James Pants - James Pants

James Pants' latest album was recorded in his parents' basement— his parents being two Presbyterian ministers— a fact which is both at home and at odds with his reputation as an oddball producer of '60s-through-'80s inspired beat creations, a genre dubbed by Pants himself as "fresh beat". It's also a typically diverse affair, with Pants trading off danceable garage beats with immaculate synthesiser compositions.

The low-end rumble of Strange Girl and the latter half of A Little Bit Closer suggest more than a bit of krautrock absorption has gone into making the album; while the mushy, over-stated balladry on Screams Of Passion, Kathleen and beginning of A Little Bit Closer sound like nods to the Ariel Pinks of today. Even at its most experimental— as on the warm drone drift of Epilogue to the bounding bass of the James Ferraro-like These Girls— this is still a fine record; well worth investigating. [Martin Skivington]