Date: Tue, 10 May 1994 09:05:35 +0100 From: "A.J. Norman" Subject: Multiple format mania! Pram - Meshes ------------- Too Pure PURECD 35 (Life in the Clouds / Chrysalis / Legendary Band of Venus) Three-song EP, and my only impulse buy yesterday. For some reason I was expecting a noisy, tuneless sound, but this is absolutely beautiful. Sweet female voice, cello, trumpet, fantastic drumming, and all those strange noises that Stereolab and the makers of cheap 50s Sci-Fi flicks loved so much. Final track "Legendary Band of Venus" ends in a wonderful jazzy drum/trumpet finale. I'm in love. Little leaflet says they have a new album out in the summer. Andrew. Date: Tue, 5 Sep 1995 09:17:58 +0100 From: Andrew Norman (nja@LEICESTER.AC.UK) Subject: Stereolab & Pram Pram's "Sargasso Sea" is a bit of a letdown - Pram always need to worm their way into my brain, though, so perhaps it's unfair to judge them on one listen, especially just after an hour of Stereolab's finest moments. The new album seems like a step back, though - sparser in sound than "Helium", not as many risks being taken, and someone should get Rosie some Prozac. The lyrics are uniformly dreary stuff about birds battering their bodies on the window while rain falls from an overcast sky onto her sore body, etc. -- Andrew Norman, Leicester, England // nja@le.ac.uk // 05/09/95 On my walkman this morning : Stereolab - Refried Ectoplasm Sophocles long ago Date: Thu, 7 Sep 1995 17:45:38 -0700 From: Andrew Dean (a.dean@UK22P.BULL.CO.UK) Subject: pram and sterling morrison this weeks' nme has a review of the new pram lp in which it gets a 0 (out of 10, not that that matters). um, bit harsh. 'There seem to be two people in Pram. One warbles appalingly and plays the cowbell while the other fannies about [with their] Bontempi'. Date: Thu, 21 Sep 1995 10:35:20 -0700 From: Andrew Dean (a.dean@UK22P.BULL.CO.UK) Subject: Pram "Often I dared abandon the safety of my bed, ran the gauntlet of the monsters lurking without, and clambered onto the shelf by my window, where I stared out into the moveless night. At the lonely, sombre moon, at the trains shuttling by in the distance, at the yawning black pit that was the local park, searching for the spiteful, vindictive creature that stole my father's skin and staggered home from the pub in his place. Sometimes I fell asleep there, and dreamed I was dangling from the ledge on the opposing side of the pane once more, only this time Mr. Ross didn't scale the ladder quickly enough and I found myself falling, falling..." Jamie T. Conway, Melody Maker, September 23rd 1995 (although i think he may be quoting something else here, anyone?) There you go, that's the way to review the new Pram lp and not that dreadful attempt i mentioned last week. It goes on to say that Pram are the sound of fearful nocturnal vigils, calliope music from a ghostly carnival. I agree, the new lp has got under my skin somewhat in the last couple of days and is rolling around inside my head with only 'Keeping The Weekend Free' for company. Anyway, there was a point to this post. Somebody was asking about getting hold of the first lp. The new lp contains an address for Pram's first mini lp 'gash' and the 'perambulations' compilation tape: Howl Records, c/o Pram / Howl Records, PO Box 4613, Moseley, Birmingham, B13 9FD. England. In 'Helium' it lists prices (mybe out of date): 7 pounds for us English people or, for 'overseas', IMOs for 10 pounds sterling (airmail) or 8 pounds (surface), payable to M.Simpson. I wonder if Homer knows about this... andyx (a.dean@uk22p.bull.co.uk) suddenly i notice the brightness of the day makes the shadows deeper, makes the shadows darker... Date: Tue, 11 Nov 1997 18:07:13 +0000 From: Andrew Norman Subject: A letter from Rosie Whose handwriting is this on the envelope? I had forgotten that I had written to Howl records asking about the "Perambulations" tape, got a letter signed by Rosie today. Pram/Howl records, PO Box 4613, Moseley, Birmingham B13 9FD UK prices: Perambulations cassette 4.50 Gash CD (with extra tracks) 10.00 Stars are so big... CD 10.00 Sargasso Sea CD 10.00 Music for your Movies T-shirt 8.00 Music for your Movies CD 6.00 Cheques to M P Eaton/S J Owen, prices include P&P, foreigners should add another 50p per item. "Iron Lung", "Helium" and "Meshes" should be available from Too Pure. Next release: 7" split with Snowpony on Kooky, album on Wurlitzer Jukebox in March, they are also working on the soundtrack for an animated film due to be premiered in Bristol's Watershed centre at the end of November, called "Keep in a Dry Place and Away from Children". Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 11:31:30 -0600 From: "(a) clockwork chicken" Subject: a pram sammich n' chuzzlewit soop ----andrew granger asked: > Does anyone know anything about any new Pram material out now/soon? I > know that they're about to tour and, I've heard they're releasing > something shortly, but I don't if it'll be a single or album. i beleive that they'll have some new stuff out on wurlitzer jukebox this spring - 7" + album...seems they don't record for too pure any longer? > Also, I know that they have a compilation tape available by mail order > called "Perambulations". Does anyone know what's on this? Is it early > stuff or material already released elsewhere? "perambulations" may or may not be available in cassette form any more (anyone tried to order recently?) but it was released in cd form as "Gash" on a subsidiary of world domination u.s. last fall. i'm a little unclear as to whether the original "Gash" ep was on the cassette in the first place, but it's reproduced (mastered from vinyl, sounds like) on the cd reissue with some extra tracks. good stuff, if yr into the more unkempt-type pram found on "iron lung" or the first album. Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 01:10:27 -0600 From: Jeremy L Orr Subject: Pram/AAS ---from "(a) clockwork chicken": > > Does anyone know anything about any new Pram material > > out now/soon? > > i beleive that they'll have some new stuff out on > wurlitzer jukebox this spring - 7" + album...seems they > don't record for too pure any longer? Correct - I believe that they mutually decided to part ways, although I'd guess that the breakup was mostly due to pressure that Too Pure was receiving from American because of Pram's low sales in the US. Some friends of mine sent a demo tape to Too Pure sometime in late '96, and received a hilarious letter of rejection from one of the label's two bigwigs (I don't remember which one it was). Basically, the gist was "we like you, but you sound like Pram, and Pram doesn't sell records". Of course, they sounded nothing like Pram (buncha overrated...*grumble grumble*), except that for the fact that they used a toy piano on a couple songs. Oh well... Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1998 14:44:33 -0500 From: the boy in zinc Subject: Re: Pram >I was just wondering what people think of _helium_. I bought it used on >the strength of _sargasso sea_, which i loved, but i'm having a little >trouble getting into it. > >What are people's favorite pram releases? helium is definitely my least favorite of the pram releases i've heard (all of them except the newest one)...my favorite has to be either the iron lung or meshes eps, but sargasso sea is brilliant as well...does anyone remember the pram interview in that fanzine puree, where the interviewer kept telling max over and over that he hated helium? i was just reading that again the other day and laughed when i came to the part where the interviewer told max that helium sounded "demented." BiZ Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1998 21:57:35 -0600 From: "Brian C. Williams" Subject: Re: Pram Someone wrote: > >I was just wondering what people think of _helium_. I bought it used on > >the strength of _sargasso sea_, which i loved, but i'm having a little > >trouble getting into it. My favorite Pram (having heard all but the most recent album) is "The Stars Are So Big, The Earth Is So Small...Stay As You Are," followed closely by "Sargasso Sea," though for different reasons. I think the breadth of Pram is more or less encapsulated in these two albums, the rationale there being "Sargasso" does more effectively what both "Music For Your Movies" (more polish) and "Helium" (less direction, coherence) do pretty well, and "The Stars..." retains the ultra-childish, one-tenth-the-tempo-and-volume-and-we'd-be-Lucid sort of sound and adds lots of extra lengthy instrumental passages with horns and such. hope, brian crandall@csf.edu Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1998 12:29:07 +0100 From: David Thorpe Subject: Re: Pram Brian Williams said: >My favorite Pram (having heard all but the most recent album) is "The >Stars Are So Big, The Earth Is So Small...Stay As You Are," followed >closely by "Sargasso Sea," though for different reasons. I think the >breadth of Pram is more or less encapsulated in these two albums Noooo, the breadth of Pram is extended with the newer album, <>, much more jazzy and upbeat. The <> EP nods somewhat towards what the new LP sounds like. Pram have a new single out new week on Domino in the UK, including Sleepy Sweet on it. I recollect that they're playing at the Garage sometime soon. Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1998 07:41:54 -0400 From: larry@INTERLOG.COM Subject: Re: Pram _Sargasso Sea_ is still my favourite, with _...Movies_ and _Meshes_ following closely. I don't hate _Helium_ but it's not the Pram thing I reach for most. Haven't heard _The Stars..._ or the new one though. Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1998 08:46:09 -0700 From: Bill Cole Subject: pram I'd have to say that, though perhaps by nature of being most familiar with it, "Helium" is actually my favorite Pram release. There are a few songs on that album (I don't know the titles) which remain my favorites. I have only recently obtained "Sargasso Sea" and don't have "The Stars are so big...", so I might need to school myself a bit further before I really plunk down my vote. I like "Music for your movies" a lot, too. bill Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1998 10:58:15 +0100 From: "A.J. Norman" Subject: Re: Pram I look to be in a small minority here - I have heard the lot, and "Helium" is my favourite. It's perhaps not "typical", but I like the oppressive musical atmosphere. It's the first Pram release where I felt the band were getting the sound they were aiming at, rather than happening on something by accident. Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1998 01:57:32 PDT From: Gordon McEwen Subject: Re: Pram David Thorpe (djt@robots.ox.ac.uk) wrote: > Pram have a new > single out new week on Domino in the UK, including Sleepy Sweet on > it. I recollect that they're playing at the Garage sometime soon. Pram remixed! "Cinnabar" has a full-on d'n'b make-over (the only real "remix" on the CD I think) but in addition to a "normal" version of "Sleepy Sweet", which differs slightly from that on North Pole..., there's a great dub version which comes straight from the fairground. The last track, "Carnival of Souls goes to Rio", sounds _nothing_ like the track with nearly the same name on Music for your Movies. Speaking of which, in my ignorance I can't hear the "cringing" "stabs at dub" on Music... but I do hear dub effects on "Legendary Band of Venus", the great version of "Loredo Venus" (from The Stars...), on Meshes - my favourite Pram release. Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1998 12:33:47 +0100 From: David Thorpe Subject: Re: Pram <> vs <> etc Hello, I recently spoke with Daren who is now an ex-percussionist with Pram. As you know, Pram now have a new drummer, but Daren was interested in the recent thread on this mailing list and thought you might like some of his thoughts on the "Helium" vs "Sargossa Sea" debate. You'll notice he also seems a tad undecided. I've edited this a little bit, but all the words between math symbols are his own. >>As PRAM's drummer from 1993-1997/8, I found the recent debates around our best release really interesting. Objectively, I think Iron Lung, Sargasso Sea and Music For Yr. Movies were our best records - but, saying that - The Stars.. and Helium are my favourites. I think this is due to the circumstances in which they were created. I joined PRAM in April 1993, and we had something like 4-6 weeks to write, rehearse and record our debut full length lp! This may account for the naive sound of some of the tunes - Loredo Venus and Dorothy (perhaps my favourite tune) were sorted out mere seconds before recording - that, and the fact that we mixed the fucker in 5 hours flat starting at midnight! I can understand the reticence around Helium, but I love that album. I think we're really finding our feet, new influences are coming in, and though it may sound a bit like a compilation album, I think it's our last truly skewiff, angular, and 'difficult' statement. We got GOOD, polished and smooth after that, and like all evolutionary creatures, we changed. And this process is thankfully going to continue. I've gone, Mark's in place, and the band are going to go on progressing, changing and evolving. As larry@interlog says... "they can't be the same band twice"... and rightly so. I loved PRAM before I joined them, I loved being in PRAM, and I love PRAM now I'm not in 'em. It's weird writing about something you were so much a part of, but there...I've had my say. << Regarding his departure from Pram: >>Yes it was a very amicable and sad departure from PRAM. Basically, now I've got 2 kids I couldn't carry on giving 150% to an unpaid full-time globetrotting job anymore. We're all still mates, I'm still on hand for when they want me (+ there's a glut of unreleased Daren-era bumph in the can still due to be released), and I still think that despite the healthy, natural and essential change and expansion, they're/we're still crucial in today's music scene. << What Daren's up to now: >>Well, I am currently doing a solo sample-based sub Beefheart / Howlin Wolf / Ex / Johnny Cash / Residents shambles called the Happy Home Corporation, as well as working with Alan Brown (ex-bIG*fLAME / Great Leap Forward) and Vince Hunt (ex-A Witness) in an as yet unnamed twisty pop combo - it's all still very ad hoc, and embryonic at the moment as we live in different parts of the country, but I'm loving it - particularly as 10/15 years ago they were my musical heroes. << Someone asked about obtaining the Perambulations tape. According to Daren, it's still available in small quantities from Howl Records. The address is: Howl Records PO Box 4613, Moseley, Birmingham B13 9FD, United Kingdom Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1998 15:33:20 +0000 From: djt Subject: Top pop records of 1998 PRAM <> (Domino/Wurlitzer Jukebox) A "comeback" for Pram after a difficult two years of silence, and one which leads them into a more jazzy, percussive and up-beat sound, whilst using the same set of toy pianos, organs, theramin, tape loops, drums and guitars as always. Their <> EP hinted at a stylized approach to making music and this album provides more; "El Topo" for example is a Western, "Bathysphere" an experimental film, "Fallen Snow" a French drama and "Sleepy Sweet" a comedy. Maybe a different Pram from the experimental era, but this album proves they have mastered the bomtempi organ, plastic piano and stainless steel woodsaw now.