Friday 20 February 2009

Micachu bends music into exciting new Shapes


MP3: Curly Teeth

Micachu & The Shapes, fronted by 21 year old Mica Levi, arrive on the 2009 DIY music scene with all the force of an asteroid dropping through the ceiling of your front room.

Mica's music is a patchwork collage, stiched and nailed and taped together from sonic flotsam and jetsam into a startling DIY construction. Pots and pans ring and rattle alongside pinging plucked strings, distorto basslines and squeaking keyboards, with her trademark hoover revving away merrily in the background. Her voice is rough and ragged, honest and fresh, whether mumbling away through a cheap mic or looped into a rhythmic backdrop, spitting out proto-rap lines or pitch shifted into alien melodies.

The debut album, 'Jewellery', is the sound of London life breaching the dam of pop, and washing away any recognisable genre boundaries with it. The only reference points that seem to be of any use are other musicians with a similarly creative approach, putting Mica Levi in the ring with heavyweights like Tom Waits and Bjórk.

It's not often that a new artist arrives with such a fully-formed, recognisable, singular sound. Micachu is a total one off, a defining presence that soaks up influences from left, right and centre and spits them back out in a thrilling new form. With her new label Rough Trade behind her, and with a bit of luck, 2009 will be hers.

Listen: www.myspace.com/micayomusic

3 comments:

Siladitya Banerjee said...

I read ur blog.its nice to read.
Work from home

Anonymous said...

Patchwork is a good description. I keep trying to sell Michachu to people and fall short at the very first hurdle of, err, actually describing what it sounds like. Good attempt!

Tamsin said...

mica's hair is kerazy. love the way you write!