Mica Levi/Coby Sey/Curl appreciation thread

#1

I don’t think I’m alone in thinking Mica Levi is making some of the most innovative (or at least most "now) music out there. Between her minimal, grime influenced productions and soundtrack work (Under the Skin, Jackie), she seems to be one of the few people out there mixing mediums to make something truly forward facing while also staying approachable and tied to relative pop conventions (especially considering her production for Tirzah).

However, her frequent collaborator Coby Sey doesn’t seem to get nearly as much love. His Whities EP is one of the most unique things I’ve heard in a hot minute, falling somewhere (to my ears) between dub, minimal dance, the ethereal post rock of Disco Inferno, and some skewed futurist take on post-punk.

Anyone else out here in 555 land love Coby as much as me? Also, anyone have any further listening in the same ballpark as Mica Levi/Coby Sey?

#2

i’m a rabid mica fan, will need to check out that coby sey ep again. i love tirzah and the track that came out of the collaboration with mount kimbie, she seems to be operating in all of the right areas. she has a soundtrack for a new film called “Monos” which premiered at sundance earlier this year, can’t wait. without a doubt, that sublime under the skin soundtrack provided a wonderful boost for her music career.

#3

as for similar music, perhaps oliver coates latest album (who mica has also collab’d with):

it’s got a bit of that ‘rough around the edges’ feel

#4

i like this

#5

Wow, surprised I’ve never peeped this Oliver Coates before. Gunna cue this up for my commute tomorrow. Didn’t Coates also do something with Dean Blunt if I’m not mistaken?

Speaking of Coby though, I’d also reccomend diving into his NTS show. Really solid and diverse, you can expect anything from Prince to Durutti Column.

#6

thanks for posting, was not aware of this collaboration, has an OG tricky vibe to it, nice, always missing music like this, experimental Grime, rap…

#7

Big fan of Mica Levi since the first Micachu & the Shapes album (all are great). She’s one of those ppl who is so singular that I used to be very annoyed there wasn’t more stuff released. The Curl stuff hasn’t really grabbed my interest and I’ve lost a lot of motivation in terms of looking for music so I’ve not kept up with it, but I do know about some stuff from a few years ago which may be of use.

I’ve wanted to hear a studio version of the song at 10 mins here for years and years.

The Michachu & the Shapes live show is one of the best I’ve seen, often quite different to the studio tracks. I think I saw them at XOYO (maybe around the time of Never) and they were all v slow versions but v weighty.

I’ve wanted to hear full / DJable versions of the grimey tracky things she has put in DJ sets and so on for a long time as well but am now resigned to the fact that that probably won’t happen (there have been a couple of bits that have come out on DDS (the release was called Taz & May Vids or something iirc) but that barely scratches the surface).

Mixtapes and DJ sets seem to be the next best thing. The ones I remember being particularly good were the 2 Kwesachu mixtapes, the Chopped & Screwed mixtape with Brotha May (tracky reworks of the Chopped & Screwed album with MCing), the Micachu vs Kwake Bass mixtape and the Boiler Room set. Those may not be the real names of them but I’d imagine most will be findable somewhere or on youtube. All v worth looking up.

#8

The Tricky comparison is actually pretty on the money, especially his Nearly God/Pre Millenium Tension phase.

#9

That’s absolutely sick that you saw her on the Never tour, such a solid record.

If you frequent Soulseek then you may be be able to find Mica’s Filthy Friends mixtape, which launched her career before she made a name with the Shapes. Its 85% grimey/bass-y tracks featuring a lot of future usual suspects, such as Brother May. Lots of pure gold on there. The version I have even has separated tracks as opposed to one big mixfile.

Edit: Brother May actually doesn’t appear on Filthy Friends, but it does feature Ghost Poet and Kwes (Kwes it turns out is actually Coby Sey’s brother. Who woulda thunk it.)

#10

yaas stuff with Brother May is wicked, just found this as well:

anybody know where to get this mixtape?

#11

http://bit.ly/chopdandscrewdmixtape

#12

saw Monos at MIFF. Mica on soundtrack duty. movie overall wasn’t entirely my cuppa but man… Mica can do no wrong. some of those scenes gave me the full body/sound experience i had like when i saw Dunkirk.

Modern classical / experimental / "powerful" music?
#13

I put the mixtape on youtube as well seeing as it doesn’t really seem widely available to random people which I thought was a shame.

#14

Loved Monos! Really enjoyed the Jackie soundtrack as well which I sort of half watched recently. I’m going to listen a bit more to some of the classical stuff I think as I’ve been listening to Feeling Romantic Feeling Tropical Feeling Ill a bit more and that side of things is piquing my interest. Curl bandcamp has a £1 musical score from her as well, which I bought out of curiosity, but I don’t really understand musical notes so I’m going to have to do a bit of research before I can figure out how that would work.

There are a few new things out - Blue Alibi and Ruff Dog are solo albums, Good Sad Happy Bad did a new album as well (new name for Micachu & The Shapes, but they have a new member who I think is Curl affiliated? and Raisa Khan does the vocals mostly now).

There was also a rarities EP from her and Brother May which I completely missed until for some reason I found it through a google images search? Idk.


Looks like some of it might be from that Chopped & Screwed Mixtape. I’m waiting on my copy now.