London-based three-piece Micachu And The Shapes release their debut album 'Jewellery' through Rough Trade Records. Lead singer Mica Levi is as enigmatic and mysterious as she is gutsy and highly talented. Raisa Khan's excellent keyboard work takes care of both the melody and bass lines, while Marc Pell succeeds at keeping the chaos under control with various drumming styles throughout. Levi weaves music that blends punk with grime and catchy pop. It really needs to be heard to be believed. Includes the single 'Lips'.

Feb 2009

In 2008 the 21 year old Micachu released two limited edition 7" singles, a grime mixtape and scored an instrumental piece for the London Philharmonic Orchestra which was performed at the Royal Festival Hall and played at the BBC Electric Proms which included a varied range of guests including Oasis, Goldfrapp and Burt Bacharach(!).

Her new album 'Jewellery' has been described as "an extraordinary introduction to a unique new talent". Little wonder then that Micachu has already won a fan in experimental-pop pioneer Bjork.

She notes inventive composer Harry Partch as one of her biggest influences. He famously used an array of customised and home made instruments. These included a xylophone made of light bulbs, a Cloud Chamber made out of pyrex dishes that could not only be played musically but detect particles of ionising radiation and a series of highly complicated 44 stringed instruments.

Similarly Micachu uses a modified guitar played with a hammer action called a 'chu' and a bowed instrument fashioned from a CD rack. She also uses improvised instruments, such as glass bottles or a vacuum cleaner.

• CMJ - "[A] record of smartly crafted infectious pop melodies and jangly toe-tapping guitars..."
• Spin (p.94) - "[I]nsanely disorienting fun. Somewhere among the almost random beats, noises, and odd samples, it even swings and occasionally blindsides you with a striking melody."
  Rolling Stone (p.70) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[With] raggedy strumming, clanking percussion and a symphony of squeaks and buzzes....The guiding force is Levi -- an instant punk heroine..."

JEWELLERY proves to be an impressive debut from 21-year-old musical wunderkind Mica Levi, aka Micachu. Although the frantic soundscapes and thickly distorted guitar push the album into abstract experimental territory, Levi, with the aid of her backing band the Shapes, manages to make this artfully orchestrated mess catchy. Adding to the delightful chaos are Micachu's garbled, childlike vocals which futher call attention to Micachu & the Shapes as an artistic force to be reckoned with.