James Isn't Pants
Take away the woefully un-hip moniker and James Pants is certainly one of the coolest young club DJ’s around. Welcome is full to the brim with absolutely brilliant 80’s inspired ambient, electro funk number. And that’s no faint praise considering the genre is about as saturated a niche as you could possibly stumble across. Leaving the rap and sampling to a minimum James uses both organic and electronic instruments to create as blissful a listening experience as you could hope for. In fact it’s so accomplished it’ll easily fit alongside the work of more illustrious peers with ease.
‘Dragonslayer’ is a particular standout (only the 2nd track) its mesmeric vocals and taught construction are as smart a piece of electronic aural architecture as you’ll hear. It’s obvious that this has been a labour of love for James as none of this seems out of sync or rushed. ‘Cosmic Rapp’ sounds like a less frenetic Daft Punk trying out the 80’s beats of Art of Noise and is delightfully fun because of it. Likewise the mad bells and twisted jungle overtones of follow-up track ‘We’re Through’ fail to disappoint. The voice distortion present on many tracks may not be the sort of thing experienced listeners will care much for, as they’ve been done to death over the years, but it’ll be more than exciting enough for those not familiar with the sort of electronic funk James is making.
A lack of progressiveness is probably the only criticism you could level at James Pants. You will have heard music like this 100 times before in trendy nightclubs, underground record stores and the CD players of odd cousins dressed up like NWA. What you might not have done is taken the time out to listen to the layered richness of the music on offer and on Welcome this is particularly impressive not only on a technical level but also on a musical one.
At sixteen tracks long most albums overstay their welcome ever so slightly, but the laid back minimalism of Welcome rarely grates. This sexy late night number might not be groundbreaking but it could be the breakthrough record needed to put the obviously talented James Pants on the map alongside the big boys. If he gets the next release out with so few flaws and manages to bring us something truly killer to sink our teeth into I’m sure we’ll be hearing much more from this young upstart. Impressive stuff.