pram, "somniloquoy"

Taking a stopgap between full-length albums, Pram deliver a nine-trackEP featuring some new stuff, an old tune and some mixing going on. Thedisc opens with the insanely frisky "Mother of Pearl," which ironicallywas my fave pic from last year's 'Museum of Imaginary Animals'long-player. The three new songs which follow are notably moreadventurous than the cuts on the album, incorporating much more of aimprovisational feel, even with the pop song "Monkey Puzzle" and thesurrealistic dreamery of "Clock Without Hands" which could easily echosome of Legendary Pink Dots' most carnival-esque moments. The EP isrounded out with five remixes, thankfully all of different songs and bydifferent remixers. Hint to groups: do stuff like this if you can - tenremixes of the same song on one single gets embarassingly dull. Guestknob-twiddlers include Plone (whose remixes always sound awesomedespite their albums sounding like bad 14-yr old musicians demos), AndyVotel, Sam Jones, Terry:Funken, and Sir Real. While I have admired Pramfor years, I have to confess that I can't always make it through acomplete album, but with the mix-up of styles presented here by thevarious DJs and friends I'm quite satisfied. Old fans might scoff atremixes but I'm confident these are tasteful enough to avoid pissingoff the purists and inviting enough to attract new friends.

 

samples:

• Clock Without Hands
• Bewitched (Plone mix)
• The Last Astronaut (Andy Votel mix)