James Pants returns with a glistening synthesizer. In true Pants form, JP came back with yet another album that doesn't sound like the last but still manages to sound like James Pants... Yeah an artist with a true voice, what a concept. Using only MIDI and a Yamaha Portasound PSS-480 synthesizer, the album is equal parts Martin Denny, Gary Wilson (another Stones Throw alumn), and Haruomi Hosono's 80s ambient work. The album is mostly made of vignettes that float freely as much as they feel cohesive in their crystal chakra moodiness and new age vibe. As the world has been revisiting any and every analog synth over the last few years, JP's glassy synth approach almost makes sense not much in the 'what's next' attitude but in the 'we're different because we just are' way that Stones Throw Records has always been at the front of.

• Stones Throw Records
• music label: Stones Throw Records 2015

reviewed by Papa Yasalad 5/2015