Jaill - Traps
- Written by Kenneth McMurtrie
Three albums in ten years of activity isn’t exactly the mark of a prolific outfit but in the case of Jaill they’ve simply had a gestation of seven years and birthed their full-length efforts in the last three. No harm in honing your sound though and always a pleasure to discover a group new to you that at the same time has a back catalogue.
It's difficult to pin their sound down on paper without resorting to either cliché or comparisons as they straddle a few camps and so in sounding like themselves they also sound like the bits of their influences not used by contemporaries of the same ilk. I’ll plump though for labelling them as Stephen Malkmus meets lite psych. It’s been a distinct pleasure to have this turning up on the player for the last few weeks – definitely a good upbeat summer indie treat (whatever is currently passing for that season round your way).
The production is clear throughout and practically every song features some quirky little guitar or organ or unrecognisable solo part, sounding as if borrowed from a nursery rhyme or from a galaxy far, far away. Talent in spades. Album highlights are track five ‘I’m Home’, which sits at the rockier end of the band’s output yet includes some endearing vocal gymnastics and siren-like guitar noise at times and the final track, ‘Stone Froze Mascot’, with its ethereal air and sinuous guitar parts – definitely one to close out a club night as you boogie on over to the taxi rank.