Stones Throw Recordings will always have a special place in the lower left ventricle of my heart due mainly to thejoyful helium raps of the first Quasimoto album which acted as no small part of the soundtrack to my bluffing through a Intellectual History degree down in Brighton.
Since my head was immersed in more lysergic areas of repetitive kick drums and girls with potty mouths and nice hair, the burgeoning back catalogue of Peanut Butter Wolf and company has more or less passed me by like a bus in the morning full of miserable commuters.
The relative clamour surrounding the amusingly named James Pants did bring the label back to my attention though. Ed Banger might have become somewhat played out to these ears but Busy P’s beard uttering the words “The Big Thing to watch in 2008” about a Stones Throw artist? A Trak and Dj Mehdi to provide forthcoming remixes?
Undoutbtedly you will have read plenty about James Pants already on blogs and more professionally run musical outlets where people get paid for words – the Slutty Fringe editorial wanted to step back and take in Welcome, the debut album from Pants fully before writing any silliness.
After repeat listens over the past few week on the saunter around London, Welcome has left a welcome impression. Perhaps as a side effect of over exposure to that area of lysergic repetitiveness, the off beat collection of tracks that touch on 80s Soul, Electro Boogie, Early Raps and Post Punk Funk Disco Pogo For Punks In Pumps seem like the perfect soundtrack for my June visit to New York.
Whilst some of the shorter tracks appear to be ideas not quite fully thought out, the tracks that manage to sprint past three minutes are heavy. The lo-fi rolling boombap drums of Dragonslayer combine excellently with the new tennis ball of a fuzzy bassline. Recent single We’re Through sounds like Noze if they had grown up in and around Williamsburg. Crystal Lite has been doused liberally in the love juice of 80s cod piece icon Cameo. Fingers on The Knife has some crisp crisp drums and a bassline worthy of Liquid Liquid.
You can listen to the album in it’s entirety on the Pants myspace – And look here are some James Pants remixes! Too $hort and Howard Johnson to be exact
Too $hort – I Ain’t Trippin (James Pants Ruff Remix)
Howard Johnson – Say You Wanna (Pants Edit)
As bonus here is a b side from the We’re Through single called Rockin which is on some lovely 80s Bronx Down Boogaloo tip
*photo by Elena Gallen*
Slutty Fringe 
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