Ruff Dog

天才アヴァン・ポップ・プロデューサー
ミカ・レヴィの1stと2ndがアナログ盤で2作同時リリース

音楽界のみならず映画界からも熱烈なラブコールが止まない天才アヴァン・ポップ・プロデューサー、ミカ・レヴィ。
スカーレット・ヨハンソン主演の映画『アンダー・ザ・スキン 種の捕食』のサウンドトラックでヨーロッパ映画賞「最優秀作曲賞」を受賞したことでも話題となったミカが、ミカ・レヴィ名義のファーストアルバム『Ruff Dog』と、セカンドアルバム『Blue Alibi』を5/21に同時リリース!
犬の遠吠えで幕を開け、ローファイでハードコアでオルタナティブでエクスペリメンタル、それでいてポップな展開を繰り広げるファーストの『Ruff Dog』。ブルージーに響き渡るM4「One Tear」は最近のYves Tumorが奏でるロックなスタイルを極限までローファイにしたようなエモーショナル必聴曲!

Considering that Mica Levis incarnations as a composer, producer, and bandmember sound wildly different from each other, it was difficult to predict where their first album under their own name would fall on their musical spectrum. Like Levis previous output, Ruff Dog is another example of just how willing they are to subvert expectations. Self-released and unapologetically insular, the albums sludgy, guitar-driven mood pieces come closest to Levis work with Good Sad Happy Bad, the band formerly known as Micachu & the Shapes. That groups fourth album, Shades, appeared just a couple of months prior to Ruff Dog, and its elliptical but undeniably catchy songs give the impression that much of the formlessness of their earlier albums made its way into Levis solo material. At first, Ruff Dogs distortion and chaos feel like an equal and opposite reaction to the precision of Levis work as a composer. Eventually, though, it becomes apparent that they use the albums lo-fi palette as artfully and specifically as the sound design and arrangements on any of their more seemingly poised music. Theres a sense of overwhelm to pieces like Wings, where Levis sweet-and-sour voice (which was largely missing on Shades) is submerged in a fuzzy glow thats oddly pleasing in its indistinctness. Ruff Dogs blobby ambiguity calls to mind Rorschach tests or dreams, especially on Cold Eyes and A plain clothed Jimi Hendrix drives me to Newcastle. For some reason the trip will take 3 days and he is going to do it for GBP150. He drives really smoothly and only listens to one album which is by someone with Joy in their name. Joys music is covers of classic rock songs but with all the edge smoothed off. We arrive in Brazil and I impress someone because I say obrigado. The same person asks me to find them an intern. I dont think I can but I try. I am nervous in the girls changing room and play trap songs loud off my phone, a song with a title that resembles a dream journal entry and takes almost as long to read as it does to hear. Like Du Blonde, whose radical deconstruction of grunge comes to mind on One Tear, Levi excels at conveying subtle moods with the amps cranked up. Even when spiky keyboards add a little more structure to Chains Baggy, the overall effect of Ruff Dog is surprisingly intimate, as if its just Levi and the listener underneath its challenging and comforting blankets of noise. ~ Heather Phares