Micachu and the Shapes strive to "keep it simple."

The DJ/mixologist-turned-artist thing isn't the newest idea under the sun. But one who makes irrepressible, contagious synth-pop with unconventional handmade instrumentation while studying classical composition as well as emceeing is a pretty hot notion.

Welcome to 21-year-old British songwriter and producer Mica Levi, who under the name Micachu and with her small band, the Shapes, recorded one of 2009's most compelling CDs, Jewellery.

Produced with equally voracious oddball noisemaking enthusiast Matthew Herbert, Jewellery is the sound of breaking glass and crushing metal heading toward shimmering glissandos, the likes of which, "Lone Ranger" and "Golden Phone" prove, are as daring as they are catchy.

"I reckon this record is pop because it's supposed to be lighthearted and its style varies a lot," says Levi. "But in my experience, a lot of pop records often have lots of differing styles, usually with less hard-core influences from underground musical movements."

Levi, born in Watford, England, may be a grime/house/garage DJ, yet she was influenced in Jewellery by messy misters Captain Beefheart, Harry Partch, and Prefuse 73. "I love to hate music, which helps me understand what I love in other music better," she says.

Along with merging the "sound worlds" of rough live recordings from her bedroom studio, Levi says the hammer-and-sickle clanging of Jewellery will sound viciously alive when you see her. Levi and the Shapes have a semi-traditional setup in which she plays guitar with other members behind the synthesizer and the drums. "There're lots of cymbals and textures and only one tom as we try to imitate some of the electronic textures in arrangements," says Levi. "But before we got all tangled up in wires, we wanted to get tight as a band and keep it simple. It can become gimmicky if you're not careful."