Psapp What Makes Us Glow

"What Makes us Glow" is a vast hypercolour psychedelic whirl of an album, with intricate orchestration, layered vocals and a pioneering spirit. These songs thrum and buzz, they glow.

‘What Makes Us Glow’ is less electronic than the duo’s previous releases; with more soundscapes and more raw sounds. Psapp still relish in combining unusual musical elements – this record includes Galia’s snores, boxes of writhing mealworms, snapped dragonflies and the groans of milk-laden cows – alongside the more standard instruments: piano, violin, oud, organs. The album is more organic and fluid, weaving in lurching song monsters orchestrated with home built instruments (including their boneaphone, a marimba made from bones), wistful pop in wolf’s clothing and swampy drones of recorded ambience.

Lyrically it is an exercise in emotional stocktaking. These are songs of attachment, detachment and the slow realisation of what is essential. This is not the sound of a band finding their way; it is the sound of band having arrived at their destination. There is a powerful sense that they are in full control of their sound and reveling in the possibilities.