Stimulator Jones - Cool Green Trees (1999-2005) *Pre-Order

Release Date Friday 27th June 2025
All pre-orders will be dispatched/made ready for collection on that day.

First ever vinyl release of Stimulator Jones's formative early boom-bap beat experimentations, 140g vinyl.
"Chasing the funky symphonies that filled my head and my dreams..."
December 25th, 2023 - an Instagram post. Stimulator Jones shared half a dozen FIRE tracks from his beat
tape archive. We were immediately drawn to the rough hewn boom bap."I'd release that", Rob commented.
Hours of material was shared and the result is this: Cool Green Trees (1999-2005). A collection of beats and
loops Stimulator Jones created between the ages of 14-20 at home in his basement, bedroom and computer
room in Roanoke, Virginia.
You will not believe the profound soulful genius contained within these naive schoolboy melodies.
In the wake of his Stones Throw breakthrough - Exotic Worlds & Master Treasures - Stimulator Jones was
pegged by many as a 90s throwback artist. However, he literally IS a 90s artist. He's been recording music
most of his life and he's now 40. He created the bulk of Cool Green Trees as a teenager. Everything before
2004 was recorded when Sam was still in school. He was in 8th grade when he made the 1999 tracks - he
didn't even have his learner's permit. This album is a snapshot of a young man in a simpler time. Things
were still mysterious back then and he was flying blind, relying on his ears and having to figure things out for
himself.
Opener "Pharoah Jones" was inspired by Yesterday's New Quintet and Madlib's ability to capture that classic
70s sound whilst playing all the instruments. Up next, "Ghost Gospel" utilises a dope loop from a gospel
record and adds some soul-funk drums overtop, whilst working that filter knob. Says Sam: "The loop
reminded me of something Ghostface would rap over. The sample was in 3/4 waltz time but I flipped it for a
4/4 groove, a technique I picked up from RZA. "Ill Feeling" uses sped-up pieces from a dusty old funk record
and putting them over a classic NOLA drum loop; gain chopping up a slow, bluesy 3/4 time signature and
bending it to a 4/4 groove. Classy shit. "Capital Punishment" features drums tapped in live, inspired by MF
Doom's Special Herbs series. "Do Not Adjust" consists loops found on a compilation of 70s French music at
Happy's Flea Market, a classic Roanoke digging spot.
The sublime, evocative title track, "Cool Green Trees" was created when Sam was still living at home. He
dumped samples off his SU10 into the family desktop and arranged them in a demo version of Pro Tools:
"This track was sort of my ode to the DJ Shadow style of sample based production. Super spacey, slow, and
moody. The heavily filtered drums were inspired by Alec Empire's 'Low on Ice' album. I later added some
scratches and sounds from a Spider Man storybook record." "Chill Scratch" snags the final bit of a

bossanova record and pairs it with a drum loop before adding experimental scratching run through an Electro
Harmonix Memory Man echo pedal. "Poisonous Fumes" was made using a sampler, mixer and a turntable; a
kind of mixtape beat collage with added scratches and sounds from various records. Using dialogue from
superhero records was a nod to Madlib. "Welcome Aboard The Starship" is dark, downtempo trip-hop with a
spooky bent. Sam paired a slow, hard drum loop with a guitar sample grabbed off a psychedelic rock record.
To finish, he added various backwards sounds and weird atmospheric effects and a little scratching. Swoon.
Side B opens with "Keep On Runnin", made on a borrowed Roland SP202 sampler. Having always loved the
sound of the Lo-Fi filter on those machines, reminiscent of the Emu SP1200, Sam always imagined Del or
another of the Hieroglyphics crew rapping over this beat. You can certainly hear why. "Sounds Impossible"
sees Sam experimenting with layering multiple kick samples at different volumes to create patterns similar to
those heard by Showbiz and Lord Finesse during their God-level 1995 period. "Painted Faces" was made by
chopping up a [REDACTED] record which he had gotten from Happy's Flea Market and paired it with a
[REDACTED] drum loop. By the time Sam recorded "The Knew Style", he had acquired a shitty old 1960s
portable turntable off eBay. It didn't function properly when he bought it but his brother opened it up, cleaned
it out and got it working: "I remember he told me that there was a bunch of sand inside of it when he opened
it up, as if its previous owner had taken it to the beach. I would take that turntable on my Happy's Flea
Market digs so I could preview records...that's how I found this loop."
Sam explains just how much these tracks mean to him: "They all have immense historical and sentimental
value and I'm proud of them. These beats come from an innocent, simple time when I was just figuring out
how to craft these sounds. They're something very personal to me. They are the initial part of a journey that I
really was taking *alone*. There was no YouTube. I couldn't Google shit. I didn't even know any other
beatmakers, producers or DJs in my town that could teach me anything. It was always just me, alone, in a
room with some equipment - chasing the funky symphonies that filled my head and my dreams. What I was
doing wasn't cool. Most of my peers thought I was a weirdo and couldn't care less. Creating these sounds
was an anti-social endeavour. In a sense, I felt like it was me against the world, and all I had to instruct and
assist me were the recordings produced by my heroes - RZA, DJ Premier, Erick Sermon, Beatminerz,
Showbiz, Diamond D, Beatnuts, Prince Paul, The Bomb Squad, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, E-Swift, Mista Lawnge,
DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist, Peanut Butter Wolf, El-P and so many more...I dedicate this collection to them,
and to my older brother Joe who has always been a musical and technical guiding light for me.
The cover photo is a picture of Sam standing on his back porch in the latter part of 1998, just before he got
his first sampler. He was 13 years old, in 8th grade. His dad took the picture with his 35mm film camera.
Mastering for this vinyl edition was overseen by Be With regular Simon Francis and it was cut by the
esteemed Cicely Balston at Abbey Road Studios to be pressed in the Netherlands by Record Industry.
Tracklist: A1 Pharoah Jones A2 Ghost Gospel A3 Ill Feeling A4 Capital Punishment A5 Do Not Adjust A6 Cool Green
Trees A7 Chill Scratch A8 Poisonous Fumes A9 Welcome Aboard The Starship B1 Keep On Runnin B2 Sounds
Impossible B3 Painted Faces B4 The Knew Style B5 Chicken Wing Blues Sauce B6 Kool Breeze B7 Sexx Bullets B8
Soul Child B9 Take Off Runnin B10 Centurian B11 Bozack B12 Church B13 Splash One B14 Hank B15 73 Goatee

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