North Pole Radio Station, The

Spin - 7 (out of 10) - "...strikes out for some old-new frontiers: the spaghetti Western range, the exotica lounge. If this journey sometimes takes a detour through the dark-side of Combustible Edison's cocktail nation, blame it on the bossa nova: the preset beat button on Pram's keyboard that is..." The Wire - "...[Their] world is like a parallel past where vintage Easy Listening sounds are re-channeled into subtle modern configurations, where their thin, almost colorless vocals reveal dark undercurrents. They're the musical equivalent of David Lynch's Blue Velvet..."

Rather like their friends and former labelmates Stereolab, Pram have moved from an austere and challenging form of experimental rock into something considerably mellower and more accessible. However, where Stereolab has glided from album to album, making incremental changes to their sound each time out, which compound into something more striking, Pram's changes tend to be more abrupt. Indeed, 1998's North Pole Radio Station doesn't sound much like Pram's earlier records at all. There's almost no hint of the Captain Beefheart-like sonic aggression of Gash or the Krautrock-derived drones of The Stars Are So Big, the Earth Is So Small...Stay As You Are; both are replaced by a new delicacy in arrangement and production that makes this undoubtedly the prettiest Pram album yet. The new emphasis on sonic loveliness suits singer Rosie Cuckston's little girl coo perfectly, but, oddly, a full third of the album consists of jazz-tinged instrumentals. The instrumentals are perfectly nice, but it's hard not to want to hear more of Cuckston's breathy whisper in settings that complement it so well. "Fallen Snow" and the lengthy "Sleepy Sweet" are particularly captivating. ~ Stewart Mason|