A lo-fi maverick produces his most enduring work yet.
It is fitting that James Pants settled for going eponymous with his third proper full-length album for Los Angeles label Stones Throw. His previous work has been routinely challenging and interesting, sometimes even astounding, yet there 
has always been the sense of a talented artist who still hasn’t quite found the best way to channel his vision.
Even though he continues to throw up obstacles – vocals enveloped in layers of effects, hooks that appear almost randomly and gorgeous tunes that come scruffily dressed in a deliberately lo-fi uniform – James Pants is his most enduring work yet and thoroughly deserving of self-titlement.
Although it outgrew its backpack hip-hop and crate-digging reputation years ago, Stones Throw may, at first, seem an odd home for an artist whose work can recall one moment the likes of My Bloody Valentine or even the Fall at their friendliest and unhinged 80s boogie the next. Yet it does make sense, because Pants, who started as an intern at the label, shares a furious passion for music discovery and a love of dusty records that fits completely with artists like Madlib or label founder Peanut Butter Wolf.
Echoes of New York synth pioneers Suicide resonate throughout the album, most obviously with the vocals, which are dripping in reverb and often assume a similar shape to Alan Vega’s distinctive sinister semi-sung whispers. There are further parallels on songs like Strange Girl, Darlin’ and These Girls, which reprocess simple rock’n’roll and doo-wop tropes with lashings of distortion and attitude.
Elsewhere, Pants operates in similar territory to Ariel Pink, Nite Jewel and other purveyors of “chillwave”, the rather awkward name given to the current trend for music with a lo-fi sheen that flits between the worlds of progressive indie and wonky electronica. Refreshingly, in Pants’s hands it feels particularly effortless, as if it is something he has been building towards with his previous albums, Welcome and Seven Seals
.
As good as it all is, there is still the sense it will take one great song that pushes beyond his exceptionally broad comfort zone for Pants’s undeniable talent to reach the audience he is capable of. In the meantime, the one-man band has pushed his benchmark higher and moved a step closer with this album. Adventurous listeners will be rewarded.
JAMES PANTS, James Pants (Stones Throw/Rhythm Method).