When you consider that there are an infinite amount of frequencies between 20Hz and 20kHz (the range of human hearing), the ammount of notes on a typical 88 key piano is kind of limited. In reality, the 8 tones from C to C, are the specific frequency ranges for not many better reasons than just convention. Thats why its realativly odd that rock 'n roll, with its tradition of counter-culture, would be so entrenched within the traditional major and minor scales.
Enter Micachu and the Shapes.
Headed by Mica Levi, a 21 year old girl who has already composed compositions for the London Philharmonic, however, the music which she creates with the Shapes has no business in a concert hall... Yet.
The first time you hear "Lips", it sounds completely dissonant. Thats because that is the exact definition as to what you're hearing. Chords which are unresolved being strummed without remorse. Levi's guitar riff is offputting at first, but with repeated listens it starts to make sense. I've read that pop music should be 70% familiar (conforming to conventional chord structures, scales, relevant pop references) and 30% new.
Micachu and the Shapes is pretty much 80% totally from left field, with only 20% taking mild influences from grime, indie, and, I don't know, some kind of circus on crack or something. There's also the crunchy melody controlled by some kind of pad which one of the Shapes punches to play, which reminds me of the melody screamed through a megaphone on TV on the Radio's "Let The Devil In".
Like the best music, the first time you hear this you will probably hate it. But the more you listen, the more it grows and opens up to you. This one minute and forty second (with 20 solid seconds of silence in the beginning) is no classical masterpiece, but it is definitely feritle ground for new bands to get ideas.
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