|
Four albums in and Psapp are still excavating the mine of instruments at their disposal.
On previous outings this has led to well placed elastic bands or carefully placed household implements, their vivid imagination realised on disc. Now they're adding more conventional instruments, and The Camel's back finds them utilising a brass section and pizzicato violins. Oh, and bubbles.
Not Michael Jackson's chimpanzee you understand, but a rather frothy sound that goes with opening track I Want That. This sets the tone, with singer Galia Durant keen to show how far she's come in the time since Tiger, My Friend.
There's a lot to admire from Psapp's music, and what makes it so much more enjoyable is its refusal to conform to type. Even traditional jazz makes an appearance, as the closing Parker sets up a mini-stampede across the ballroom dancefloor with its increasingly joyous hot stepping.
Equally rewarding is the duo's refusal to conform with conventional scoring, so that even the fifth listen reveals new sounds and clever miniatures of counterpoint. Each sound has its function, though, so that while their approach often comes across as frivolous there are intense pockets of emotion that pick their way through.
Lyrically they also prove strangely appealing. "I have got to go, let me ride up on your handlebars" sings Durant, strength and fragility enjoying an uncomfortable co-existence. Part Like Waves is more affirmative, taking the rhythm we're used to hearing in West Side Story's America and making intricate string patterns from it, to extremely good effect.
There's a darker side too, made clear in the single The Monster Song, where a playful facade masks lyrical content of a rather darker substance.
From their previous, highly enjoyable albums, Psapp have often found their unique approach drawing parallels with the music department of a toy shop, and it's fair to say that at times their music borders on the twee. But it's never devoid of expression of interest, and has a colour and charm you'll struggle to find on the airwaves these days. Most of all, it's fun. Pure and simple.
Comments
|
 |
| 
ALBUM:
more 