Micachu | Filthy Friends Mixtape

February 22nd, 2009 Stu

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21-year-old Mica Levi aka Micachu has already done her work for the year. She’s already delivered an album (Rough Trade, March 9th), ‘Jewellery’ produced by Matthew Herbert, that sounds undeniably authentic and original, which – in this day and age of spiraling, referential hype – is nothing to be sniffed at. And whilst it’s just as undeniable that a press and blog deluge is sure to follow, Micachu’s skewed take on genuine post-punk sensibilities, delivered with a part-pop, part-acoustic verve, all dressed in Patrick Wolf’s clothing, is uncharacteristically worthy of the attendant clamour.

Classically trained, Micachu’s ‘Filthy Friends’ mixtape is a fine example of her stance on music, ricocheting between genres (hip hop, grime, experimental electronica, spoken word, jazz, dubstep) and featuring Toddla T, Golden Silvers, Capitol K, Kwes, Man Like Me and poet Jack Penate. Also below, Hyperdub’s LV delivers a mix that’s so intrinsically fucked-up and literally off-beat that it sounds like a complete mistake. Thankfully, after the third listen, it all finally makes beautiful sense.

Micachu – Filthy Friends Mixtape | mp3

Bonus: Michachu – Lips (LV Remix) | download page

img | split-ends

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Gyratory System | Utility Music

January 31st, 2009 Stu

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Described by one of their labels, Angular Recording Corporation, as a “utilitarian instrumental marching band”, UK collective Gyratory Systems are born from the cremains of London’s One More Grain – themselves an avant employer of the brass section, albeit in a post-punk vein.

Certainly the description has some merit – picking out individual instruments on this track, ‘Utility Music’, proves almost entirely fruitless. A melee of percussion, wind instruments, 4-4 bass and dissonant keyboard stabs – all of which offers little in the way of solace. It’s a futurist krautrock tribute, giving their all at an avant-jazz picnic on an interstate freeway, while the boys at the back systematically destroy the entire DFA record back catalogue with a pair of knitting needles.

Whatever particular touchstones Gyratory System stumble across, they’re certainly of generous spirit. They are currently in the midst of a reformist release cycle, promising that their music “will appear in fragments, in various formats, at different times”. This month, four of these fragments come bundled in a Mini CD release (in handmade origami sleeve) titled “Utility Music I” – and if the thought a plugging a 3″ CD into your laptop fills you with fear, the band are also releasing the EP for the princely sum of zero dollars at their web site, gyratorysystem.com.

Gyratory System – Utility Music | mp3

img | catbagan

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