Micachu And The Shapes

Green Door Store, Trafalgar Arches, Brighton, Monday, July 20

NEIL Young famously insists his engineer records every note he plays in the studio – whether it sounds like a warm-up or not – so potential performance is missed.

Similarly Micachu And The Shapes’ forthcoming third album Good Sad Happy Bad was recorded almost surreptitiously by drummer Marc Pell during long jam sessions.

“We recorded it in this medium and there was no way of going back and editing,” says Pell as the band travel to Glasgow for the first show of their tour.

“What was quite nice was we were getting together to have a play just for the sake of it. We weren’t thinking of anything else at that moment in time – the others didn’t know I was recording. There was no other purpose other than messing around.

“Mica cut them up, but we used the sound from the recordings unchanged.”

“We enjoyed the quality of the sound world we had created,” adds keyboard player Raisa Khan.

“The other albums were collaborative, but before Mica [Levi, songwriter and guitarist] used to come in with a song already written. This time we came up with everything together.”

The first taste of this new direction was released on YouTube last week.

The atmospheric almost lo-fi Oh Baby is based around a slow drum beat, simple keyboard figures and repetitive vocal line.

The album follows on from Levi’s soundtrack to the cult film Under The Skin starring Scarlett Johansen. The jams were perhaps a reaction to the more regulated needs for a soundtrack cue.

“I think I have always felt we were a better band live than on record,” says Levi.

“Part of what we have achieved is not what we set out to do. It wasn’t organised. It has got that feeling of how we play live.”

Oh Baby reflects the laidback feel of the album – and so the direction the band is taking for their stage shows.

“The songs aren’t as fixed,” says Khan. “We have more freedom if we want to make something a bit longer on stage we can.”

It is a contrast to the more frenetic sound captured on the band’s first two albums Jewellery, from 2009, and 2012’s Never.

As for what the forthcoming album artwork might look like there have been a few tantalising glimpses on Levi’s Facebook page.

“We took a lot of pictures during the sessions,” says Levi. “There’s a lot of indoor weather – you don’t tend to get much weather in the studio so we wanted to bring a bit into the creative environment, something you never get to experience.”

Support from Hypnotized.

Doors 7pm, tickets £8/£10. Call 01273 606312.