Pram - The Stars Are So Big, The Earth Is So Small ... Stay As You Are album flac

Considering the albums The Stars Are So Big, The Earth Is So Small, Helium, Perambulations, Sargasso Sea, North Pole Station, The Museum Of Imaginary Animals, and Somniloquy …Coming together in the late 1980’s, first flying under the banner of Hole, Pram’s initial series of recordings were, shall I say, a bit edgy abrasive and of such a nervous quality that had they been people, would have been fast tracked for one of a litany of the social disorder medications.It’s important to understand that there is no correct or incorrect when it comes to this sort of music … some will refer to this as art-rock, noise rock, avant garde, and even experimental [least I neglect psychedelic], with there being little room for shades of gray, one is either going to like these atypical sounds, or one is going to find them uncomfortable. Certainly the music laid out in their early works, and this review is designed to encompass those, is not mainstream, and having said that, the songs are actual songs presented in a freeform of musical vision and experimentation that is not explosive, but rather tidy and neat, which is almost an oxymoron when it comes to experimental sonic explorations.When Pram first came onto the music scene their attributions and presentation were a new concept, rather than relying on a reissue of old ideas and choices. First and foremost, like Pram or not, their sound is not contrived, and oddly enough, it steers toward an attitude of normalcy, though skirting that normalcy just at the moment they come too close. While creating layers and textures, Pram do embrace a controlled abrasiveness, though intentionally seeming to bypass creating a sonic atmosphere, more content on challenging themselves with sonic levels of texturing and movements that are filled with oscillations that are re-enforced and redefine mood-ish and adventurous aspirations from the late 1950’s and early 60’s experimentations … brightly ushering their ideas into the here and now.Pram’s spectrum is wide and encompassing, and at this intersection most people would want to point to the notions of construction and deconstruction, yet with Pram it all seems to be a matter of construction, rendering the notion of assembling and disassembling a moot idea, as Pram simply move forward, certainly with a variety of juxtapositions, but without the need for underscoring a sense of musical Freudian analysis.Considering the album’s title, The Stars Are So Big, The Earth Is So Small, Stay As You Are, is perfectly suited as something that could be attributed to Marshal McLuhan and his work “The Medium Is The Message,” which may just be what Pram were striving for, and accomplished, on these early recordings. Other philosophers would surely content that there is no large or small, that all we know is from our vantage point, and from that point, Pram distinguish themselves without a sense of urgency, but with an elemental personification of truth.Review by Jenell Kesler