diverse ideas. Salvador turned out to be a full-fledged rock song, its eerie intro, that reminds of trip-hop’s musical searches, swiftly leaks into a mid tempo, pulsing rhythm, where the bass guitar and Jamie’s dry teenage vocal take the front position again. One of the most out standing songs here is Sheila where Jamie sticks to hip hop experiments, but he never loses not a single drop of his energy neither in sound nor in lyrics. It is worth mentioning the album’s fifth track Back In The Game, another song where only vocals and bass guitar are used. As distinct from Brand New Bass Guitar it is a more melodic piece, and Jamie’s unusual, free and easy manner of performance adds this song a special grain.

Panic Prevention has a raw but really true to life sounding

Panic Prevention is undeniably having a whole set of evident advantages: it is sincere, easy to listen and unpredictable. But the youth of musicians is felt not only in the album’s energy, the record sounds raw and at times it makes you think that they treated it too carelessly. This is obviously an album for the music lovers with specific tastes. Still one cannot say that the sounding is the album’s disadvantage, rather on the contrary, it brings a uniqueness into it. Panic Prevention strikes with its true to life air when compared with countless albums with crystal clear, neatly measured and right sound. Background vocals and speech between tracks sound as if they were recorded not at a professional studio but in a pub, guitar strings gnashing over the frets, Jamie’s cockney accent, all these associates with a live show of a local band comprised of the common fellows who have know idea of what the fame is. Listen to the album for several times and you’ll get what it is all about, it may seem strange but its original beauty doesn’t show itself immediately, but if you’ll like it, you’ll like for along time.