SEA KING - Prisoner's Dilemma

Jake Newcomb's relationship with music has taken many forms over the years. He has published his own music zine, Approaching Oblivion, worked at several local record stores, and created a record label, Nomadic Behavior Records, that specializes in cassettes that he designs and ships. NBR's latest release, Prisoner's Dilemma, is a full-length from Newcomb himself under the moniker Sea King, and true to his ambitions, it spans multiple ideas and styles. It's commonplace for solo projects to be tightly focused to the point where they feel confining, but the Sea King himself describes his music as a place where “nothing is off-limits.” And Prisoner's Dilemma is proof, giving Newcomb his own space to act on any and every inspiration.

Within fifteen songs, Sea King wanders through folk, psychedelic rock, and instrumental, sample heavy hip-hop among other genres, but that wandering never feels aimless. This is partially because of the short and sweet nature of his songs, but also because his wandering is unified by a sense of searching. Newcomb's time spent pawing through bins of worn vinyl is evident throughout the tape, but it also showcases his philosophical side, name dropping Krishna, Socrates and Plato instead of Dinosaur Jr. and the Pixies, and asking existential questions at every corner. Even Newcomb's first words on the album, after the ominous Eastern-riff of opener “Troubadour” ends, are spoken in the form of a question. “How many times do you find yourself, trying to find yourself?” he asks on “The Truth,” before delving deeper into the examined life by asking “why have I defied God so many times?” and “if you care about yourself, why do you do what you do?” in the next two tracks.

But these big picture inquiries don't make Prisoner's Dilemma a prisoner to its own heavy thoughts. For instance, on “Mushroom Tea,” searching takes the form of Newcomb's account of guzzling a tea that’s as psychedelic as the song's guitar riff. “Mushroom Tea” marks the start of a midsection that switches Sea King's gaze from the heavens to the people below it. I suppose it's possible Newcomb could be talking to God when he sings “you make me uncomfortable, you're an asshole,” but that wasn't my interpretation. After sampling a line from the movie Magnolia in the chilled out instrumental “Tell Me Everything,” he reprises the asshole on “In Your Nature,” detailing a wounded relationship that is expressed directly and honestly amidst the album's distorted riffs and vocals. Despite its wandering, Prisoner's Dilemma ends close to where it started, focusing a magnifying glass on society in “Psuedo Spiritual,” “Vacuum of Doom” and “The World,” before closing with a pair of instrumentals. The ground that Sea King covers in a mere half-hour could be overwhelming for someone who's not adventurous musically, and it's for that reason that Prisoner's Dilemma is best enjoyed as it was made: with an open mind. [Nomadic Behaviour]
- Ryan Lowell (State of Mind Magazine)