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New Musical Express, September 19 1981 reviewed by Mick Duffy<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWith animated gestures of disdain Eyeless In Gaza can answer detractors who dismissed their debut LP, \u2018Photographs As Memories\u2019, as a precious exercise in the art of self-indulgence. \u2018Caught In Flux\u2019, the band\u2019s second offering of the year, is a measure of progress, and though there\u2019s still room for growth some mark of maturity has undoubtedly been forged.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u2018Caught In Flux\u2019 a package which includes an additional \u2018free\u2019 12\u201d Eyeless sampler, \u2018The Eyes Of Beautiful Losers\u2019 is a piercing, poison jab into the blood-stream of rock music\u2019s lazy limbs. Radical but clear, Eyeless set the examples for others to follow by eradicating standard rock structures and starting out from now tangents. Accessible experimentalists whose work roughly moulds fresh shapes of things to come, they don\u2019t seek to advance or change rock. They seek to destroy it completely.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nTheir alternative is to present frail labyrinth of subtle sound, a strange menagerie of modern mood music that holds melody, has poise and a lot of style. All of which is enhanced by Martyn Bates\u2019 distinctive vocals which are as versatile as they are uniquely employed. Whether crooning along to some reflective ballad or spitting out some punchy polemic, Bates\u2019 alluring voice is an awesome focus of attention.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBut \u2018Caught In Flux\u2019 is most specifically an introspective LP, a thoughtful compilation of new songs and sound patterns, skilfully patched together and performed, It\u2019s a meditative music for active minds, an exciting vision of a brave new whirl. Eyeless \u2026 but not blind!<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nEyeless In Gaza \u2013 Sixteenth of September \u2013 interview by Phil Clarke<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe idea of this interview is for it to be a \u2019second stage\u2019 article assuming that people have already heard of, and heard, Eyeless in Gaza. This avoids dragging through details of \u201dhow did you get together\u201d, etc which a person who knows of E in G will probably be fully aware of, and allows a more in depth look at the philosophy of the group. Incidentally, I use the term \u2019interview\u2019 very loosely, it became much more of a three way discussion between us at times.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nMe: How do your audiences react to you? Does it vary from region to region, say in the midlands and London?<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMartyn: Its a difficult one that\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nPete: I could approach it in two ways and say that around London there\u2019s a bigger population, and gigs are more widely publicised, so we may get more people who\u2019re into the music coming to see us. But that doesn\u2019t mean to say that you get a bad or good reception purely on the audience, people usually accept what we are trying to do, and we usually get a fairly good reception. They don\u2019t go bananas, but they don\u2019t throw glasses at the stage.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMartyn: They don\u2019t know what to make of us really. We were only thrown out once from some Futurist hovel. People expect a four or five piece group; then we turn up and they can hardly see the instruments, just a guitar and a snare drum, and when we start up they expect something more trendy but they don\u2019t get it so they don\u2019t know whether to clap or not.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMe: Do you think that you\u2019ve reached where you wanted to get in the musical hierarchy? You\u2019ve already got a lot further than most local groups have managed, stayed together and done LPs, and I wondered what your \u2019ambitions\u2019 were?<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMartyn: We\u2019d like to get involved in creative projects that work on more than one level, such as film soundtracks and doing music for dance companies, things that have more of a permanence about them. Not that I think that what we do is totally transient, but I\u2019m very interested in interpreting what someone else has done. That\u2019s why I think a film soundtrack would be great, to have someone else do that with our music.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nPete: They\u2019re using our music for something and carrying on, which is what it should be for, not to just buy it because its trendy, which is awful.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMartyn: What do you mean by \u2019Musical hierarchy\u2019?<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMe: Well, starting off with very small groups and working up to very big ones, Hammersmith Odeon types \u2026 .