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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
Summary
Pram twisted the old craft of progressive-rock to the point that it became a container for all sorts of odd structures. Rosie Cuckston's childish vocals inhabited a wonderland painted by the surreal colors of Max Simpson's samples and keyboards, plus the occasional trumpet or saxophone, and was constantly challenged by the grotesque charge of a power-trio ignited by Matthew Eaton's guitar. Elements of jazz, dub and electronica permeated The Stars Are So Big The Earth Is So Small (1993), thus it was not surprising that Helium (1994) sounded like Daevid Allen's Gong playing trip-hop. Its creative chaos had few rivals in those years. Despite the number and density of sonic events, the loose structures of Sargasso Sea (1995) sounded like pure abstractions, mirages, phantasms, and eventually led (on a more earthly plane) to the exquisite muzak of North Pole Radio Station (1998) and Museum Of Imaginary Animals (2000).
Pram are a band from Leeds (England) that rediscovered the glorious tradition
of British progressive-rock adding the casual and rebellious posture of the
punk generation.
Vocalist Rosie Cuckston, bassist Sam Owen,
guitarist Matthew Eaton, drummer Darren Garrett and sampler Max Simpson
make up a combo worthy of avantgarde and jazz music.
They progressively ventured into dissonance, dub and electronica.
The mini-album
Gash (Howl, 1990) is still a transitional work, centered around the
plainest female vocals and unorthodox arrangements, that displays a
bizarre attitude towards downplaying music, to the point that
Dead Piano, an amateurish, noisy Captain Beefheart-esque blues,
seems to be played on toy instruments.
Flesh weds Art Bears' austere progressive-rock and the frantic drumming
of Teenage Jesus.
The first "regular" song, I'm A War, is whispered a` la Francoise Hardy
over a chaotic beat.
More surreal confessions surface in Inmate's Clothes, an
angelic madrigal over African percussion, and
Pram, a lullaby hummed against a drum-machine and organ drones.
The gap between the singer and the band wides with Dirty Children,
where the voice hardly sings whereas the band indulges in a loud,
chaotic bacchanal.
The CD reissue of Gash (Howl, 1997) includes the
instrumental Sunset International, a sinister variation on
"kosmische musik", and a few tracks taken from the
cassette Perambulations (Howl, 1995).
The lengthy Blue Singer is a post-modernist deconstruction of blues
cliches, from the harmonica wails to the
repetition of elementary guitar phrases.
The Day The Animals Turned On The Cars is a mockery of
Satie's piano music.
Bleed betrays the influence of kraut-rock.
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If English is your first language and you could translate my old Italian text, please contact me.
Scroll down for recent reviews in English.
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L'EP Iron Lung (Too Pure, 1992) amplia gli orizzonti armonici:
Iron Lung esplora sentieri ritmici minacciosi,
Water Toy gioca con il dub ambientale,
Cumulus fa i capricci con uno scacciapensieri.
Forse anche per merito dell'adozione di tromba e sassofono,
l'album The Stars Are So Big The Earth Is So Small (Too Pure, 1993)
compie un prodigioso balzo di qualita`:
brani torrenziali
come In Dreams You Too Can Fly si richiamano tanto ai Can quanto a Miles Davis alla ricerca di
armonie impossibili.
Il crescendo mozzafiato di Radio Freak In A Storm non e` travolgente,
ma semplicemente elegante.
Helium (Too Pure, 1994) regredisce verso un sound piu` amichevole,
per merito in parte della crescita vocale della cantante e in parte di una
maggiore linearita` delle partiture strumentali. Nonostante sia una naturale
digressione del discorso precedente, l'album sembra fare le fusa con le due
mode intellettuali del momento, il trip-hop e i
Stereolab. In primo piano sono infatti
canzoni di compromesso come Gravity (ritornello flebile, batteria al galoppo, organo che
si avvita in un girotondo da fiera) e My Father The Clown (um-pa-pa` da circo, melodia da
cabaret). In realta` brani oltremodo elaborati come Dacing On A Star rigurgitano di
sintetizzatori-folletti, di bizzarrie ritmiche, di impennate di free jazz. Le composizioni nascono da
accostamenti improbabili, se non sacrileghi tout court: un incrocio fra i Pere Ubu e uno chansonnier
parigino per Nightwatch, un'aria da musical di Broadway a passo di trotto per Things Left On
The Pavement. La fantasia policromatica del gruppo non ha limiti, dalla lunga jam di bebop
Blue, passando per uno strumentale di allusioni sonore come Meshes In The Afternoon,
fino agli eccessi di eccentricita` armoniche di Shadows. Le cacofonie piu` surreali entrano a far
parte del repertorio dei saltimbanchi e a condurre i saltimbanchi e` Schonberg in persona.
