Mystery Jets - London Barfly - 11/1/05
5/5
By: JJ Florio
Set-List: 'Zoo Time', 'Alas Agnes...', 'Anno's Italy', 'On My Feet', 'Lizzy's Lion'. The whole seventies progressive rock movement started promisingly enough and the recipe, albeit commonly flawed, was clear; take a group of virtuoso musicians, add a strong, unashamed sense of classical harmony and mix with a generous amount of synthesizer. Put this all in a high concept container and place in a warm studio until ready. Ping. With a blatant disregard for the verse/bridge/chorus formula that had gone before them, these boys had ideas on a mammoth scale, and the result? Highly conceptual albums in which single tracks were not only afraid but - for their sins - encouraged to go over the ten-minute mark. And so prog ruled for a time as a serious alternative to the rock and roll poseur and posturing of The Stones and Zeppelin.
But alas, in time, the plot was lost: Phil Collins started singing, the guitars were slung just that little bit too high and what was left was a group of bearded men (generally in Christmas jumpers) playing to arenas full of geography teachers. (See Genesis' 'We Can't Dance' - yes, you can't - as an eloquent aural testimony to this.)
Yet, for all its connotations, the early progressive rock influence on Mystery Jets is undeniable. Odd time-signatures, sweeping synths, seven-minute+ songs and a sense of grand ambition are all present here, but fear not friends; you are in extremely safe hands. Rather than carbon-copy, the Mystery Jets nod their head to bands like King Crimson, Yes and Rush and use similar ideologies with which they create and harness something that is honest, unpretentious and truly unique.
Whispers about this unusual young band in which the lead-singer plays an assortment of percussive delights (which include kitchen pots and a colander), and whose Dad (yes, the Dad's in the band) plays guitar, began to filtrate around the London live circuit over two years back to nothing short of ecstatic, or - at the very least - bewildered, reports. On a first encounter with them at a teeming and thrilled Barfly it is easy to see why: see this band once and you will not only fall in love with them, but feel it is your earthly duty to inform as many people as possible as to their existence.
As they took to the stage to the opening chant of first number 'Zoo Time', we were, quite frankly, unprepared for the sonic onslaught that ensued. Seemingly unhappy with merely grabbing a crowd's attentions, the Mystery Jets take us by the collar and roar in our faces.
And this band does not only possess a seemingly bottomless barrel of artistic vision, but also bears the ability to express these ideas in an almost impossibly articulate manner. Effortlessly weaving between moments of brain-melting rhythmical intensity to ethereal harmonic sections, so lush in their make-up, that you feel you've dived into a sea of warm honey. Here is a band, which have an arsenal of sound that is so rich and varied that it only seems to be inhibited by the boundaries of their imaginations. The possibilities seem endless, frightening even.
Therefore, Mystery Jets' sound is difficult to define, as it is truly 'music of the mind'. The early progressive rock comparisons are good up to a point, with them sharing the same disregard for conventional song form and a similar sense of epic grandeur. But see them and it will soon become clear that the Jets are slowly constructing a universe which is entirely theirs. And what an enchantingly lovely place it's turning out to be. Prog on.
Photo-Credit: Patricia L Brown
Artists in this article: Mystery Jets
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