Exciting news from Micachu & The Shapes’ camp! The trio have collaborated with London Sinfonietta, one of the world’s leading contemporary orchestras, to create the album ‘Chopped & Screwed’. Recorded live in front of an audience at Kings Place, London in May 2010 the album will be released by Rough Trade, Rhythmethod in NZ on 28th March 2011.
This will be both Rough Trade and Micachu’s first ever classical release.
The concept behind the album was inspired by the popular “chopping and screwing” technique in American hip-hop which was developed in Houston in the 1990s. The technique involves halving tempo, skipping beats and affecting portions of the original music. The approach was thought to have been developed by DJ Screw and largely influenced by Purple Drank, a codeine-based cough syrup which creates the effect of slowing down the brain, giving mellow music its appeal.
For this exciting, innovative project Mica Levi and David Sylvester handmade the instruments played by Micachu & The Shapes on this recording. Mica explains: “Our own instruments sound a bit percussive, a bit like samples, a bit different. When I write songs on a guitar I find my hands falling into the same bar chords all the time, but if you have something new in front of you there are no rules. No one else has ever played one before so you can approach music differently just make it up as you go along.” She adds, “Doing a project with the London Sinfonietta is an amazing opportunity for us.”
The first track to be taken from Micachu & the Shapes and The London Sinfonietta’s classical crunk album ‘Chopped & Screwed’ has arrived! Download ‘Everything’, which also features in this week’s NME‘On Repeat’, below.
