Audio, 12th October 2009
Recently snapped up by Rough Trade Records, Micachu and the Shapes came to Brighton to promote their debut album ‘Jewellery’ to a smallish crowd at Audio. The band consists of Mica Levi on vocals, Raisa Khan on keyboards and Marc Pell on drums. You would be forgiven for not realising that this band had only been signed in January of this year. They have had rave reviews and been described as ‘staggeringly inventive, ridiculously talented and utterly unpredictable’.
Inventive is one way of describing them. Two Smart children’s milk powder tins, one Smirnoff bottle, and a beer bottle had been made into instruments. And something that looked like a dog bowl turned upside down. For the most part you would think you were listening to a whole street in Brighton putting their recycling out and somehow creating an amazing set.
Mica has an awkward jittery presence in between songs but transforms behind her ukulele-sized guitar. Her hoarse voice powers through ‘Curly Teeth’ – the clear highlight of the night with its Pacman bleeps and dirty beats. ‘Golden Phone’ and ‘Wrong’, the most dance friendly songs on the album, have a playful sexiness to them which got a few heads nodding in an otherwise motionless audience.
If this was your first taste of this talented and rough experimental band, you easily could have walked out thinking that they can’t play their album live. The sound and lighting was terrible, and most of the banter between the Micachu and the Shapes and the audience was joking about how bad it was. Her face lit up with a sarcastic grin as she told us how strange it was to not be able to see any of the crowd. Every time they put down their instruments, one of them had to complain about the keyboard being too quiet or the vocals being too loud. It was easy to mistake the constant feedback as part of their songs as they hurled a huge array of sounds across the room. It was a shame because they do wonderful work as a group.
Words by Jennifer Butler
Photography by Emmest
myspace.com/micayomusic
What did you think of the gig?
Steve Taylor: 7/10 “I heard the album a few weeks ago and decided to see them live. I really liked them. I think they will be up for next years Mercury Prize”
Dave Tribe: 8/10 “This is the fourth time I have seen them and it is good to hear some of their new stuff. The sound was rubbish in here though”
Elizabeth Walling: 8/10 “I love Micachu and the Shapes and I thought they were really good. They need a more delicate venue though, the sound was terrible and the venue wasn’t right for them”