<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMartyn: In terms of fame and large scale acceptance? I think it would be very difficult for us to ever get that far because \u2026<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nPete: We don\u2019t pander to commercial taste \u2026<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMartyn: \u2026 and we\u2019re too erratic as well, we like to do lots of different things, keep changing all the time. I think its hard for people to get a fix on us, to know how to relate to us because one minute we\u2019re doing things like sound paintings and the next we\u2019re doing an out and out pop thing. Hopefully there is a continuity there, its just that its coming from us. Its not a problem, something that we\u2019re going to worry our heads about because it wouldn\u2019t be natural. Just to make the music as it happens is the only way it can be a true expression.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nPete: Rather than falling into some accepted guidelines, just tailoring it, that sounds awful to me, like some \u2019Consumer music\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMartyn: Its great for selling records, but how would you feel yourself if you did that? I know how we\u2019d feel.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMe: I was thinking about the groups involved in the Futurist thing, they\u2019re gambling everything (on mass acceptance or bust).<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nPete: They set a market for themselves and if they deviate from it they\u2019re bloodyshot because they stylise themselves to a fine point, although they say they haven\u2019t they damn well have. They know who their audiences are, and the kids who go to see them just like that sort of stuff. They\u2019re stuck in one style, and if they ever get pissed off with it, its too bad, its their own fault.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMe: Do you align yourselves to any musical movement? I read something about the \u2019Perspectives and Distortion\u2019 LP and a thing called \u2019New Puritans\u2019 (to describe some of the groups on Cherry Red) came up.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMartyn: That\u2019s just a publicity thing really. To a degree its true, in a way we are purists or we\u2019d get four or five other people in and make a big pop sound in the way that a lot of people would like it\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nPete: \u2026To popularise it\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMartyn: \u2026but we\u2019re only \u2019Puritans\u2019 in the way that we\u2019re defiantly sticking to this two piece idea.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nPete: And in the way we go about things. Its also the Cherry Red information magazines title, but at the moment I don\u2019t think that it encompasses x band, y band and z band, its just a name that someone\u2019s put to it that seems to fit. If loads of people suddenly came out of the woodwork and say\u201d yes I agree with what you\u2019re saying\u201d then the papers will stick a label on it, but at the moment its just a few people who\u2019ve been put under this umbrella term, it just makes it easier for people to communicate an idea, although I\u2019m against labels, to put people in a \u2019bag\u2019. I think its more the way you actually go about things, the things that you believe in.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMe: What do you think of the music scene in general these days?<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBoth: It getting worse \u2026 departmentalised \u2026<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMe: There\u2019s a lot of revivalism & regressiveness about these days\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nPete: This revival thing is really bad, they\u2019re trying to revive Psychedelia and the beat revival. At the moment they\u2019re being pushed by \u2019The Face\u2019 and NME \u2026 y\u2019know, \u201dthis is the hip thing kids, this is what you\u2019ve got to listen to\u201d, its sick.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMartyn: The thing is, it puts everyone in little slots and seems to remove the \u2019instant\u2019 thing from it, i.e. to be in that little slot, that cult, you\u2019ve got to dress in the right things, say the right things, be the right sort of people, it just seems really restrictive.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nPete: Its almost fascist, it doesn\u2019t give anybody any scope\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMartyn: I don\u2019t doubt that a lot of people think its all bollocks, but the way the papers convey it is awful.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMe: (around the subject of influences) Would you agree with what Andy Partridge of XTC said, that most musical influences are absorbed early in your life and that its much harder for anything that comes after this to make an impact on you?<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBoth: Yeah, that\u2019s pretty true, same as anything else really.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nPete: If you try to absorb things as they happen that\u2019s just blatant rip off, ain\u2019t it? If you sound like x record after you\u2019ve been playing for years and years and you just rip it off blatantly, then you\u2019re cashing in aren\u2019t you? Its good to have influences because its something that fires you to do something. Otherwise if you\u2019re isolated, never having heard any music, and suddenly come out of the blue, its like a naive statement.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMartyn: The best way to do it is for it not to be a conscious thing, you absorb it into your own character and it comes out as music that\u2019s a composite of your own influence and your character, i.e. its something a little fresh.