Micachu and the Shapes- Good Sad Happy Bad (2015)

Micachu and the Shapes- Good Sad Happy Bad (2015)

“The most creative people have this childlike facility to play.”

John Cleese

By: Ghost Writer

Issued in the significant September 11th, this year, Good Sad Happy Bad could easily be the best record edited this years, Mica Levi, the British singer songwriter and leader of the notorious Micachu & The Shapes is without a doubt in an intense fight to come with a musical world all of her own, her musical compositions simply don't belong to this world, it sounds as if Mica is capturing successfully the spirit of great outsider musicians like Daniel Johnston and legends like The Shaggs while filtering them thru the mind of Pierre Schaeffer and his musique concrete vision.

Featuring the equal talents of Raisa Khan and Marc Pell on keyboards and drums respectively, perfect cohorts in Mica outrageous musical quest, I must confess that I was totally blown away by album's opener Sad, with Pell's impressively persistent drum arrangements, a bit of that CAN fixed beats and the magic of the band commitment to totally transform it songs into something else, here immersing us in a brutal mantra thanks to Mica detached vocals.

Relaxing is obviously less intense, and it has a bit of a campy feel, it could easily be mistaken for a Johnston tune, but weirdly produced, here the band goes again for a simple melody immersed in a strange dark world, kind of like what you would get if Daniel Johnston was a character in a Tim Burton movie, while Dreaming is an intriguing mix of post punk and 60s psychedelic pop.

Personally I'm delighted by the wonderful roaming Sea Air, is a confusing theme, yes, but it shows in deep detail what this band musical proposition is all about, just as much as much as the upbeat fun approach displayed on the dynamic Thinking It with eerie vocals sounding as if they were coming out of a crazy dream.

Oh Baby is the kind of stuff you could have heard on a The Shaggs album, is the crazy grandchildren of old Captain Beefheart going crazy on grandpa’s legacy all this while being produced by a somnolient DJ Skrew, while Waiting is pure chaos and free form, a wild sound exploration by this fearless band.

Micachu & the Shapes are obviously not for everyone as surprises wait on every corner, the cacophonous nature of Waiting might alienate some listeners while the crazy fury of the tribal Unity might be a little too much, but you can't deny that Mica and company have created again a record that follow no rules, on the contrary, one defiant bunch of uncompromising songs, it's not perfect, and I'm sure it is not meant to be, but by offering a complete new musical vision, Micachu & the Shapes might have issued one of the best records we got the chance to listen to this year.