George Lamb versus music (Mystery Jets)

In between reading 18 books on Charles Darwin's life between 1842 and 1844, I popped down to 93 Feet East the other night. To see some bands? Don't be ridiculous. I went to the launch of Liberal Youth, the new Liberal Democrat scheme to indoctrinate the future leaders of society. I must admit Nick Clegg gave quite a rousing speech but I spent most of the night calling it the Hitler Youth because I'm hilarious. Free food and wine though, can't complain! But I actually find it quite amusing that there is a Hungarian hardcore band also called Liberal Youth. Although they really don't appear to be liberal or youthful.

And now onto the real issue. George Lamb. The daytime BBC 6Music radio presenter, former manager of one Lily Allen and occasional TV presenter. Not to be confused with the 19th century politician, who presumably doesn't have several petitions demanding his expulsion from the radio waves. Yes, people really hate George Lamb. So I am introducing a sporadic (and possibly short lived) feature called George Lamb versus music. Not because I hate him - simply because it gives me an excuse to post some nice session tracks bands play on his show. I genuinely don't mind George Lamb. Although he is undoubtedly better suited to Radio 1. Alan Carr is filling his slot this week (geddit?), which has been quite bizarre.



Anyways, on with the show. Mystery Jets are the first band to appear in this series. Their second album, 'Twenty One' is about to drop, and is in fact available now digitally for only a fiver from 7digital. They played 'Young Love' and 'Two Doors Down' from the album in the 6Music Session.

You might be familiar with 'Young Love', the first single from this album, featuring Laura Marling, who we'll briefly return to soon. And 'Two Doors Down' is an exceedingly poppy ballad. The album version is layered with synths (possibly the hand of producer Erol Alkan here) but this acoustic version exposes it for what is, wonderfully harmonious pop. The follow up to the Jets' debut record 'Making Dens' follows a very poppy theme, dropping the prog that marked the first. Initial reports suggest that 'Twenty One' is even better than album number one, which is quite something.

Mystery Jets - Young Love (BBC 6Music Session) [Yourfilehost download]//[Sendspace mirror]
Mystery Jets - Two Doors Down (BBC 6Music Session) [Yourfilehost]//[Sendspace]

And from the recent iTunes festival, here's a collab with rising star Natty. It's a Vampire Weekend cover so you're almost obligated to have an interest.

Natty and Mystery Jets - One (Blake's Got A Brand New Face) [Yourfilehost]//[zShare]

Finally, we meet Ms Laura Marling. As I mentioned before, she appeared on the recent Mystery Jets single, has appeared on The Rakes album and often operates with Noah And The Whale (see the fabulous vid of '5 Years Time' below). I put her in my tips for 2007 [link] and although it's taken a bit longer than I'd hoped, she's really emerged as a credible solo artist, with the release of her debut album 'Alas, I Cannot Swim'. I particularly love one of the singles from that album, 'Ghosts' and here is a version she did for New York radio station WNYC.

Laura Marling - Ghosts (Live On WNYC) [Yourfilehost]//[Sendspace]