I Pram continuano in bellezza una tradizione cominciata vent'anni prima con
le timide improvvisazioni dei King Crimson e passata per i deliri lisergici
dei Mandragora.
Sargasso Sea (Too Pure, 1995)
e` ancor piu` jazz, ma e` anche piu` conciso, come se il
gruppo volesse eliminare gli orpelli inutili e concentrarsi sulla materia principale. Ne scaturiscono
composizioni come Loose Threads che rappresentano lo stato dell'arte nel campo del rock
progressivo: una rivisitazione delle atmosfere noir all'insegna del minimalismo e dello stile trasandato del
college-pop.
Sea Swells And Distant Squalls sfiora l'atmosfera di un incubo
psicanalitico con la sua cronometrica ripetizione di eventi sonori (colpi sordi di gong, pulviscolo di
chincaglieria, riverberi onirici, stelle filanti di elettronica). Le metamorfosi ingarbugliate di Cotton
Candy finiscono per creare una magica ipnosi, da Alice nel Paese delle Meraviglie. Il lied
d'avanguardia inventato da Henry Cow e Art Bears si accascia svuotato di enfasi brechtiana in
Serpentine, si autodisintegra nella fanfara di trombe che chiude Three Wild Georges. Le
armonie sembrano dileguarsi in punta di piedi, rarefarsi poco alla volta fino alla pura astrazione sonora di
Little Sears, al carillon strumentale di Crystal Tips, muzak orchestrale per giardini lunari,
diafana, amorfa, funebre.
Ritmi indefinibili, melodie incompiute, trombe che farfugliano, passaggi slegati
fra di loro... l'armonioso disordine dell'animo umano mentre osserva un paesaggio autunnale da una
finestra appannata.
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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
A lighter, kinder Pram surfaced with the EP
Music For Your Movies (Duophonic, 1997), equally interested in
scoring polite madrigals
(Sea Jungle, Silver Nitrate) and in improvising hypnotic dub jams
(Carnival Of Souls).
The single Omnicord (Wurlitzer Jukebox, 1998) made the best of this
new course, thanks to an almost mocking blend of
Stereolab and Duan Eddy,
while with the single
Last Astronauts (Kooky, 1998) the band reached again the peaks of their
jazz inspiration.
The album North Pole Radio Station (Wurlitzer Jukebox, 1998) builds on
that new style, that largely reneges on the original amateutish approach
and endorses a more professional stance.
While nothing matches the naive beauty of the singles, Pram concocts moments of
exquisite muzak that draws from both Nino Rota (Cinnabar) and
Ennio Morricone (El Topo), surrealistic experiments worthy of Varese
(Bathesphere), Messaien
(The Clockwork Lighthouse, a mini-concerto for
drum machine, trumpet, tuba, xylophone, piano, percussion)
and Stockhausen (the electronic black hole of Cow Ghosts).
It is a sign of the times, though, that
instrumental tracks prevail over vocal tracks.
The sweaty blues-reggae ballad Sleepy Sweaty and
the accordion-tinged bossanova pop of Fallen Snow match in spirit
the easy-listening program of the singles, but they pale compared with
Pram's original program.
The dance remix of Sleepy Sweaty and the single
Space Siren (Domino, 1999) continue Pram's flirt with trendy dance styles.
Telemetric Melodies (Domino, 1999) is an anthology of the last
singles and some remixed tracks that, again, aims for the discos.
Museum Of Imaginary Animals (Domino, 2000)
indulges a little too long in stylistic experiments for the sake of eccentricity. Countless ideas are employed and layered in The Owl Service, Bewitched, Mother Of Pearl, Cat's Cradle, but these songs look like what they are: parades of ideas for songs. Play Of The Waves is the one that best recalls the original soft, progressive, dreamy sound. Vocalist Rosie Cuxton shines in The Mermaid's Hotel.
The EP Somniloquy (Merge, 2001) offers four new tracks and five remixes.
Another EP, Owl Service (Domino, 2002), preceded the new album.
Dark Island (Domino, 2003) finds an unlikely balance between
Robert Wyatt and Stereolab:
the "Miles Davis meets Ennio Morricone jazz" of the instrumental Track Of The Cat,
the hybrid of Jon Hassell and Monteverdi of the ethereal ballad Penny Arcade,
the soulful fanfare of Paper Hats,
the cubist carousels of Leeward and The Archivist that slowly
disintegrate their leitmotifs,
the retro`-kitsch of Peepshow,
etc.
Monade's A Few Steps More (Too Pure, 2005) is
a collaboration between Pram's Rosie Cuckston and Stereolab's Laetitia Sadier.
While the class and the musicianship are undeniable, and the variety of styles
is overwhelming,
The Moving Frontier (2007) tends to be too much routine and too little
genius.
Rosie Cuckston quit the band in 2008 and a new vocalist was featured
a decade later on Across the Meridian (2018).
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