Micachu & The Shapes and The London Sinfonietta - Chopped & Screwed (Rough Trade)
4/5
By: Stephen Maughan
Chopped & Screwed is a 30 minute live classical recording, an experimental release before Micachu & The Shapes release their “proper” follow up album to the much praised Jewellery later this year. It comes as some surprise to find that a stopgap record is quite this beautiful an affair - a rich and mellow album, with both a dreamlike and enriching quality that will have you listening in awe.
There have never been too many in the alternative rock scene who appreciate the complexities and appeal of classical music, and even fewer who’ve successfully mixed the furthest reaches of both styles in to something genuinely interesting in itself. Those that do are often met with a baffled fanbase. You may recall the terrible reviews of Sonic Youth's avant garde classical release Goodbye 20th Century a few years back. I remember seeing them perform this record live in London - half the audience walked out, and the other half kept calling out for ‘Teenage Riot’.
With that in mind, I say thank God for the London Sinfonietta - a world leading contemporary orchestra who try, and usually succeed, to create interesting and innovative music to entertain and educate. They are at home equally at the Proms or recording with Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood. Teaming up with the curious indie popster Micachu would have made perfect sense considering what they are trying to achieve.
For Chopped & Screwed Mica Levi, frontwoman of Micachu & The Shapes, composed nine songs, which together with the London Sinfonietta were manipulated (chopping and screwing is a 1990's hip hop technique of mixing and distorting samples) into this short but remarkable record. Despite its experimental nature, this is a quickly accessible and an enjoyable listen, thanks largely to the lyrics and voice of Mica - one of Britain's most talented young composers, seen here at the helm of her second excellent record.
Both musical and mathematical professors could spend many hours analysing the place of every note and tone on Chopped and Screwed, but the point is you don't need to have a degree in experimental music to appreciate records like this - you don't even need to know the difference between violin and a clarinet. All that’s required is a prior history of enjoying addictively playful and exploratory songs. For all its pretence, Chopped & Screwed boils down to being little more than nine short and curious ditties on a remarkably enjoyable album.
Artists in this article: Micachu
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