Well, if Damon Albarn can hook up with Danger Mouse and dry-hump Brit pop with new-jack beat-making, then why the hell can't Boom Bip (Bryan Hollon) and Super Furry Animals' Gruff Rhys do the same? Maybe Rhys isn't the most obvious choice for a beat-klatch-frontin' pop front man, but that's probably why his Dave Wakeling-for-beginners deep burr (check out “Belfast”) is such a well-marbled, melodic change-up to the disc's prevailing rap asides and party jamz. “Steel Your Girl” sounds like New Pornographers meets New Order, but with something new to say (a Jeff Buckley-goes-disco ode to a valentine), even if its point seems to be that the music sounds better sandwiched between tracks featuring Fatlip and Spank Rock.
As such, Stainless Style is God's gift to the have-your-rap-and-eat-it-too masses; the Spank Rock collaboration “Trick for Treat” features both new-wave, feel-good synths and hard rhymes, while the Latin electro of the Yo Majesty-aided “Sweat Shop” sex rap, with its nod to Diplo's Bonde Do Role record, adds favela funk without sounding genre-tourist-y. And the crunk-as-it-wants-to-be Fatlip track “Luxury Pool” (coming harder than you'd think on a song about car designer-turned-coke dealer John DeLorean) balances the Terminator 2 fromage of “Neon Theme” or the epic Kraftwerk/Moroder-ish “Raquel.”
Stainless Style's akin to that mixtape of proto-hip-hop and forgotten new wave your older brother made you in junior high, the one that blessed and cursed you to a life of buying overpriced imports and worshiping obscure acts known only by the most obsessive collectors.