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMe: You. probably won\u2019t be able to answer this in one word. What directions are you following musically? I noticed that on \u2019Caught in Flux\u2019 that you\u2019d done some much slower tracks, and I like the idea of mixing relatively commercial tracks and some more experimental material together.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMartyn: Well its really odd, because the way we normally do the songs is just do them, mix them, and there it is an Album, a finished artefact. That\u2019s the way we worked for the first two records, but we\u2019re not doing it now. What we\u2019re doing is recording material to a rough mixing stage and then when it comes nearer the deadline for an LP we\u2019ll assemble it and mix it to a way that\u2019s contemporary with our thoughts at the time \u2026 so I can\u2019t really answer that, because, we\u2019re always doing different kinds of stuff. About two weeks ago we really wanted to do abstract stuff, tinkley bonk stuff if you like, but then we came up with a bunch of really pop stuff. Sometimes it just throws us, we think \u201dwhat the hells going on?\u201d but in a way its nice that its that way. We can do both and enjoy them and still feel that its 100% us, and 100% honest. So,any direction is hard to pin down. I\u2019ve got thoughts of what I want the third LP to be like, it\u2019ll be part instrumental. arid part low key songs, a more reflective thing. That\u2019s how I feel at the moment, but in three months I might feel that I want to do something extrovert, something loud and noisy, I dunno, it\u2019d be a shame to pin it down now.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMe: This hinges onto my next question; do you think that, given the right circumstances you could have Top Ten potential?<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMartyn: I think: some of our songs are catchy enough to sell to a lot of people. Its going to have to be on our own terms if they do, nobody\u2019s going to compromise us, we\u2019ve already had this \u2026<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nPete: Very recently\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMartyn: And its highlighted it to us. I think \u2026 it could happen, but its going to have to be free circumstances. Its a strange question because we cant be objective about it, obviously we\u2019d love it but there\u2019s a thing in me that says \u2026 the way we do things a large across the board range of people wont ever be able to get into it, and yet there\u2019s a part of me that thinks \u2026<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nPete: Why can\u2019t they? \u2026<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMartyn: Yes, some of this stuff like I played you last night, the \u2019up\u2019 stuff, its a question that perplexes me.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMe: It could be a valuable asset, the fact that you do such diverse stuff\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMartyn: I think its more likely to hinder us actually. <\/span><\/p>\nMe: It could hinder your progress if you got to, that stage, yes, but then again doing more commercial stuff you could get people onto the less commercial stuff via that.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nPete: True, that\u2019s another route, but who\u2019s to say which one most people are going to choose.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMartyn: We\u2019re throwing out all this stuff to see what happens.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMe: Talking about Top Ten, I\u2019m assuming that most people have a very straight taste in music.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nPete: A more commercially acceptable sound \u2026<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMartyn: When you\u2019re talking about music like that, you\u2019ve got to remember that to most people music isn\u2019t what it is to us three, its just something pleasant, you whistle a tune, or listen to the radio while you\u2019re doing the washing up, its not that deep, its not as important as it is to us three.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMe: Is the cover and other photos on \u2019Caught in Flux\u2019 establishing a tradition for using certain types of image associated with Eyeless in Gaza?<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMartyn: Yes, I suppose so, its meant to convey a \u2019feel\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMe: I like the way that its nicely oblique \u2026<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMartyn: How do you mean?<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMe: Its not just pictures of you going(pose) against a wall. You get a certain feel with your LP and single covers which is a bit formularised, I was wondering what you thought about the visual side of it.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMartyn: What you said about being formularised; we have been striving for continuity, because we feel its important for the visual representation to convey a warmth, a human feeling. I think we\u2019ve managed to do it so far, but I see the danger as you say of formularising it. The main reason we did it was this \u2019anti\u2019thing, all these groups are all about their heads exploding off, and people dying \u2026<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
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