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Psapp
Psapp are a strange couple. Galia Durant and Carim Clasmann are like fire and ice - and clearly have fun doing it. Carim is an incredibly talented producer. His instinct is infallible, his technique absolutely unique - the perfect complement to Galia's volatility. As a producer, engineer and sound tinkerer, the Cologne native works for Natacha Atlas, Einstürzende Neubauten and many others. Because if you need a pair of ears you can trust anywhere in Europe, you go to Carim in the Fishtank Studio. Galia, on the other hand, is more interested in toy keyboards and sound trash from the bargain bin. "It's so easy to recreate perfect sounds one-to-one in the studio," she says. "At the push of a button you have an entire orchestra at your disposal - and then you sound like everyone else. We just use the sounds that we enjoy." She sees making music as a kind of obsessive-compulsive disorder. "It's probably like smoking crack - only much more productive."
A sound that sounds like Björk and Brian Wilson having group sex with Portishead in a junk shop!
US Rolling Stone
New stars are born here, be sure to listen, something like this doesn't happen every day - big, big, huge hit.
Debug
For the past four years, they have preferred to be productive together. Psapp is not the usual combination of a button-obsessed nerd who has invited a chanteuse into his bedroom unit. Galia plays the violin, Carim usually plays the guitar, both play keyboard and percussion. And they love to search for new, sick sounds. This is also where the unusual name comes from: Psapp, the two say, "is the sound of a thin plastic bag filled with ice cubes being thrown from the ceiling onto a cardboard box and ripping."
“Tiger, My Friend” is chock full of catchy tunes to love, with lots of little nods to traditional songwriting. And yet the work has its rough edges, which are solemnly exposed. “Tiger, My Friend” wears its heart on its sleeve and hops through the rainy streets. And yes – “Tiger, My Friend” is addictive: the noises, the squeaks, the utter excess of everything.
…there's nothing to complain about with this brilliant debut!
UNCUT
But "Tiger, My Friend" offers more than just hysteria and funny tinkering. Intense heartbreak permeates the songs, which tell with refreshing honesty of all the normal insecurities that everyone probably feels. It is simple feelings like these that become much more than mere sensations through the music.
Songs like “Calm Down”, “Curuncula” and “King Kong” are in the best classic songwriting tradition. Psapp prefers to be inspired by good pop music rather than super cool electronic music from even the most renowned house, D&B or experimental producers with whom Carim has worked elsewhere.
Psapp enjoy playing around with fat choruses with fiddly, warm electronics, plucked violins, broken toy keyboards and microphones that have been left out in the rain for a while. Hundreds of melody fragments and the strangest sounds fight for their place in the stereo panorama. But with heartbreakingly honest songs like "The Counter", the great vulnerability of this music suddenly becomes apparent.
So you can't help but fall in love with Psapp and "Tiger, My Friend" straight away. The album isn't suitable as background music - you'll be stamping your foot angrily and pulling faces until you finally listen. The world has never heard anything like it. You really can't expect more from a debut!
PS: By the time you read this, the old dingy studio where this record was made will be a thing of the past. Only rubble remains where it once stood, soon to be the tracks of the refurbished King's Cross station. This record is a reminder of times when two friends hung out in the dingy kitchen, getting dressed up, fighting over food, recording cats and violins on tape and waiting to see where the night would end.