Micachu and the Shapes - Jewellery

From grime mixtapes, learning difficulties and running experimental music nights while at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, it would be very easy for the quality of this album to be lost in the buzz of surrounding side stories. Furthermore, toy keyboards, obscure humming noises and household samples play up the veneer that covers the music of Micachu and the Shapes. But when expertly disguised melodies peer out from beneath the anarchy, the better it becomes.

Last year's mixtape, Filthy Friends - featuring a wealth of guest rappers - was a soundclash of ambience and gracelessly jarring beats. Populated by spindly samples and danceable rhythms, these better parts are carried forward to Jewellery. Besides the gurning guitars and shy prettiness of the LP, Micachu's vocal is the clear focal point; her muttered, drunken-street-preacher singing style is easily one of the most endearing to have emerged from London in recent times. And despite this being Micachu's debut, there's no sense that it's the naive defining moment that so many groups find their first album becoming, which leaves a reassuring suspicion that there's much to this lady we've yet to hear. [Jamie Scott]