Broken Jack
Demo
Having met up at the University of Reading (presumably in the Student Union Bar), Jonny, Joe, Chris, and Laurence decided to form Broken Jack and started practicing in the middle of the music department.
This chance meeting led to their first song, ‘The Becoming’, which is also the first track on this demo. Ballsy rock drumming, crushed-plastic guitar distortion, and quality vocals are the tools on offer and the resultant track is definitely a candidate for one of those ‘Best Rock Ever…’ compilation albums that uses the sort of advertising that encourages you to accompany the band on your air-guitar.
The fact that they’ve managed to squeeze three solo’s into this song demonstrates two things; that this was their first effort and that they have an accomplished lead guitar available on demand.
‘You Gave Me Nothing’ sounds less like a rock band with retro influences and more like a Radiohead effort with long building sections and combinations of picked guitar and distorted chords. Some great guitar sounds emerge in the blistering solo section, which occurs towards the end of the eight minute epic.
Broken Jack have produced a decent effort with this record, but I’m personally sure that they could do a lot better with such accomplished musical talents. At the moment it’s a bit like Claude Monet opting to become a street-caricature painter.
Written by Fenton on
