Jamie T - 'Panic Prevention' (Virgin) Released 29/01/07

Jamie T. A 20 year old leary lad armed with an acoustic bass guitar, an exceptional talent for encompassing everything it is to be a guy growing up in England, a shite-load of dodgy recording equipment and probably a few bottles of frosty jacks’ cider, has created an album that will satisfy those fans whom have been salivating over his sporadically released demo recordings and live sets, yet will no doubt gain fans that usually wouldn’t dare to listen to something with a casio keyboard or drum machine in the background, with his exceptional debut LP ‘Panic Prevention’.

Having reluctantly (at first anyway) wandered the streets of Soho for a place to exorcise his demons through the art of ‘open mic’ nights after leaving behind his punk band roots, Jamie T’s career isn’t that of fabled star spangled shoot-to-success crap, far from it, having bought an Apple computer with some money left by a deceased relative, the first hints of Jamie’s success came by working hard and organising club nights by the name of ‘Panic Prevention’ – the name taken in homage to his self discovered cure for the panic attacks he suffered from that would subside when listening to music. A residency in London’s ‘12 Bar’ in early 2006 saw people in their hundreds flock to the club to see Jamie in action after some of his tracks appeared on the internet an EP appeared and Zane Lowe fell in love with ‘Back In The Game’ spurring his listeners to check the lad out. He’d put in the hard work around the scene and it paid off.

‘Panic Prevention’ is the fruit of Jamie T’s labour, and oh how sweet is the taste! Having whetted our appetites with the funky ‘If You Got The Money’, the manic ‘Calm Down Dearest’ and the oh so beautiful yet harshly cutting ‘Sheila’ that is the pinnacle of Jamie’s depictions of tainted youth and over exposure to the dark side of growing up, he has crafted an album full of party starters and hangover comforters. ‘Brand New Bass Guitar’ takes the lead as one of Jamie’s best tracks to date as an acoustic bass “serenades” the listener with it’s swing style story of a night out that ends in technicolour yawns whilst a drunken barbershop quartet set the scene of chaos.