This month Seattle’s Medical Records has reissued two classic LPs from the UK band Pram: 1993’s The Stars Are So Big, The Earth Is So Small…Stay As You Are and 1994’s Helium. Both LPs were originally released on the Too Pure label–which was also home to Stereolab, Mouse On Mars, and PJ Harvey at the time. Alongside these bands, Pram’s eclectic sound, varied instrumentation, and playful compositional approach would help to define the label’s singular, indie pop aesthetic during the mid-90’s.
Pram’s core members, vocalist/keyboardist Rosie Cuckston, multi-instrumentalist Matt Eaton, and drummer Andy Weir originally met as students in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, before assembling as a band in Birmingham. There they added bassist/multi-instrumentalist Samantha “Sam” Owen and keyboardist/sampler Max Simpson. Inspired by wide-ranging influences that included prog or “kraut” leaning bands like Can and Faust, as well as punkier acts like The Slits and The Raincoats, the core of their sound was formed around a love for old TV soundtracks, jazz and exotica, as well as a collection of toy instruments (including a homemade theremin). These Too Pure efforts also find Pram exploring dub and Latin influenced poly-rhythms, and many of the songs are centered around Rosie Cuckston’s child-like vocal delivery and disarming poetics.
The Stars Are So Big, The Earth Is So Small…Stay As You Are was the band’s first LP for Too Pure, and sessions included a trumpeter credited on the record as “The Verdigris Horn“. Album opener “Loco” bristles with a propulsive, post-punk energy, before The Stars Are So Big? shifts into a more pensive and exploratory mood. A dream-like drift hovers over subsequent tracks like “Radio Freak In A Storm“, “Loredo Venus“, and “Milky“.
Underpinned by kinetic polyrhythms and guided by Cuckston’s gentle and lilting vocal style, electronic and acoustic instrumentation provide surprising flourishes throughout. For instance, “Radio Freak In A Storm” comes complete with a theremin wig-out, while “Loredo Venus” is built around a heavily effected kick drum, before glockenspiel, organ, and sampler are added. The album’s pièce de résistance, though, is a 16-minute jazz-leaning cut called “In Dreams You Too Can Fly,” and it revealed the deep reservoir from which the band was drawing as it crafted it’s fascinating and left-of-field pop. Led by the “The Verdigris Horn” and simmering rhythms, Pram takes the long road here, and if it’s a dreamy night flight you’re after, this is sure to provide the perfect crepuscular soundtrack.
Helium would end up coming out in September of 1994 on Too Pure, following the group’s Meshes EP for the label, and it continued to cement Pram’s reputation as purveyors of far-out pop. Increasingly psychedelic and exotic, opening tracks like “Gravity“, “Dancing on a Star“, and “Nightwatch” all bubble with weirdness and intricate instrumentation. Pram’s child-like naivete can still be heard in Cuckston’s whimsical vocals and the band’s playful sonics, however, a track like “Things Left on the Pavement“–later accented by the singer’s barking howls–or sublime, strange numbers like “Little Angel, Little Monkey” and “Meshes in the Afternoon,” continue to add a real lysergic feel to the album.
While comparisons can definitely be drawn with a label mate like Stereolab, a group who also blended their love of vintage synthesizers with tastes for Brazilian, lounge, and kraut fueled psychedelic music, Pram’s approach and influences seem more deeply sublimated into the music and are harder to place. If you’re like me and you missed Pram on their first go-around, Medical Records’ re-issue of The Stars Are So Big… and Helium, on heavyweight vinyl with original album artwork and interview by Seattle Stranger music editor Dave Segal will be just the introduction you need.
