{"title":"Micachu and The Shapes \/ London Sinfonietta","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"chopped-and-screwed","title":"Chopped and Screwed","description":"\u003cp\u003ecd with download code for exclusive bonus material. micachu and the shapes collaborated with london sinfonietta, one of the world's leading contemporary orchestras, to create 'chopped and screwed'. recorded live in front of an audience at kings place, london in may 2010. the sinfonietta invited mica levi, micachu and the shapes' frontwoman, to compose a series of pieces that would reflect her interests and influences, whilst giving the sinfonietta an opportunity to develop a relationship with a young and exciting composer. she then presented the ideas of shapes raisa, marc, alongside her own, to the sinfonietta's players, who then helped the trio to expand and enhance their ideas during a series of workshops prior to the concert. the concept behind the album was inspired by the popular 'chopping and screwing' technique in american hip hop which was developed in houston in the 1990s. the technique involves halving tempo, skipping beats and affecting portions of the original music. the approach was thought to have been developed by dj screw and largely influenced by purple drank, a codeine-based cough syrup which creates the effect of slowing down the brain, giving mellow music its appeal. for this exciting, innovative project mica levi and david sylvester handmade the instruments played by micachu and the shapes on this recording.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"No Label","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50409989538123,"sku":"337180","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/236047a4-9e3a-4675-bd91-b7a25728d975_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726633869"},{"product_id":"jewellery","title":"Jewellery","description":"\u003cp\u003erough trade records are delighted to announce the signing of 21 year old mica levi aka micachu. 'jewellery' is her debut album. a reluctant star, mica isn't so fussed about the flashing lights and lenses, no matter who's listening or not, the music will always play on. but people were listening, and label interest was bound to follow such prodigal output. mica gives a suitably humble response to the band's very recent signing to a very worthy new home at rough trade records. \"this is a very exciting venture for us as everyone at the label is very supportive and enthusiastic, we feel the ethos of the label is distinctive and we are proud to be along side such legendary musicians.\" equally at home making brilliant leftfield pop, as she is composing for orchestras and making mix tapes that mash up dubstep, grime, garage and pop, it comes as no surprise that micachu's matthew herbert produced debut lp 'jewellery' is the aural equivalent of a chameleon: a multi-coloured, multi-layered conflation of ground breaking sounds and ideas.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"No Label","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50410119823691,"sku":"310598","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/f2dd841a-5ef0-4e4f-8700-f81f69e02b99_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726638118"},{"product_id":"never","title":"Never","description":"\u003cp\u003einitial pressing of the lp includes free cd of the album. three years after their debut album for rough trade, micachu and the shapes return with a brand new lp of immaculate art-pop. for all micachu's well-documented love of grime and her classical training, what made 2009's 'jewellery' enjoyable was its at once shambling but highly focussed garage-punk trashiness, and that's a quality which remains thankfully intact on 'never' - 'easy' and 'waste' are properly snotty, the high-end production used to draw attention to the bumps and blemishes rather than paper over 'em. 'slick' deserves special mention, all trashcan percussion and pop compression, sounding for all the world like it's been jacked off some messthetics comp of late 80s diy tackle from the provinces. 'heaven', 'never', 'nothing', fall' - these are tracks that to these ears are pretty much instant classics. yep, we're really taken aback by how enjoyable this record is - do yourself a favour and check it out, especially if you hold a candle for this heat, the raincoats, general strike, the pastels, arthur russell, etc and have dreamt of seeing their cause taken up in a pop idiom without recourse to retro pastiche.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"No Label","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50411140645195,"sku":"352748","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50411141366091,"sku":"352747","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/d0329f85-a949-48d9-8b2e-f425ffdf6f0e_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726652880"},{"product_id":"good-sad-happy-bad","title":"Good Sad Happy Bad","description":"\u003cp\u003eMicachu and The Shapes' return, three years after the release of their last record 'Never', is almost an accident: the trio of friends decided to rehearse in an East London studio, and found themselves immersed into an hours-long jam. Drummer Marc Pell had an Edirol field recorder in hand, and unbeknownst to his bandmates, recorded the whole session; Pell, Mica Levi, and Raisa Khan were so enamored of those off-the-cuff audio experiments that they became the underpinnings of a new record. \"For me it's the most free we have been,\" Levi explains. Rather than showing up to the studio with songs written out, the trio started with a collaborative improvisation, from which Levi chose sections to develop into songs, writing lyrics to the entire record \"non-stop, in one avalanche.\" With one listen, it's easy to hear why they loved the tracks. 'Good Sad Happy Bad' maintains the experimental-pop sensibility the band has brought to previous efforts, combining the lightness and bounce of their best singles with the sonic textures of field recordings, industrial effects alongside straightforward instrumentation. Levi's affected vocals eschew easily readable emotional tone, instead relying on quixotic lyricism, repetition, and immersion into the song's landscape, to evoke warmly - rather than show - the sentiments underpinning the songs. The record's irrepressible energy, across both the upbeat and a handful of sadder songs, seems to be a direct result of the live recording process. \"Jams are really quite a healthy release, it's a way of getting stuff out without consciously thinking about it or making decisions,\" says Khan. Conversely, because the band worked out the final mixes together over a number of months - rather than in a traditional, multi-track studio over a shorter period - Pell found a new degree of creativity. \"I think the best drum part I have ever written is the stick-clicking at the beginning of 'Peach' - a moment, he explains, that he wouldn't have been able to notice without the luxury of seeing the recorded tracks as more than simply songs, but as collections of sonic ideas.LP - With Download.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rough Trade Records","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50493818569035,"sku":"392195","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":50493820010827,"sku":"392197","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/467b9843-0c53-4a0e-8e7b-382a24cb8f5a_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727700843"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/de\/collections\/micachu-and-the-shapes-london-sinfonietta.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}