Jeremy Warmsley - 5 Interesting Lies EP

As is the case with all too many of our old traditions the storyteller is all but dead in modern society. There is however, those out there who deserve the title still and Transgressive's Jeremy Walmsley is certainly one of their number. ‘5 Interesting Lies' somehow manages to claim the handle, along with many of Jeremy's label mates Mystery Jets songs, of the fully modernized audio fable. Truly a story for our time it cuts through the morals of youth, fate and our individual place in the world with such ease and articulation as if they were topics as simple as Mr. Walmsley's counterparts.

‘5 Verses', the EP's opener, is the tale of Mary and Jack. Thrown together in a night of drink and karaoke; they, years later, find themselves trapped by routine in a loveless relationship (or so it would seem) all to the magnificent backdrop of Al Stewart circa year of the cat on some kind of hallucinogenic. It's an instant favourite and promises to cement itself in the minds of any lucky enough to be in earshot.

‘After The Fact' takes ‘Lies' in a more passionate direction and has Jeremy trading vocal lines with Transgressive lovely Emmy the great to a more emotive end than I suspect either had imagined. It leads perfectly into what I can confidently call a track with the greatest name ever.

‘The Young Man Sees The City As A Chessboard' combines the relaxing and urgent in perfect unison. Soaring vocal harmonies build and build before the song ends exactly as you are hoping it would. In full choral grandeur before dropping to the perfect contrast of Jeremy's one word ending,

“This is not my home but it feels like home”

‘Home' is chock full of shouted backing, dirty samples and strange rhythmical loops. It seems wonderfully familiar but at the same time completely alien and it grows on me every time I hear it. Still gasping from ‘Home' an ethereal pulsing fills the air and the final track begins.

‘World Of Sound' is what I can only describe as the EP's glorious opiate. It enters the body through every available orifice and takes the soul a willing prisoner for the next three and a half minutes.

‘5 Interesting Lies' has been long awaited and it seems it was worth it. With the next EP already in production and scheduled for an early 2006 release it would look like we are going to be hearing a lot more from Jeremy Walmsley.

Will Vollar Bell