Here's an original review back in 1981, for this their first album for Cherry Red: 'The days of the garage groups are gone. The bands of today are being born in bedrooms and the latest in the increasing line of DIY knob-doodling duos are Eyeless In Gaza from Leamington Spa. Much in the mood of Orchestral Manoeuvres, Martyn Bates and Pete Becker take more risks, talk more dirty and act more arty than the Liverboys but you shouldn't let that put you off. Although Photographs As Memories is an awkward album that initially sounds irritating and samey, like a rough assortment of improvisations over very similar backing tracks, further listening reaps rewards, revealing a record made up more of experimental fragments than actual bona-fide songs. Starting and finishing somewhat arbitrarily, each individual track attempts, with varying degrees of success, to define a different mood, ranging from the malice and menace of "Keepsake" and the boisterous bubblegum bop of "No Noise" to the weird and worrying "In Your Painting" -- a sort of "Weaver's Answer" for the Eighties. Predominantly featuring scratchy, freely-scuttling guitar over basic drumbeats, and atmospheric keyboards and occasionally augmented by unnecessary and incongruous Beefheartean sax, Eyeless's real strengths and weaknesses lie in their overblown vocals which, while inhibiting literal understanding, instill the proceedings with crucial emotion. A cross between unbridled passion and stylish effect, the voice is by turns crudely convincing and theatrically histrionic, resulting in an album that simultaneously soothes as it unnerves. Photographs constantly strives for something special, very seldom fully succeeds but even its many pitfalls and failures make for an interesting, invigorating listen.' |
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