Leron Thomas has been consistently releasing music for the past 20 years, all the while staying true to his mission: to prove that his artistry cannot be pigeonholed. While this kind of ethos might seem like an easy thing for any “experimental” musician to claim, it’s a different story when your rise to success comes from within the cut-throat, fiercely gatekept world of New York jazz. Having excelled as a trumpet player at one of the city’s top conservatoires, Thomas went on to perform alongside some of the most decorated names in the industry, including Roy Hargrove, Charles Tolliver, and Billy Harper. Alongside this, he’s also worked closely with Lauryn Hill, Bilal, and most notably Iggy Pop, with whom he co-wrote the 2019 jazz-fusion record ‘Free’ before going on to become musical director of Iggy’s current live band. Ever since his debut solo release, 2005’s ‘Dirty Draws Vol. 1’, Thomas has unapologetically subverted the jazz world’s unspoken rules. Rejecting conformity—and risking his reputation in the process—he began to expand his arsenal by writing lyrics and bringing his voice to the centre of his projects.
Having operated under the pseudonym Pan Amsterdam since 2018, Thomas’s solo music has gradually been brought to the attention of UK audiences, largely due to the airplay he’s received from Iggy Pop and, subsequently, other presenters on BBC Radio 6. He released three records under the independent label Def Pressé, which saw him gain a foothold as a rapper, with many listeners comparing his lyricism and musicality to that of MF Doom. On these projects, he fuses his humorous, subconscious style of rap and signature trumpet fills with an array of boom-bap-style rhythms, cooked up by the likes of Damu The Fudgemunk and thatmanmonkz.
Twenty years on from his solo career’s inception, ‘Confines’ is the first Pan Amsterdam release under Heavenly Recordings, a label renowned for championing rare and unconventional sounds, such as those of Kneecap, Gwenno, and Lynks. The twelve-track LP serves as a celebration of Thomas’s creative principles, flexing many a musical muscle in the process. The composition of its songs is highly George Clinton-inspired, in that they flow between an otherworldly, abstract state and one of thoughtful, sociopolitical commentary. All the while, Thomas proudly sticks his middle finger up at all the snobbish voices from his past who told him to “stay in the confines”.
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‘Day Out’ is the first track on the record, and it opens with the line “living more vicariously than a white girl through her mixed baby.” The inspiration for the lyric came after Thomas saw an unsettling viral video of a white mother unashamedly exploiting her young interracial daughter by making her act in an exaggerated, stereotypical manner in front of the camera for likes and views. As the father of a mixed-race daughter, this struck a chord with Thomas. However, the track doesn’t dwell on this feeling. As its layers begin to form, it drifts into an increasingly surreal sonic sphere, where unexpected rhymes—like the pairing of “Mariachi” with “Pagliacci”—underscore the album’s playful disregard for convention and its embrace of the offbeat.
Back in 2018, Thomas sent Iggy Pop a track titled ‘PLUS ONE’, which became both the debut release for Pan Amsterdam and the first of his songs to be featured on Iggy’s Confidential Show on Radio 6. In a poetic full-circle moment, the new record revisits the track—this time featuring the unmistakable, gravelly vocals of the godfather of punk himself. Paired with a mysterious, ambient beat and (of course) a mesmerising trumpet line, the song transports you straight into the smoky, dimly lit interior of a late-night uptown jazz den in New York. This sentiment is echoed on ‘NYC Town’, another track that already existed under a completely different arrangement prior to the album campaign.
Last year, Metronomy teamed up with Pan Amsterdam and released ‘Nice Town’, the band’s first single under new label Ninja Tune. However, the slowed-down original composition featured on ‘Confines’ sees Thomas singing the lyrics melancholically, rather than rapping them at an upbeat tempo. The chorus’s refrain—“Nice town… nice town…”—is both an affectionate nod and a wry commentary on the city’s mythos, highlighting how New Yorkers constantly reaffirm their connection to the city, sometimes as a way to convince themselves as much as others. Its reflective lyrics chronicle the city as a place where people come to reinvent themselves, wrestling with the question of whether change is a form of escapism or genuine self-growth.
Numbers like ‘Sure’ and ‘Meeshy J’ both stay true to the overarching theme of the album. After building up notoriety as a rapper on previous records, and reinforcing this on tracks like ‘Evening Drive’, these songs pivot to a completely different vocal space, boldly showcasing Thomas’s soulful singing abilities. He wraps up the project with the title track ‘Confines’, a triumphant homage to a lifelong musical journey, guided by an unwavering commitment to creating without limits.
8/10
Words: Finlay Harrison
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