The Only Thing I Ever Wanted by Psapp (CD, Jun-2006, Domino)

Album Features
UPC:	801390009525
Artist:	Psapp
Format:	CD
Release Year:	2006
Record Label:	Domino
Genre:	Post Rock, Rock & Pop

Track Listing
1. Hi
2. King of You
3. This Way
4. Needle and Thread
5. New Rubbers
6. Tricycle
7. Hill at Our Home
8. Words, The
9. Make Up
10. Eating Spiders
11. Upstairs

Details
Distributor:	Alternative Dis. Alliance
Recording Type:	Studio
Recording Mode:	Stereo
SPAR Code:	n/a

Album Notes
Brimming with delicious simplicity, Psapp's 2006 release The Only Thing I Ever Wanted grooves blissfully between post-rock and bossa nova. The duo of singer Galia Durant and studio guru Carim Clasmann swish through 11 hypnotic melodies built on a sample-based pop some call clunktronica, rife with everything from horns and maracas to squeaky floorboards and crumpling paper. Live instruments such as piano, brushed percussion, and xylophone comprise most of the musical samples, creating a powerful hybrid of earthy folk and sophisticated electronica. Durant lays her rich, sultry voice over this rootsy instrumentation -- sounding very much like a more vocally gifted Nico -- while Clasmann weaves all the odd parts together in the studio. This combination of quirky sounds and suave production lands the disc in musical territory that feels at once both innovative and familiar; something like Beck, Björk, and Velvet Underground meeting in a lazy Rio cantina only to discover they've all been listening to Stereolab and Nouvelle Vague. The album varies in texture from humidly sensual to wildly bohemian but never simultaneously. Instead, each new mood washes in and out on its own in a style that remains unfettered, a remarkable effect for a record that is otherwise such a curious conflagration of sounds. ~ Cammila Albertson

Editorial Reviews
3 stars out of 5 -- Psapp's most expansive input is Clasmann's restless search for twitchy beauty -- jungle-tribal to oscillating bossa nova and oriental pattern-cutting before closing on meditative lullaby 'Upstair's'...
Mojo

[U]nderneath the ethereal symphonics and eccentric production flourishes, Psapp simply make classical beautiful pop songs.
CMJ

3 stars out of 5 -- [T]heir sophisticated studio treatments make every sound sparkle.
Spin

3 stars out of 5 -- Beyond the novelty of their fragile arrangements, Psapp write solid, thoroughly accessible songs...
Rolling Stone