The ferry ride from Oban to the Isle of Mull is one of my favourite journeys on earth. The boat pulls out of the small port and makes its way past green islets and lighthouses on rocky outcrops, and then out into the open sea. From there you are really in the western isles, an isolated and at times desolate place where the fog can be both dark and beautiful, sometimes obscuring what's infront of you, sometimes parting to let you in.

The Caledonian McBrayne ferry is the only way to get there. It's a boat that everyone complains about, and it's one of my earliest memories.

"It always smells like chicken curry on that boat," said the jolly fiddle player of Lau, a band I went to see perform on the Uxbridge Road this week. He had just come off stage having played a gorgeous ode to that ferry journey, chicken curry and all.

"But you can get a bacon butty any time of day," I said, remembering fondly my brother taking me down to the ship's cafeteria to buy the greasy buns that my mother would never have let us have at any other time.

Lau is a group of three guys from England and Scotland. Their concert was every bit as wonderful as their album. I wondered if they would be able to replicate the dramatically changing rhythms and melodies on stage, and they did, with humour and energy.

You can listen to one of their tracks here.