by Frank Gualtier -- 06/22/06
Michal the Girl is 1.7 yards of mind bending raw musical talent. She doubles as life support for a wickedly proficient voice.She's the creator of infectious hooks in both the horizontal and vertical aspect and rhythms that dance in your head long after your legs have given out. She serves it up with a copious helping of her powerful and undeniably sexy voice.
Her first album Tongue Tied meanders near the garage with the overdriven guitar of 'Hook Line & Sink Me', the power-world/alt-rock arena with massive beat backed 'Bittersweet' and an ethereal hint of things to come with the haunting strings in my favorite MTG song 'Swivel It' (all three songs mentioned can be sampled at CD Baby).
'Swivel It' deserves special mention because it's such a break from anything you'd normally hear. Steeped in a soup of chilling cello drone it takes the mind everywhere from the highlands to deep beneath the waves with a bit of bowed whale song. The beat syncopates around a basic rock pattern and bass line with some chop that strangely brings some of Page and Bonham's (1/2 of Led Zeppelin) work to mind. Perhaps you had to see Jimmy Page bowing a guitar or hear John Bonham thrashing demons out of his kit to fully appreciate my words but the point is Michal takes you places you'd not expect. Wonderful places. And if you're curious about her voice this is a perfect song to sample -- impressive in all regards.
Her second album Strung Out yields a more unplugged Michal. As the name suggests you'll hear a lot more strings. Here we net the effect of cellos placed squarely in the path of her intense sense of flow and rhythm. Read her bio and you'll see she's no stranger to dance music. Listen to her music and it's obvious why. I did say 'intense'.
Celtic/irish flavors crop up often in Michal's music. More so in the vein of folk than 'world'. In all she runs a curious line from neo-punk straight through irish folk dance and somehow remains consisent enough that you'd readily put all songs from both albums on the same playlist at a party or on your iPod.
Check her out and see why Michal the Girl's music is even cooler than her name.
Links for Michal the Girl:
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