By J. Freedom du Lac
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 7, 2006; C01
When considering a group you've never heard of -- even if you've quite possibly heard its music on the popular prime-time shows "Grey's Anatomy" or "The O.C." -- data points are usually helpful. Thus we present Psapp (pronounced "sap"), an arty, utterly charming folktronica duo whose delightful new album, "The Only Thing I Ever Wanted," might be described as Everything but the Girl meets everything but the kitchen sink.
That's not entirely accurate, though. There are shades of Everything but the Girl's Tracey Thorn in singer Galia Durant's melodious, ice-cool vocals. But her partner, producer and studio engineer Carim Clasmann, is such a fan of sonic experimentation that he found his way to an actual sink. As Durant coos "I want to take your voice and drink it" on the atmospheric album's opener, "Hi," Clasmann incorporates the sound of splashing water in the entrancing, cacophonous mix -- right alongside toy-keyboard loops, jagged guitar riffs and homemade percussion.
As with almost everything the quirky British duo does, the giddy song, which begins with the creaky sound of an opening door, is a mega-multi-tracked affair, teeming with found sounds alongside a bit of classic instrumentation. But it's hardly noise for the sake of making noise. For all of Psapp's unconventionality and inventiveness, there's a definite accessibility, not to mention warmth, to the group's song-craft. (It's no accident that Psapp was tapped for the theme to ABC's hit show "Grey's Anatomy" and has been featured elsewhere on the telly, including a Volkswagen campaign.)
"Hi," then, is very much a conventional love song ("I know how I want it to go / I know how I want it to be / Don't make me think before I speak," Durant sings). It's just that the tune is spiked with something exotic and a little bit left of center . . . that is, assuming the doors to the toolshed, toy chest and instrument closets are just off to the left.
On "Tricycle," which is probably the album's most memorable song, a sweet pop melody is set against acoustic guitar and jaunty pots-and-pans percussion that's punctuated by a wheezy noisemaker. The haunting "Eating Spiders" is an echoing slice of psychedelic pop whose toy keyboards sound like crickets. The melancholy "New Rubbers" is built on what sounds like a looped cuckoo clock, then shot through with recorded samples of children (at a playground? Swimming pool? Who knows?); strings float in and out and then back in later, adding a touch of elegance.
Psapp's obsession with found sounds is surpassed only by its peculiar feline fixation: Hundreds of hand-drawn cats appear on the album cover and accompanying booklet, and the CD credits include this notation: "The Cat With No Name squeaks at an undisclosed location on this album." (The cat is listed after the woman who "donated the electric chicken to the cause." We don't get it, either.)
Listening to "The Only Thing I Ever Wanted," you come to expect the unexpected so much that when Psapp plays it straight, it sounds almost shocking. Consider "Make Up," a piano ballad (played on a slightly out-of-tune piano) on which Durant sings somberly of DNA and destiny. "Eat up your shame, you did not choose to be this way," she instructs. There's a curious sort of tension to the song, and it surely comes from the fact that you keep expecting to hear a noise, a sound, a foreign something, but never do.
Perhaps Psapp was just saving its tricks for the startling final song, "Upstairs." Be forewarned that if you listen to the album on a spanky set of headphones (as you should -- all the better to appreciate its masterfully nuanced production values), you're likely to become agitated at the people around you when "Upstairs" plays. I know I did, as some of my colleagues suddenly started making a racket behind me, moving boxes around, crinkling paper, walking LOUDLY across the room. Turns out, nobody was there. It was just Clasmann showing off for the final time from some studio in London.
DOWNLOAD THESE: "Hi," "Tricycle"
Psapp is scheduled to perform June 30 at the Black Cat.