Posted by An artist who gets better with every new release is Mica Levi. They first emerged as Micachu, then Micachu and the Shapes, which evolved into Good Sad Happy Bad. In recent years Levi is more know for film scores than bouncy indie pop. Levi’s film scores are gut wrenching things of beauty. From start to finish you are put through the wringer. Last year saw Levi join CURL, an ensemble of musicians associated to the London based CURL label, to release some contemporary classical EP, along with a PDF of sheet music for groups of people in isolation to perform. The late last year Levi released their debut solo album ‘Ruff Dog’ was culled from a collection of lockdown recordings.
Now Levi has unveiled another album, with no fanfare, called ‘Blue Alibi’. It is similar to ‘Ruff Dog’ as it suddenly appeared unannounced, but unlike their previous album it is more restrained and features CURL, Relax Kevin, Jonathan Leandoer and Brother May.
Opening track ‘Whack’ features Levi’s ensemble CURL. While the vocals are a gritty and filled with bile, the main event are the disjointed, and hypnotic, guitars. As they crunch about bashing into each other, like a mosh a rock club, never meaning to damage each other but let off steam. ‘Liquorice’ and ‘Outro’ are dirty. The guitars sound like they are being recorded on a cigarette pack amp played at one end of an underpass with the microphone at the other. ‘Om Om Om Om’ features Brother May, another Curl alumnus. Wonky guitars underpin a spoken word piece about the perils of lockdown living.
The two songs that sum up ‘Blue Alibi’ are ‘Between’ featuring Relax Kevin and ‘Blue Shit’. ‘Between’ opens with a twitching narcotic loop that gives way to manipulated field recordings. Then the vocals kick in. Reverb heavy and layered they create this glorious hypnotic motif that it partly inaudible but utterly compelling when you train you eat to pick it up. The song ends with just the sound of metal on metal. Imagine a blacksmith working after a skin full and you are on the right lines. It’s uncompromising but totally compelling.
The instrumental ‘Blue Shit’ is a reworking of ‘Blue 1’ by Blue Shit, which was originally released on a Curl EP in 2017. This version is looser and more playful than the original. The guitar riffs cascade around you creating hypnotic patterns. The playing is slow and measured and never gets above a stroll, but it just slowly draws you in to its muted world. It’s fascinating. The kind of song you could play back-to-back for an hour and still never fathom what’s really going on apart from the joy of playing.
‘Blue Alibi’ follows on form last year’s ‘Ruff Dog’. That album was just lo-fi and in the red for its duration, but here Levi gives us room to catch our breath, and to be able to hear the delicate melodies they are putting down. While ‘Ruff Dog’ was a load of fun, it did omit what Levi is know for. Those killer melodies. While ‘Blue Alibi’ never quite reaches the level of control as their film scores it is a brave piece of music that shows Levi is capable of getting their feelings across regardless of whether they use words or not.
This is a singular album from a singular artist who despite their rich back catalogue hints that the best is yet to come.
8/10
Words: Nick Roseblade
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