Micachu And The Shapes
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Micachu And The Shapes
album reviews
Jewellery 8½ ( 2007 )
Vulture / Lips / Sweetheart / Eat Your Heart / Curly Teeth / Golden Phone / Ship / Floor / Just In Case / Calculator / Wrong / Turn Me Well / Guts
Micachu And The Shapes started life as Micachu performing DJ duties in Grime music clubs. For her own LP though she's got a group of musicians around her and seemingly set about creating the very first original sound of 2009. 'Jewellery' hints at both Ting Tings and Lily Allen yet ensures both come back out of a blender shredded and in absolute bits, with a hint of Captain Beefheart lovingly dashed across the top as seasoning. Basically, that's a rubbish attempt at describing the Micachu tunes, riffs and songs and I use those three words deliberately. Not everything here is exactly 'a song' and it quickly becomes clear that Micachu is either a genuis, an absolutely beginner musician or perhaps a little of both. Oh, in case you haven't got it down yet, 'Jewellery' is an absolutely brilliant blast of an LP from beginning to end. Also, it could only ever have been made in 2009 and how many records can you realistically say that about?
A couple of tunes then feature a vacumn cleaner as additional instrumentation. Other things like drills, electric shavers etc are quite possibly used. The guitar parts sound constantly out of tune yet still manage to captivate you due to the very simple and very catchy riffs they play out. Her vocals are mixed fairly low yet she also shouts on occasion about things like Calculators or Vampires. The opening cut doesn't have words that one is easily able to make out. Yet, combination of weird rhythm, weird vacumn cleaner, booming and discordant drums makes for one of the most thrilling tunes i've heard in many a year.
There are plenty of great songs here. 'Lips' is a mere 80 seconds long yet contains more ideas than many bands careers. It's also the kind of music John Peel really would have loved. This isn't alternative for the sake of it, merely you get the feeling this is the only way Micachu knows how to make music within her own limitations. Limitations? Yeah, we know she's no virtuoso, yet we also know she has an ear for a tune and bundles of energy. 'Eat Your Heart' and 'Curly Teeth' are both deeply experimental, yet's loads of fun. 'Golden Phone' is a tune and three quarters, absolutely blindingly brilliant stuff. 'Calculator' begins with such a familiar riff before it veers off into very different territory and the vocals are playful and weird both as the guitars distort around her.
One the one hand, I know 'Jewellery' isn't a masterpiece in the grand scheme of things. It's a little too out there at times, yet when this album hits the spot, it does so stupendously. As such, this is an album I know i'll dig out repeatedly, just for the silliness of it all and I mean to use that word and to use it in a great way.
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this page last updated 22/03/09
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