‘A circadian rhythm is a roughly 24-hour cycle in the biochemical, physiological, or behavioural processes of living entities.’

(I was tempted to try and listen to this in a 24 hour cycle but it wasn't practical)

Hailing from Leeds, Jack Sparrow brings us his long Player 'Circadian'.  Following on from his previous ep's 'The Chase' and 'Terminal' this is a weighty album in more ways than one.  It's mainly 4/4 but shifts it's influencest throughout Dubstep's vast areas, Triabally house regions and Techno related country. It does it's job both on the dancefloor and home listening in a convincing manner.  For sport jungle is tossed in to see how the crotchty grandad of dance will do.  It measures up well unsurprisingly.  
Since appearing around 2007 Jack has released some decent, varied fare.  These tracks from him on this, his first album are generally of a darker nature. It may be vaguely familiar territory for fans of Skull Disco and perhaps may conjure up comparisons with Manchester's Cyrus, or the inevitable one with Kryptic minds.  Upon listening to the album as a whole, however, it's clear to see a well thought out album that never falls into imitation of these well established types mentioned.

First track 'Loveless' is a smooth opening, glossy in texture and very subdued actually putting me more in mind of some comforting Deep House. It contains an invariable subby twist and spacey vocal floating about the mix, a good starting point for what is to come.   The second track morphs into 'Dread'(featuring Fellow Leeds man Ruckspin) which lifts the pace with it's swishing drums and techy percussive bites.  There's also a good sense of paranoia to the track with its pitched down vocal and eerie samples. Two sides already shown, the album launches into 'The Chase VIP', an update on his previous tribal anthem released last year.  The kick drums on this are some of the most solid I've heard for a good while and the relentless rhythm just has 'win' stamped all over it. It would probably go down really well in many a mix across the dancefloors providing you enjoy dancing to earthquake-like techno  and enjoy mild sensations of dread.  'Salvation' opens this Tribal theme up, with a big voodoo sound to it, rudeboy samples and more relentless drums. I'm a fan of it.

A new take on 'Terminal' is then offered up for, again, a great techy/dub treat. By this point on listening it becomes apparent the strength and focus of the album is very much based around quality rhythms and interestingly structured developments within the music.
'Shoal' can then be found hovering around the midway point of the album, taking an expected shift to a more laid back position.  In fact this track has some rugged subs hidden away and these come shuddering out as it progresses on a fully dubstep classic tip in structure and adding quality organic intrument dabbles when needed but never losing focus from the nice bass build and dub swing feel it has.  It's almost bubblebath for the mind when the  very chilled breakdowns make an appearance. It makes a convincing counterpoint against the previous tracks 4/4 punchiness.
This in turn makes way for 'Subterranean' which continues the half-steppy rhythms and it also includes vocals from Indi Kaur (find her on Pinch 'Angels in the rain') who has an angelic lilt in her delivery and the further manipulation via Sparrow's brain helps the sound it is transformed into  swirl around the track and infuse proceedings with muchos soulful goodness.
'Dune' plunges us back into a bit more darkness, subby whirlpools and plodding rhythms, a bit like being overpowered with the weight of a large angry bear full on salmon or honey. Probably honey.

That track ends the halfstep section as 'Relapse' appears and takes things down a completely different route via jungle fun. Jack cranks the bpm up to a healthy 160bpm and including a brilliant sample  (possibly) from some kind of meditation tape, it is awash with ambience .  The contrast between this woman's tone on the sample and the hectic nature of the beats clash gloriously.   She couldn't get you more chilled out if she intravenously injected some mogodon into your face. The snippy beats build nicely and then slowly throw in some dope amen edits to jump about the place  like a spoiled, shouty child and generally cause chaos. A sugar crash of more breakdown goodness takes over as we go into 'Regress', showing the more ambient side of the old school jungle styles, all subdued booming bass and skipping breaks.  It's refreshing to throw in 2 tracks so much faster as it makes the listener sit up and take note or maybe just be reminded of some old school styles with new production skills.
Having taken the album up in tempo we slide back down via the 'Exit', conveniently placed at the end of the album and fully in keeping with the theme in relation to the 'circadian' concept. It's a nice little nod to the idea that we have travelled full cycle without also openly ramming the idea down your throat.  It's a quality downbeat throb, atmospherics aplenty and various instrumental touches appearing out of the subtle production mist.  A goodly circular trip, if you will.

 'Circadian' is a well rounded album. Plenty of musical skill and production prowess has gone into making it and the variety of genres help add depth without overreaching itself and becoming a confusing mess of ideas. It sticks to the structures of well known genres but produces a lot of decent takes on well worn paths.  There's also plenty both for the dance floor or home perusal and tracks like 'The Chase VIP' are perfect for both. I highly recommend listening to it on headphones to get your ears as close to that kick-drum as possible!  You're gonna like stuff on here if you're feeling the darker styles out there as I said at the beginning but equally there's plenty for everyone else with an open mind at the same time. Have a check anyway it's heading your way October 4th.