micachu: jewellery (2009)

micachu: jewellery (2009)

February 3, 2009, 6:40 pm
Filed under: album, review, video | Tags: 2009, charlotte richardson andrews, micachu, music, the shapes

Micachu
Jewellery ••••½
Rough Trade

“Quite simply, there is not another young musical artist in the country like Micachu”.

Press releases, by their very nature, are designed to hype the artist. In this case, however, Wears The Trousers can solemnly apply hand to heart and swear that every word is true. At only 21, Mica Levi’s musical repertoire is more diverse and accomplished then any of her peers. Last year’s freely downloadable grime mixtape Filthy Friends, featuring such affiliates as Man Like Me, Golden Silvers and Toddla T, went down a treat with the UK underground scene, and as if writing, producing and DJing everything from garage to hip hop wasn’t enough, Levi was commissioned to write a score for the London Philharmonic Orchestra, which was subsequently performed at the Royal Festival Hall.

Seen live – focused, determined, and partially obscured under a short crop of wild hair – it’s clear from the very first strum that she’s a born artist. Citing the little known Harry Partch as an influence, she has even created her own instrument, the ‘Chu’, an adapted guitar with bass strings, a pedal, and what looks like an elastic band or two. She is also infamous for using vacuum cleaner attachments to create the individual samples that characterise her rhythmically ramshackle sound. Originally signed to electro-pioneer Matthew Herbert’s Accidental label before being snapped up by Rough Trade, her debut album Jewellery – produced by Herbert himself – has rightly excited a lot of people.

It would be both futile and unhelpful to categorise Jewellery. Micachu is one of those rare artists who can straddle more then one field, excel in them all, and yet remain in a category of her own. Female artists seem to be at the forefront of creating indefinably genre-less music; women such as M.I.A. and Santogold are revered for mixing genres until they blend into one cohesive style, label-less yet stamped with an inimitable, signature sound unique to the artist. Levi is capable of this same tremendous skill, a fact made all the more potent when considering her age.

While Levi leans towards the ‘pop’ label when interviewed, it’s only for want of a better term. I couldn’t even begin to list the myriad of blends that weave fluidly throughout each song; a grime beat and punk chord here, garage samples and indie choruses there. Uncompromisingly experimental, and sung in a resolutely London accent, the album is a compaction of wildly successful compositions. From the electro-pop single ‘Golden Phone’, the heavy yet sweet buzzing sounds of ‘Turn Me Well’ and the major on-repeat power of ‘Curly Teeth’, Jewellery is a near-flawless, avant-garde wonder that breaks new ground and has the potential to be hugely influential on the UK’s modern musical canon.

Charlotte Richardson Andrews
UK release date: 09/03/09; www.myspace.com/micayomusic

 

‘Lips’

Puregroove in-store appearance

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