Thes One, one half of acclaimed LA hip-hop duo People Under the Stairs, makes his solo debut with Lifestyle Marketing. Each track remixes music composed by Herb Pilhoufer, Minnesota-based musician and jingle writer. It’s postmodernism you can nod your head to, as Thes One has created a bridge between art and culture full of dreamy hooks, haunting, synthy melodies and hip-hop beats. Thes uses his unique source material to comic effect, as moody tracks are suddenly ambushed by the cloying sentimentality of commercial ad copy and a jingle for Target melts into funky breaks. On ‘Pan Am 1,’ a kitschy hook (‘Pan-Am/Makes the going great’) is cut with discordant vocals, morphing into a steady, pensive groove. Thes succeeds in creating an album that is both emotionally evocative and intellectually compelling. Culture and consumerism for one low price.

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