by Andy Hinds

Self's debut album is an impressive home-brewed amalgamation of crunchy post-grunge guitars, unusual samples, and cotton candy pop vocals. Imagine Nirvana's chord progressions overlaid with Jellyfish-type vocal harmonies, all processed through Beck's idiosyncratic, sample-based production aesthetic, and you've got an idea of what you're in for. The core of Self is Matt Mahaffey, a self-contained singer/songwriter/instrumentalist/producer who obviously has a voracious appetite for many styles of music including power pop, hip-hop, even jazz. The results are surprisingly coherent and thoroughly enjoyable on Subliminal Plastic Motives, an overlooked album.