PRAM
Mysterious UK post-rock combo revealed
Article and interview by Brett Abrahamsen
(December 2023)
Following 1994's intriguing Helium, English post-rock ensemble Pram were seemingly primed to deliver a masterpiece. Which they did. But a scathing review from the NME derailed not only the album's fortunes but perhaps the band's entire career.Sargasso Sea was one of the most fascinating albums of the modern era. The playing was masterful, and a dark and somehow menacing current of nostalgia was present throughout. "Loose Threads" set the tone - resigned lyrics, cryptic melody, haunting atmosphere. In addition to the quadruple-keyboard attack, Matt Eaton and Samantha Owen's terrific bass playing stood out. "Earthing and Protection" was perhaps even more melodic and creepy. "Serpentine" conveyed the feeling of an innocent childhood seized by an incurable nightmare - it was a dark, cold, distant song, totally removed from any semblance of light or normalcy. But the record's ultimate masterpiece was "Three Wild Georges", arguably one of the greatest songs you've never heard. This song was mired in an otherworldly sense of futility, desolation, and absolute hopelessness. The sense of nostalgia and despair was overwhelming.
The NME evidently was unimpressed, and gave the record 0 stars (while meanwhile awarding mediocrities like Manic Street Preachers' Generation Terrorists a perfect 10/10). Robert Christgau was similarly unmoved, awarding the album a "bomb" rating. As is mentioned in the interview, such ratings are in fact preferable to a mediocre score due to the fact that a record must have some sort of emotional impact to receive such a brutal skewering, but a high score from the NME would have helped sales tremendously, and they didn't get it. Unfortunately, subsequent Pram albums didn't quite reach the same heights as Sargasso Sea; the band has continued to make challenging, adventurous and worthwhile records but has also veered a bit close to muzak at times. The NME continued to write very negative reviews of Pram's albums many years after Sargasso Sea, in a review of the band's 2007 release The Moving Frontier the publication wrote that Pram have "yet to hit on a half-decent tune," going on to call their music "jazzy nonsense."
Group interview
PSF: The NME infamously awarded Sargasso Sea - one of the best albums of the 1990's - a rating of 0/10. How did it feel to make a masterpiece that was utterly misunderstood by (at the time) perhaps the UK's leading music publication?ME: Thank you for your alternative appraisal! At the time, it felt like a badge of honour and still does. A zero score implies an emotional response. Indifference would be worse.
PSF: My favorite Pram song is "Three Wild Georges." It is one of the most haunting, melancholy, and otherworldly songs I have ever heard. Can you tell me more about its genesis? Where does the title come from?ME: Thank you. The origin of the name is now lost in the mists of time...
PSF: Which is your favorite Pram album, and why? What are you most proud of having accomplished with the band?ME: We released our first LP Gash on our own label Howl Records. In some ways, it sounds very different from the music we are making now but all the constituent elements are there. Recording the sound of pots and pans being thrown down the stairs leads in a straight line to samples, textures and field recordings. Reverb was added by recording in the bathroom. Multitrack tapes were layered and cut up to create intricate arrangements. Pram as a collective began here and has retained the same ethos of curiosity and discovery. Only the tools have changed.
PSF: Is there a Pram album that, in retrospect, you regret?ME: The several that we haven't yet made while life got in the way.
PSF: You were originally named Hole, a year before Courtney Love formed her own band of the same name. Did the name change have anything to do with them?ME: No. Another totally unrelated Hole claimed the name from us, saying they had got their first, well before we knew of the Courtney Love iteration. We wonder what happened to them...
PSF: If push comes to shove, what is your favorite album of all time?ME: Alice Coltrane's Journey in Satchidananda.
PSF: How do you think Pram will be remembered in a hundred years?ME: Hopefully there will be lots more weird and wonderful music created between now and then to eclipse this fleeting moment in time.
