Micachu
Words by Sean Williams
Pigeon-holers do your best, because Surrey-come-London girl Mica Levi is doing her best to defy genre-hungry journos everywhere. Her ramshackle pop is a hotchpotch of teeny-bopping electro hooks and funky indietronic melodies, and her onstage presence alongside the Shapes (Raisa Khan on keys and drummer Marc Pell) is akin to a tetchy adolescent hopped-up on too many wine gums.
But underneath this veneer of eclecticism and ebullience, there’s a juggernaut of musical talent and know-how in this erudite 21-year-old. Taught violin, viola and composition from an early age, Micachu certainly knows her stuff, and even composed a classical piece chosen by the London Philharmonic Orchestra for a Royal Festival Hall performance last April. She’s not one for convention either, with instrumental support for standout track Turn Me Weller coming from, erm, a vacuum cleaner.
Fear not cynics, this is not just a gimmick. It’s all part of her appetite for the eclectic and unknown, an ethos reinforced by electro-legend and musical alchemist Matthew Herbert, with whom she produced several of the tunes for her upcoming debut album. So what other ambient sounds can we expect on the record then? “We recorded some things like the sea, and some generic stuff like smashing stuff up,” Mica admits. Why? Because apparently “it seemed like a very natural thing to do!”
Following smatterings of underground success over the past couple of years, Mica released a mix-tape titled Filthy Friends in early 2008, which included contributions from the now not-so-underground likes of Jack Peñate and pub-pop pioneers Golden Silvers, both of whom are personal friends. She’s also been a regular fixture on the London hip-hop and grime scene, and is frequently found MC-ing amongst the capital’s darkest nooks and crannies.
With such a rich and varied CV, it’s no surprise really that critics have such difficulty putting her into a box. “I don’t think my music has a definite style to it”, she reflects. “I think it’s a bit of a mish-mash, a watered-down impression from all of our music tastes.” This eclecticism is all part of the beauty of Micachu and the Shapes. Whilst some of their songs, like opener Golden Phone, wouldn’t sound out of place soundtracking a kids’ TV show, others brood and bubble below the surface, adding beast to the beauty.
After making several festival appearances last year, the band have been working their way around the British Isles, playing their mashed-up pop-hop to as many music-nuts as possible. And as DH caught up with the prodigious starlet she was preparing to head off to Germany to see if they could infect the continent with their genre-defying magic. There’s no doubt that 2009 will be make-or-break for Micachu, but with so many infectious tunes already under her impressive belt, there’s no reason to suggest that this won’t be her year.
http://www.myspace.com/micayomusic
Posted Fri, March 06, 2009