Eat Your Heart
April 14, 2009
Upon first listen of Micachu’s Rough Trade debut, it may be hard to believe that Mica Levi spent her teen years producing tracks for some of the UK’s best grime/garage acts and writing an orchestral piece for the London Philharmonic Orchestra. The 21-year-old Levi and her two bandmates, the Shapes (led by the charming Raisa Khan), use an array of unorthodox instruments including a modified guitar called a chu that Levi plays with a “hammer action,” and they’ve created an album chock full of artful and deceptively complex pop-punk tunes. Produced by Matthew Herbert, the 30-minute, 13-song record is perhaps the ultimate paradox; the listener is taken on a trip through the mind of an artist who wears her influences on her sleeve, and then takes those influences and filters them quite literally through a Hoover vacuum (i.e. “Turn Me Well”). Album highlight “Calculator” playfully bridges noisy garage band guitar riffs, Wire circa 1977, and witty, yet childish lyrics (“Grab your calculator…’cause I don’t think I can work this one out”). One of 2009′s most buzzworthy acts, I still have yet to wear Jewellry out. One can only wonder how this former child prodigy will channel her musical energy in the future.
