Bands: Air, Broadcast, Portishead, Pram, Stereolab

A jammy topic...

These are five acts not in PA that got going in the 90s that have been very important to me, and other than Pram, were used in the 90s radio show Blue Jam and it was because of certain songs that I was hooked, not from hearing albums at first. I did get into Pram because I got into music from Blue Jam, particularly Stereolab and Broadcast which will get mentioned in the same breath.

Air I have known the longest, as I've been into that since, I guess it was 2004 (seems longer), I discovered "Cherry Blossom Girl" due to a video at atomfilms.shockwave.com, which is also where I discovered Aardman's Rex the Runt. I then got Talkie Walkie, then Moon Safari, then much later 10 OOO Hz Legend and The Virgin Suicides soundtrack. Although 10 000 Hz is generally a considerably less well-regarded album than those others and gets a lot of stick, I love it, and "Radian" off it is I think my favourite Air Track. I was dismissive of it at first too, but that was colored by my mood when I first heard it and having read negative reviews. Next time I loved it -- mostly.

So Broadcast, Portishead and Stereolab (and Pram by association) I got into much later than Air due to listening to the music and sketch comedy radio show from the 90s on a podcast app (Chris Morris' Blue Jam -- thanks Cook'd and Bomb'd!) and hearing certain songs from the bands, but Chris Morris was clearly fond of Air as he used a number of Air songs in episodes of Blue Jam.

Currently I am most into Portishead, as I got back into them in a very big way due to a poll about an ABBA cover by Malmsteen, which led to me thinking about the Portishead cover of ABBA's SOS, which I think is a great re-interpretation (prefer it to the original and I like ABBA). I already knew and liked the first two Portishead albums very much -- I got into Portishead via Dummy and specifically because I heard "Sour Times" -- but I listened to Portishead's Third (2008) the other day, which is quite different from Dummy and the self-titled, and I loved it and it grew on me with more spins, although it hooked me immediately with the opening track. For some track favourites, off Dummy I love "Mysterons", "Sour Times", "Glory Box" (first three and last track there), with the self-titled "Elysium" has a special place in my heart, although I doubt many would rate it as high as I do, and with my current favourite, which is Third, "Silence", "Hunter", "The Rip", "Machine Gun", "Small", "Threads"

As for Stereolab, I got into those from hearing the songs "Cybele's Reverie" and "The Flowers called Nowhere" on Blue Jam. After that I quickly got the albums Emperor Tomato Ketchup and Dots and Loops, the latter remaining to be my favourite Stereolab album.

With Broadcast, it was hearing the song "The Book Lovers" originally which I "bookmarked" and loved, now I like various albums by Broadcast. "Papercuts" is a favourite track of mine by them, and my favourite album depends on the day.

With Pram, I love so many of their albums. I think "The Doors of Empty Cupboards" was the first song to kook me followed by "The Owl Service" and I think "Blue" is brilliant and "Serpentine".... Helium is likely the album that I have re-played the most by Pram.

Please vote for any favourites (multiple votes allowed), and sorry as I know I have done polls which featured these acts before, and please mention an album you like from your favourites and any particular tracks. Also, any recommendations would be great based on these. I might know them already as getting into these got me exploring others, and there are similarities say between Portishead and Radiohead, and there were others of a similar ilk that I got into that were used in Blue Jam (Morcheeba, a Mono...). One group that heavily scratched that Broadcast, Stereolab and Pram itch that I discovered some months ago is Vanishing Twin.

Lewian wrote: Broadcast's The Noise Made By People is an outstanding album from beginning to end in my view, one of the best from the 90s if not the best! I like the other bands, too, and have to thank you for making me explore Pram and Air more than I had before by advertising them here regularly. For sure they're worthwhile. I love pretty much everything I know by Pram and Portishead, Air and Stereolab are more hit and miss for me.

I love Broadcast's The Noise Made By People, and in fact that is my favourite album by the band. Glad I helped you to explore those more. A reason why I liked doing those kinds of topics often was that it got me exploring bands more deeply as well as re-assessing and re-evaluating music, comparing and associating.

I voted for Portishead because playing Third the other day got to me in a good way -- and helped to alleviate the symptoms of rather unhealthy obsession with Swans (the band for those that don't know, I haven't been doing anything fowl).

A lovely track from Third: