Don’t let their name fool you. In what is the juxtaposition of the decade, with their third long-player, Prison are at their most liberating. Not before the New York collective was responsible for one of the greatest moments in Sun 13 folklore. Our 2023 interview, conducted via the medium of choice: a FedEx notepad. (Which still hangs on the mantlepiece.)
It’s been these kind of moves that epitomise the Prison experience. Totally footloose and lawless, both in spirit and sound. Fast forward, and following last year’s Downstate, Big Rigs on the BQE sees Matt Lilly, Sarim Al-Rawi, Adam Reich and Paul Major flanked by peripheral Prison-er, Mike Donovan, Ryan Sawyer and Matt Leibowitz who also returns after sitting in on Downstate.
While 2023’s Upstate was a commitment in the same orbit as the mind-fuckery of Captain Beefheart’s Trout Mask Replica, Downstate found Prison boiling it down to more traditional forms of songcraft. By Prison’s standards that’s still well outside conventional parameters. But still, Downstate found the band peddling blues-laden psych jams in shorter bursts.
In many ways, the yin and yang of Prison’s first two records has paved the way for Big Rigs on the BQE. Upstate’s long-form collages, intersecting with Downstate’s brevity, making for one of the most unthethered moments committed to tape this year.
Prison - Big Rigs on the BQE With a title most would associate with a classic ’70s record, Sunrise Highway lives up to its name. With Donovan’s Doorsian fuzz organ leading into Major and Reich’s sizzling guitar freak-outs and Lilly and Leibowitz’s skittish rhythm section, it all feels like a cosmic rush of new possibilities. The rhythmic pulse alone, so fast it feels like your heart’s about to explode from your ribcage. It’s all completed by Al-Rawi’s low growls and Major’s sing-speak barbs that confirm that the gloves are well and truly off. Prison, adding new potent ingredients to an already flavoursome broth. Destroy, cookin with heat. Indeed.
And it continues on Sunset Park. (The title, inspired by the studio in which Big Rigs on the BQE was conceived earlier this year.) Starting off as a whimsical noodling, each member jostles for position, feeling each other out as they await the moment to surge into the maelstrom. They don’t have to wait long for what is a protracted, earth-scorching wig-out that feels like a lost session between The Stooges and Funhouse.
In all its hypnotic, eye-watering riff-a-rolla, Big Rigs on the BQE thrums on an ecstatic frequency. It hits so hard that it’s almost too much to live with. Its magical layers and pulsating energy, making you want leap out from your own skin. Like lightning through the veins, Big Rigs on the BQE evokes that feeling you get when listening to your favourite records. And, of course, this is fast becoming one. Prison, the architects of something that makes you feel like future might actually be worth sticking around for.
Big Rigs on the BQE out now via Drag City. Purchase from Bandcamp.
