By Kevin Scott
An audio snippet of what sounds like someone doing the dishes in front of a herd of cattle is an odd way to start an album, but Psapp have never been a band to follow convention. Carim Clasmann and Galia Durant's trademark sound arrives soon enough on actual opener 'Wet Salt', which makes use of all manner of percussion along with a muted organ over which Durant whisper-sings a poppy melody about a fading relationship.
We're on familiar territory, but is that enough? It's been five years since The Camel's Back, Psapp's last album and there's a feeling that nothing much has changed, that those five years haven't broadened the musical ambitions of the duo. Regardless, below the surface of home-grown instruments (the band have been rumoured in the past to 'play' a chicken they named Brunhilda) and psychedelic samples this is an album fleshed out with intricate sounds that draw the listener into a completely immersive world that very much belongs to the duo.
'The Cruel, the Kind and the Bad' moves into jazz territory - if said jazz is being performed at a burlesque circus. The vocal silky smooth from its opening, captivating line: "Today will be the day you dry your eyes and walk away" explores dark territories. There's a move away from the strictly experimental electronic sound of the past here - elements of swing, of calypso follow. 'Seven' has so much running through it the repeated listening is required; from its lounge room melody to the sultry vocal and familiarly experimental electronica foundations onto which Durant builds her lyrical themes. The album continues much in this vein. There's something Baz Luhrmann about it all - which serves to create an almost abstract form of musical theatre.
"I Found You in the Forest and Your Bed Was Made of Needles..." starts 'In The Black', a fine example of the obscure, enchanting love story gone awry that marks as a loose theme for What Makes Us Glow.
The pace on the album never moves much from the horizontal - but that is where Psapp fit, as a band not be played a party, but the morning afterwards. They own the copyright to the pithy 'toytronica' tag that has followed them about like a toy train tethered to the tracks they follow, but it is very much their sound and What Makes Us Glow is a fitting addition to the band's catalogue. The question is whether the album offers enough to win over new fans, or five years after their last long player, re-engaging with their current fanbase.
