Not waiting for the music world to return to its regularly-scheduled programming of releasing an album in coordination with a promotional concert tour, Ghost of Vroom instead put out an alluring morsel of its groove-oriented, sample-laden, hip hop-influenced material last year with the three-song EP, “Ghost of Vroom 2” rather than its already completed full-length album, titled “Ghost of Vroom 1.” Finally, with the pandemic loosening its grip on society earlier this year, the duo of Mike Doughty and Andrew “Scrap” Livingston finally liberated “1″ – a vibrant mish mash of ideas and genres that pushes the boundaries of what he did as a solo artist and hints at what could be in store for these two in the future.

If it reminds you of Doughty’s work with Soul Coughing, it’s meant to do that. For 12 years the lingering bitterness of his time in that band caused him to avoid that catalog and its stylistic blend of jazz, funk, hip hop and samples. When he finally embraced those tunes again onstage and in reworked versions in the studio, a proposed reunion unsurprisingly fell apart. Doughty then moved on as part of the Ghost of Vroom, a moniker that alludes to Coughing’s debut album, “Ruby Vroom.”

Helmed by producer Mario Caldato Jr. (Beastie Boys), the album’s opener, “More Bacon Than the Pan Can Handle,” offers an immediate indication that we’re in store for loose-limbed, hip-shaking goodness that supports Doughty’s repetitive poetry. The rest of the album acts as a payoff to that introduction. On “Memphis Woofer Rock” he steps further into his linguistic gymnastics with the term “Orange Julius-ing.” While “Angleton” was written and recorded as a solo tune for Doughty’s Patreon members and “More Bacon” appeared on his 2008 release “Golden Delicious,” these fleshed-out versions remain true to the originals yet gain new life in these beefier rhythmic renditions. “Beat Up Born Where I Come From,” “Bad Credit No Credit” and “James Jesus Angleton” finds Livingston adding evocative cello playing to the mix.

Whether you’re home isolating in fear or by choice or making your way in public through the masked and unmasked masses, Ghost of Vroom offers a much-needed soundtrack to get you through these days of daze.