Stones Throw
2008
Welcome
About This Album
Ex-marching band drummer-turned DJ-turned producer from Spokane, WA, James Pants explains the spirit of his first full-length -- on the same label responsible for breaking underground hip-hop mavericks Madlib, J Dilla, and Guilty Simpson -- by saying, "It's just the sound of really cheap equipment, listening to a lot of records, and goofing off." Left of center even by Stones Throw's eclectic standards, Welcome isn't a hip-hop release, per se. Instead, it appropriates and revitalizes electro sounds of the '80s, adding elements of soul, new wave, post-punk, and techno along the way. Made up of primarily old-school sounds from vintage synths and drum machines that he scored from thrift stores, Pants played the remaining drum, keyboard, bass, and guitar parts himself in his garage studio, and the record sounds remarkably true to the era that he's emulating, mainly due to his pile of analog gear. "Cosmic Rapp" is flavored with claps from a Roland CR-8000 CompuRhythm, gummy synth-bass, and robo-vocals sung through a vocoder, turning it into a pop-locking jam worthy of a block party DJ set, right between Whodini's "Five Minutes of Funk" and Newcleus' "Jam on It.
Track List (try tracks 4,5,7,10 and 14)

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