When Jim James announced his forthcoming solo album, Regions of Light and Sound of God, he noted that he wanted the album-- which he engineered himself-- to sound "like a hazy dream" that "came from a different place in time." Check and check. The six-and-a-half minute first single "Know Til Now" is quietly stunning in part because of James’ earthy tenor, and here, that voice is surrounded by a spaced-out soul soundtrack that sounds like scuffed-up studio tapes slipped out of the Motown studios as they edged toward their late-1960s flower-power moment.

James’s vocal is buried in the mix and processed to the degree that it almost sounds like a demo track, but after a few listens it evokes dizzy bewilderment. James has dipped in this territory before, on Z’s "Wordless Chorus" and "It Beats for You", but not until "Know" has he produced something that sounds so purposefully lost in itself.

[from Regions of Light and Sound of God; out 02/05/12 via ATO]