Chopped & Screwed (Live At King's Place)

Micachu & The Shapes’ genre-defying debut, Jewellery, was at once familiar and boldly new, melding a street-punk edge with ragamuffin, loft-dwelling artsiness. On Chopped & Screwed, Mica Levi and her band move into the realm of “new music,” executing contemporary twists and takes on things orchestral in a partnership with the London Sinfonietta, recorded live at the Sinfonietta’s Experiment! festival at Kings Place. Using homemade instruments alongside the chamber orchestra’s strings and flutes, the performance barely feels live — save for a “big” feel to the spaces in the music — and one song slides into the next with ease, though they may be sprouted from different ancestors. The lounge vibe of “Low Dogg” — Mica’s detached vocals over a bed of finger snaps, languid beats and laser synths — gracefully morphs into symphonic strings on the track, “Fall,” and it feels absolutely organic and right. Levi claimed the aim was to make a “prog-rock, hip-hop mix tape-inspired classical music piece,” and that is truly the most apt description of Chopped & Screwed, the title of which refers to a hip-hop production style of the ‘90s.