Gizmodgery
(Spongebath Records)
Hot on the heels of 1999’s ambitiously eclectic Breakfast With Girls, Matt Mahaffey’s musical pseudonym, Self, has returned with the enchantingly rich and lively Gizmodgery. The homemade samples and innovative rhythms that abounded on Breakfast remain intact, but Mahaffey throws us a curve this time around by recording the album exclusively with toy instruments.
With Gizmodgery, Mahaffey has clearly outdone himself. Each song bubbles with limitless effervescence and ingenuity, resulting in a collection that is as much a joy to listen to as it must have been to record. His knack for nurturing melodies that are simultaneously timeless and oddball is lucidly present on each track, as he sucks the dormant sounds from all of those crappy, miniscule keyboards that we received as children for reasons that even now only our parents seem to be cognizant of.
Songs like “I Am a Little Explosion,” and “Dead Man,” bleep and buzz like an old Atari game, but are imbued with a professional sophistication that makes them anything but novelties. “Trunk Fulla Amps” is a truly unique escapade, one that brilliantly blends metal riffs, Latin melodies, and samples from Queen and Danzig, among others.
However, the true centerpiece of the record is the inspired, funked out trip down memory lane, “Pattycake,” which goes far beyond the ironic, pseudo-soul of Beck and gives even Prince a run for his money. Mahaffey’s voice runs the gamut here, too, assuming a sexy falsetto one moment only to separate into a dead-on harmony the next.
Lovingly combining astonishingly acute pop sensibilities with a left-field approach to songwriting, Self pushes the envelope even further with Gizmodgery, perhaps the most inventive album to be released in 2000.
By Casey Lombardo
Long Beach Union
Originally printed 10.23.00
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