The Mystery Jets upcoming new album Serotonin was recorded by Chris Thomas, legendary producer of Roxy Music’s For Your Pleasure, the Sex Pistols’ Anarchy In The UK, John Cale’s Paris 1919 and Pulp’s Different Class. Needless to say, the band seem a little at awe in his presence. “He can hear things that none of us can hear,” whispers guitarist William Rees. “He’s got dog’s ears.” “And he has the best stories,” nods lead singer Blaine Harrison. “The anecdotes are just unbelievable.”

Working on the new album with Chris, the band concede, is a very long way from their ramshackle beginnings playing gigs at the bohemian Eel Pie Island boatyard on London’s Thames River, where the Mystery Jets staged impromptu Saturday night gigs that brought them to the attention of the wider world in 2005. When they emerged, they seemed like a band entirely unlike any other: the lead singer was on crutches, his father was on guitar — Henry Harrison had formed the band with his son and Rees when the latter were both eight — some of the lyrics were in Latin and the prog rock of King Crimson and Yes was loudly touted as an influence on their debut album Making Dens. “We wanted to be Crimson, Yes, the Floyds and Genesis all at the same time,” says Blaine, “then The Libertines were massively influential. And some weirder stuff too,” he adds, as if forming a band influenced by King Crimson Yes and Genesis with your dad when you were eight wasn’t sufficiently peculiar enough. “There was Afrobeat and Can as well.”

Click (control click for pc) to download!

[download id=”240″ format=”1″]