Pram - The Moving Frontier

Genre tag "post-rock" usually brings to mind groups like Tortoise, Godspeed You Black Emperor or Mogwai. Post-rock tag seems to be applied a lot to Stereolab as well. Considerably less-known is a fairly under-rated British band, a contemporary of Stereolab called Pram. With its eclecticism, colorful arrangements where the tone is set by instrumentation as diverse as theremin, toy piano, horns/woodwinds, analog synthesizers and whatever is interesting (most of the band members are multi-instrumentalists), as well as its distinctive cinematic atmosphere; Pram has created an eccentric, playful and childlike; albeit eerie and melancholic sound-world; which indeed goes well beyond rock as we know it. Pram's records are modest in their length and thus, The Moving Frontier (14 tracks) is only 45 minutes long. The main difference being, only five of the tracks feature Rosie Cuckston's fragile voice that matches Robert Wyatt in its melancholy. The rest of them are instrumentals that are not only laden with spacious and multi-layered arrangements, but also sound very musical. How many bands boost a trombonist who is also a skilled theremin (and stylophone!) player? Pram is one of the few indie groups capable of writing both songs and instrumentals well. For those who are interested, I'd recommend scooping up what I consider their best album to date, Museum Of Imaginary Animals.