Stabscotch – PRISON JAR (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 49:52 minutes | 408 MB | Genre: Alternative, Indie
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Radio Angel Recordings
STABSCOTCH’S (Tyler, Hubbard, Scott, Dom) NEWEST MAJOR GAUNTLET SINCE UNCANNY VALLEY, conjuring white magic in it’s most polished form. you sit in the middle of a panopticon of sensations, desires, pursuit, and angels, euphorically pulsating every layer that you are. endless screens pervade yet discern your distance from it all. is this really a prison jar?
an unbelievable amount of grit and passion birthed this into existence. brimming with flames of ecstasy and brutality, the albums order is a journey, and we hope it fulfills you as such infinitely. THIS IS A SENSATION THATS WITHIN OUR ENTIRE EXISTENCE. THIS IS SACRED, THIS IS PRISON JAR…
A lot more Electronic and Jazz-y this time around for the spastic undertakings of Stabscotch and the band’s head honcho Tyler. Whereas Twilight Dawn was a bit of a more solidified throwback into the Noise Rock territories of their debut album “Prison Jar” definitely makes it seem like the collab band project of “Radioactive Boss Baby” with Five Star Hotel left an impression on the band in all its Electronic textures and tastes. Which ends up adding even more to the sonic palette of Stabscotch’s kaleidoscope, and only furthering the ways that they and Tyler can implement their jerking methods of composition and tone chasing.
As well, though at first its hard to tell, much like with most Stabscotch releases, there’s actually quite a bit more hook-iness to this project than say “Uncanny Valley”. It still keeps that Avant-Prog writing style of Tyler’s in which there’s basically nothing but a forward progression for a lot of the songs but here it feels like there’s a bit more in repeat passages than “UV” to me. Not a bad thing at all really and honestly I’m sure a big help for people, like me, who do sort of get worried with some of Tyler and Stabscotch’s releases in general in getting lost in the plot of the songs so much that its almost a question of why even have individual songs. Which is honestly a thing I can somewhat still level at this project given its tendencies still at times to just drop a song’s plot entirely to switch to a completely different set up mid-song. And I don’t mean like another passage I mean, dead-stop into pause into entirely new section. Which unless you’re paying attention to the track times can be a bit of a throw off as I said, at least for me.
But, for the most part here what we get is a very, I’d argue, even more energetic and updated “Uncanny Valley” that instead of being naturalistic and shimmering is instead focused on an animated sense of sunny expression complimented by a slightly more aggressive tone carried over from “Twilight Dawn”. Tracks like “Monkey With a Bomb”, “Sugar Asshole” and “No Honey Sodomy” heavy these very tropical, or at the least low-end and Jazzy moments to them that greatly reflects the more sunny vibes of the cover, all while smashed into the more bulldozering moments of those tracks and others such as “Hyper Xtal Immolation” or the pounding, manic moments of “Prison Jar”. It’s still got all the shimmering cacophony of Stabscotch but it feels much more synthetic here compared to the naturalism of “Uncanny Valley” and too cartoon-ish and expressive in its inclusion of sax and other wind instruments from band member Dominick Grande to relate to the pounding noise of much of “Twilight Dawn”.
Overall I’d put “Prison Jar” the album right up there with “Uncanny Valley” in terms of bringing such a unique sound to the table and, in much the same way as Tyler’s Not-Stabscotch-but-basically-Stabscotch “Faux Shaman” mashed Tyler’s sonic vision with Folk, effortlessly here brings new sonic adventures and updates to that sound in the way of the Electronic, post-2010’s Digital Hardcore textures and more Jazz-y inclusions. It’s another tough piece of Psychedelic, Experimentation to chew on, but much like all Stabscotch material once you REALLY get down to the meat and bones of it it’s a delicious sonic meal to feast on. A satisfaction I can only really equate to finally figuring out a puzzle over the course of however many tracks they dish out and I eagerly await to tackle again and again.
Tracklist:
1. Stabscotch – Citral (01:58)
2. Stabscotch – XALLELUJAH DÆMON (03:56)
3. Stabscotch – Hyper Xtal Immolation (03:22)
4. Stabscotch – Monkey With A Bomb (03:54)
5. Stabscotch – Facebook Aliens (04:43)
6. Stabscotch – Life Beam (04:36)
7. Stabscotch – RADIO ANGEL (03:13)
8. Stabscotch – No Honey Sodomy (01:50)
9. Stabscotch – Sugar Asshole (04:18)
10. Stabscotch – Prison Jar (06:30)
11. Stabscotch – Private Balloons In The Observer (02:28)
12. Stabscotch – Love Me, Feed Me, But Please Don’t See Me (05:41)
13. Stabscotch – And Lo (03:10)
14. Stabscotch – IF IT’S THE FIRST THEN IT’S ALWAYS THE LAST (00:06)
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