When Stones Throw main man Peanut Butter Wolf turned up the last month with the said James Pants; I’m not surprised there where a few raised eyebrows of “Who is he?” Especially when you find out the future of music comes from Spokane, Washington!

I think half of the thing with Mr. Pants is that he’s no hip-hop rapper, he’s no leftfield jazzer, he’s no soulster, funker, electro post pop/punk disco boggie b-boy; and then, he’s all of the this stuff. Whilst we should have guessed from ‘Ka$h’ (that was out late last year on a couple of PBW mixtapes,2K8 B-Ball Zombie War was particularly good) and the recent single, ‘We’re Through’ (check HERE for that one), you probably get more idea of this guy from the b-sides, the tracklisting to his ‘inspired’ compilation Ice Castles: The Coming Of A New Age and the two PBW and James Pants Fabric Podcasts.

When you put tracks like the spaced ‘Prayers Of The People’ and ‘Cosmic Rapp’ on a album with full on funk edits like ‘Good Things’ and comic book poetry(‘Dragonslayer’) you get the idea that his sound collages are here to fit XXXL Pants. The two electro go-go boogie tracks that feature Deon Davis are particularly good (‘Ka$h’ and ‘Crystal Lite’) whilst ‘You’re The One’ (featuring Gary Davis - remember the great sound of ‘Gee Dee’ and ‘Gotta Get Your Love’?) could be the next single. Or do you remember when Kraftwerk/Yellow Magic Orchestra had hits al a ‘My Tree’ or the dirty funk disco vocoder of Herbie in an ‘I Choose You’ type way.

It’s been asked if PBW has found in JP the ‘Madlib’ of dance music? That sounds a little calculating and from the Fabric podcast, these two guys have found a shared love of the leftfield that, unbelievably could be the biggest album of the year. Even something like ‘Green Rivers’ (an ambient/noise/synth track) is really beatiful and it’s even more impressive when you know JP plays guitar, keyboards, drums and sings [the punky stuff anyway - ‘My Girl’, ‘Finger On The Knife’].

This album is one of a trio of disperate/related albums that are a must for mid-2008; the other two being Jackson Conti’s Sujinho and Daedulus’ Love To Make Music To. Once you get this album, you’ll just want to immerse yourself in all things pants related so jump straight to the Stones Throw site from Pants’ Music From The Forest podcast.

James Pants, a one man band underground radio station. He’s fantastic! I want pants baby, James is driving me crazy.

Reviewed: James Pants - Welcome (Stones Throw) Release date: 26th May 2008 Cat. No. STH2168
Tracklisting
1 Theme From Paris
2 Dragonslayer
3 Crystal Lite feat. Deon Davis
4 Cosmic Rapp
5 We’re Through
6 My Tree
7 My Girl
8 Prayers of the People
9 Good Things
10 I Choose You
11 Green Rivers
12 Finger on the Knife
13 Voodoo Caves
14 Ka$h feat. Deon Davis
15 You’re the One feat. Gary Davis
16 Shower Party

Links
www.myspace.com/jamespants
www.stonesthrow.com/jamespants
James Pants on www.last.fm/music
www.iwantpants.com
www.stonesthrow.com
www.stonesthrow.com/pbwolf
www.fabriclondon.com/podcast # 10 & 11. fabric podcast - This month’s fabric podcast is co-presented by Peanut Butter Wolf (Stones Throw Records label boss, artist and acclaimed DJ) alongside latest signing James Pants. Check the first part where the duo introduces tracks from Arabian Prince, Cabaret Voltaire, The Whispers and Freestyle Fellowship.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collage