Psapp’s re-release of their 2004 album Tiger My Friend record shows the band’s first foray into ‘toytronica’, using squeaking cats (‘About Fun’) and beer cans as instruments (‘Tiger, My Friend’). Pretty arrangements (‘The Counter’) draw in the ear, while the clean production of the record allows electronic glitches to blend with more traditional strings, without feeling like it’s trying too hard. It’s Galia Durant’s vocal delivery; however, that raises the album from insouciant début, to a record worthy of re-issue. When she enticingly sings ‘it’s only ourselves…but I like it that way’ on ‘Curuncula’, a thousand collective hearts rise and fall, yet on the following track (‘King Kong’) her tone becomes menacing-‘one of us is leaving, and it won’t be me’- though never any less provocative. Though their later work -The Only Thing I Have Ever Wanted- favours a less polished sound, one hopes that this re-issue will provoke Psapp to return to their glistening, whimsical and exquisite roots.

Ailbhe Malone is 21 years old. Her father told her the other day that she was 'going to change the world'. She remains sceptical.
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