Biography
Micachu serves as the performing alias for Mica Levi, the singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist who entered the world in Surrey, England, before growing up in London’s Bow district. Her sound, which she labels experimental pop, blends hip-hop-inflected rhythms, found-sound fragments, catchy tunes, rock guitar, and occasional household appliances into a single unpredictable whole. She also builds custom instruments, among them the Chu, a modified guitar bearing her own nickname. Levi started performing and writing at the age of four; although she received classical instruction on viola and violin plus composition lessons at both the Purcell School and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, she drew equal influence from hip-hop and the United Kingdom’s flourishing grime and garage movements. While DJing and MCing live and programming beats in her bedroom, she posted the mixtape Filthy Friends on MySpace, a collection that mixed her favorite pop, classical, and hip-hop tracks by Golden Silvers, Man Like Me, and Jack Peñate. Through producer Matthew Herbert she secured a deal on his Accidental imprint and began shaping material for a first album; late in 2007 she expanded the project into a full-band format by enlisting drummer and percussionist Marc Pell together with keyboardist Raisa Khan, thereby founding the Shapes. The group issued its first limited-edition single, Lone Ranger, in May 2008, then followed with Golden Phone, which gained traction on MySpace. During the same period one of Levi’s pieces received a performance by the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Royal Festival Hall as part of her composition coursework. Micachu & the Shapes spent the spring and summer touring alongside the Mystery Jets while appearing at Bestival and V Festival. Rough Trade Records brought out the band’s debut album, Jewellery, in spring 2009. In May 2010 Micachu & the Shapes joined forces with the London Sinfonietta to record pieces that juxtaposed the group’s handmade instruments against the ensemble’s conventional classical timbres; Levi later edited the concert tapes into the 2011 release Chopped & Screwed. The Shapes handled production themselves on their next album, 2012’s Never, an even more radical exploration of rhythm and texture than Jewellery. For several years Levi worked on separate endeavors, including two EPs with longtime friend Tirzah titled I’m Not Dancing and No Romance, plus a BAFTA-nominated soundtrack for Jonathan Glazer’s unsettling science-fiction film Under the Skin. The Shapes’ third album, the freely flowing 2015 set Good Bad Happy Sad, emerged from extended jam sessions that Pell captured without Khan or Levi’s knowledge.
Albums
