GorilLaz Stylo

Music

I reviewed the original of Stylo a few weeks back, but now, blow me, two new mixes have popped up, all shiny and lovable, demanding a word in yer shell-like.

First up new boy Labyrinth whips together a Mario bothering 8 bit epic with all the shimmering arpeggios, crunchy byte explosions and mushroom munching power up widges that this sort of carry on demands. Tinie Tempah shows up somewhere along the way sounding better than he did on his own single, Albarns voice sounds as haunting as ever over the video game hubbub and really, only the most curmudgeonly of fantasy Nintendo plumbers could hate this.

Alex Metric comes from a total different angle, wheeling out a beat culled straight from that late 90s staple gasp- filtered disco. Surprisingly, for a genre that usual ends up producing stinking regional twat club fare(Blockster anyone ?), this trick works really well from the boy Metric. There are echoes of the campest and fun-ist moments of Pet Shop Boys alongside ridiculous overblown break downs, massive backing vocals and verging-on-horrible guitar and horn licks. It walks a precarious line and nearly staggers into the big pit of cacksounds, but somehow, maybe its the haunting vocals again, nips a quick left into a shiny disco land where everyone dances like a fly Michael Flatley and sound is an edible candyfloss cowbell.

Ian Mcquaid