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Music Review
Continental Britons: The Émigré Composers
Music: Koibito Mo Inainoni [CD-single] [Import]
Cooking in the Larder [Enhanced] [Import]
Amazon.com
Museum of Imaginary Animals finds Pram in their ninth year of playing music from the other side of the cracked looking glass. And, as always, this Birmingham-based sextet's sound is as hauntingly ageless as this album's title would suggest. A pagan take on the quiet experimentation peddled by fellow U.K. pioneers Broadcast, Pram display an encyclopedic knowledge of the deepest recesses of the musical avant-garde. "The Owl Service" is daubed with the squall of a free-jazz saxophonist; "A Million Bubbles Burst" is kept buoyant by the hiss of a primitive beat box; and "The Mermaid's Hotel," a half-heard snippet from Radio Narnia's playlist, is a lullaby of whirling theremin and gently eddying dub bass. This unique, otherworldly atmosphere is undoubtedly Pram's greatest triumph. Paradoxically, it's also their most crippling weakness, as they often border on impenetrability. The mysterious witchery of Museum of Imaginary Animals should prove an ever-challenging proposition. --Louis Pattison