Customer Reviews

Jewelry

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Part electro-pop, part indie rock, part hip-hop and part Tom Waits is the best description I can think of. What a unique sound from the UK, and the woman is a classical composition student! "Golden Phone" is my new favorite song, but there are plenty of great tracks here to go around. Most are on the short side, my only complaint. This is 3-person group, but you wouldn't know that listening to this CD, as there are so many layers and sounds. Sometimes beautiful, sometimes ugly, and sometimes slammin with a hot beat, this one bears repeat listening to uncover all the subtleties (and understand the lyrics through Mica's thick accent!). Like Fiery Furnaces, the singer's vocal talent isn't the focus, and some might not be able to get past it. Check it out, you'll be one of their early fans when they make it big!

I was flipping through stations and heard a snipet of Micachu's 'Eat Your Heart' song #4 from her new cd Jewellery...looked her up and bought the cd on lark and...SCORE!!! This little lady is creative as hell and really reminds me of a younger Beck...from his earlier days. Sure, she attends a prestigious music school and has Bjork as one her fans but these damn quirky songs have a weird way of getting into your head and staying there. The experimental industrial background sounds, goofy and irrelevant lyrics and solid beats all combine to create music well suited to a soundtrack from some future sci-fi flick?! Only complaint is some of the songs and sweet beats are a bit brief...Micachu, you tease me!

It's odd but heartening that an album like this can still find support, other than through self-publishing on the internets. It's imaginative, quirky, offbeat--all those stupid words that critics use to describe something they have little regular contact with, and thus grasp for adequate means of description--and more. Yet, when one strips back the outer veneer of bubble gum, the beating heart of this music has more in common with groups like the Residents, or maybe Wire, circa /154/. There is a kind of dark brooding beneath the easily digestible parts of /Jewelry/, consisting of harsh, atonal noises that, nonetheless, skip along in the same groove as the catchy beats and the disarming cuteness of Levi's singing. Listening to this album the first few times, I was constantly referring back to Mr. Bungle's /Disco Volante/, perhaps a more violent, emotionally unsettling piece of work, but it has many identical impulses as /Jewelry/, in that both attempt to reveal disturbing qualities in familiar musical themes. In fact, I could see this album being a Mike Patton joint, if only it had speed metal breaks and the necessary bent for psychopathy (screaming, babbling, pants pooping, and the like).

If you're an old bastard like myself who grew up with Negativeland, Sonic Youth (pre DGC), Einsterzende Neubauten, Big Black, etc., and can accept that similar world views can exist as well in the sunlight as the darkness, check it out. You might get the feeling that there's some hope for what otherwise looks like overwhelming lameness for current music culture, and whatever "the Kids" are doing to make it interesting.

Micachu extracts the positive energy of punk and combines it with a dynamic electronic element. The songs have a tendency to get stuck in my head for days, though, so I'm careful to only listen to Jewellery occasionally.

I found out about Micachu and the Shapes quite by accident, having gone to a Chairlift show in Chicago where they were an opening act. It turns out that it was their first stop in their first U.S. tour, and it brought down the house - eclipsing to an incredible degree the headline act.

I've got this album playing right now, and every time I hear it I am amazed by the control of texture and rhythm. Mica Levi's thick, interesting English accent and the liberal collection of instruments - traditional, electronic, and improvised - combine to produce an addictive sound that catches one's attention and makes one want to dance. The unusual, seemingly meticulous orchestration and deft use of rhythmic figures points to Levi's classical training. Open up the booklet, and you see that the lyrics are great too, incisive and often hilarious.

It is probably the best CD of non-classical music I have bought in the past couple of years. I highly recommend it.

The beats and rhythms of this album are what experimental Indie pop has previously hinted at but never delivered... until now. I can't stop listening to this record, it is incredibly creative. The beats stick with you and you begin to wonder if a new type of music is being born.

There are a few albums that I love, and that I consider to be masterpieces of experimental rock: Captain Beefheart's "Trout Mask Replica", Fred Frith's "Speechless", and The Residents "Meet The Residents" & "Duck Stab". Now I'm adding "Jewellery" by Micachu to the list. Micachu uses unusual time signatures, found objects as instruments (like bottles and even a vacuum cleaner) to create intense songs full of dizzying layers of sounds. In several songs the typical song structure is just thrown out the window, and her lyrics are like twisted poetry. And then somehow, even through all the wierdness, the songs are incredibly dance-able and catchy - you'll find yourself humming them and rocking out at all hours. After hearing so many supposedly "alternative" bands that are similar and boring, listening to Micachu is a breath of fresh air. If you are interested at all in something new and interesting, buy this immediately! Also if you get a chance, see their live show - they sound great, and it's fun to watch them playing all those wacky instruments.