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2LP
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DDS 011LP
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Mica Levi more or less owned 2014 with the release of that astonishing soundtrack to Jonathan Glazer's Under the Skin, followed by this hour-long album-cum-mixtape for Demdike Stare's DDS imprint, which was released at the end of the year and sold out in a flash. It has now been reworked for this vinyl edition, and given a full remaster by Matt Colton. Levi is an artist who basically seems to channel attention deficit into exploring and re-shaping a myriad of musical ideas and directions without bound -- sometimes all at once. She's an artist who has by her mid-20s merged the disciplines of codeine-laced, cough syrup-drankin' early '90s Houston hip hop legend DJ Screw with the rarified sound of London Sinfonietta on her incredible Chopped & Screwed album (2011), got Matthew Herbert to produce her brilliant 2009 debut Jewellery, and acquired Björk as a fan in the process. She's produced a bunch of killer, off-beat pop tracks for up-and-comer Tirzah and supplied an impromptu 30-minute Boiler Room set that's still one of the best they've ever put up. And yeah, that's before that Under the Skin soundtrack that showcased another side to her production altogether -- all discordant, intense, Ligeti-influenced strings, muffled percussion, and frozen drones that came off like a feverishly-dreamt collaboration between David Lynch and Nate Young. When asked about the score and working with someone as high-profile as Jonathan Glazer she told Pitchfork "He's a nice bloke -- I certainly didn't think he was a wanker." Which basically tells you that you ain't dealing with the ordinary or conventional when it comes to anything Micachu is involved with. And this hour-long session is perhaps her best work yet. More or less split into three seamless segments referenced in the title, it journeys out from tense, concrete-fuelled strings to brilliantly ramshackle tape beats and odd pop edits, spooled through her singular, totally inimitable box of tricks. One is hard-pressed to think of any contemporary artists who have as broad and limitless an ability to continuously re-contextualize the familiar into something that feels never-before-heard -- even going back as far back as Prince or Arthur Russell to reference anyone who has really managed to tap into as many diverse musical disciplines with this much originality. And if you think that's a bit far-fetched -- give this a listen and knock yourself out.
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