The Flashbulb's latest effort, titled "Hardscrabble" after the area in Chicago where he's been expanding the Alphabasic empire, is a pleasantly unexpected return to his more challenging and hyper-creative endeavors last seen in releases like Kirlian Selections and Flexing Habitual. The only common quality that Hardscrabble's songs share is unorthodox time signatures, microtonal piano melodies, and the most accomplished synthesis that we've seen from Jordan, in both analog and computerized flavors.