Jewellery (Bonus Track Version)

Micachu (Mica Levi) & the Shapes are making some brilliantly strange and beautiful noise; dare we call it “cutting edge?” Imagine if M.I.A. had grown up listening to Harry Partch or John Cage; if the Slits had come of age in the new millennium when everything to do with art and music is but a computer keystroke away; if the Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 and Xiu Xiu hooked up at a London grime party and procreated ...  Jewellery, produced by acclaimed British electronic musician Matthew Herbert, is a 35-minute rhythmic mash of primitive punk squonk, folk dissonance, and naïve jazz scribbling. Playing “modified” guitars and unorthodox homemade instruments (including a vacuum cleaner), Micachu  — a formally trained, 21-year old musician who recently wrote a piece for the London Philharmonic Orchestra — is joined by Raisa Khan on keyboards and Marc Pell on drums. If you’re reluctant to try a little artiness with your pop, go for the single first; “Golden Phone” has a joyful, slinky, dance beat, and sweetly soothing vocals. You almost don’t notice the sound of breaking glass halfway through.