*** Self

BREAKFAST WITH GIRLS

(Spongebath/Zoo/DreamWorks)

Mixtures of hip-hop and rock and roll can be pretty deadly -- most efforts are less than the sum of their parts, too self-conscious for their own good. Murfreesboro (Tennessee) native Matt Mahaffey, who records with friends under the name Self, is the rare exception to this rule. A polyglot who's never overly reverent toward the various genres he raids for inspiration, Mahaffey trusts his sonic blender to turn out tasty confections. Self songs are melody- rather than riff-driven, and instead of funk-rock workouts, most of Breakfast with Girls floats around the border between hummable and stupefyingly memorable. Although there's nothing spontaneous here -- it's hard to be off-the-cuff when you're overdubbing most of the parts yourself -- the craft comes off as deliberate, not overthought (or overproduced). Mahaffey's figured out that it's not enough just to cut and paste together alterna-guitars, breakbeats, and quirky toy piano -- you have to mix 'em up until you can't recognize them anymore.

-- Ben Auburn