JACKAL: Sleeping Life
By Ania Glowacz
This CD has been mastered at really low levels so you’ll need to crank it up to hear it properly. It starts off promisingly enough, a big Kyuss-y bass riff with a touch of Nirvana. Laced throughout there’s threads of ’60s, psychedelic, garagey and even Hendrix touches, but... something has been lost in translation. The guitar parts sound fine, but the bass is muddy and the drums flat. Everything sounds a bit too separate. The cover credits have where it was recorded blanked out, and engineered by Jackal and (blank again). So maybe the McGrath brothers (Theo, guitar and vocals, and Will, drums) and Alec Cummins on bass had to take things into their own hands. In any case, the songs have got potential, and the best thing I can say about this band is that they’re unpigeonhole-able. They mix it up with some of the above, a bit of indie, some grunge riffs and the occasional weak vocal. The quality of the recording makes it a great demo but maybe not ready for release. But I certainly wouldn’t write this band off. There’s a lot going on here and the raw ingredients are good, if not better than.
