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Eyeless in Gaza
Summer Salt and Subway Sun

Beta-lactam Ring Records

Posted: Tuesday, October 28, 2008
By: Matthew Johnson
Features Editor

Eyeless in Gaza have seemingly grown more expansive, eclectic, and ambitious with every release, and considering that Martyn Bates and Peter Becker have been making music together for over a quarter of a century, that's really saying something. Originally released in 2006 on A-Scale Recordings as a single album, Summer Salt and Subway Sun now comes as a deluxe reissue featuring a second album of all-new material. Both albums blend seamlessly, each enveloped by the same dreamy lethargy of hot, late summer days, each blending elements as diverse as noise, ambient, and folk. The first CD, now simply titled Summer Salt, begins with the sleepy soundscape and muffled street noise of "Dust Box / Subway Sun," a piece as pleasantly mild as a summer morning, a groggy wake-up call one responds to with reluctance. "Whitening Rays" segues smoothly into post-punk territory with a softly hissing drum machine and a pair of guitars that start off dreamy, then blur into distortion as Bates croons "The years come like the beautiful sun / The stillness of stone," and despite the propulsion of beats and bass, it's a perfect description of the song itself: sunny, yet still. From there, the album progresses from the hypnotic space rock of "Mixed Choir" to the moody but psychedelic post-punk of "Antipathy Whisper" to avant-garde folk on "Where Vivid Bloomed" and "Ebbing All the Years," finally ending with the tranquil drones and flute-like ambience of "Ghost Blocks." Though shifting unpredictably from experimental abstraction to conventional song-structure and back again, there's never a moment that seems deliberately noisy or difficult; neither is there ever a departure from the overarching sonic and lyrical themes of tranquil but melancholy heat. Especially noteworthy is Bates and Becker's ability to conjure moods as somber as a Joy Division release without once having to resort to clichés of sound or image. This isn't music for candlelit rooms or foggy graveyards, but proof that sun-spattered city streets and full daylight are just as suitable for moody contemplation as any stereotypical gothic landscape.

The second disc, now titled Subway Sun, is even more eclectic than its predecessor, though it captures the mood so seamlessly that there's little evidence it wasn't part of the original opus. "Star Pool, Milky Way" opens things on a darker note with electric guitar drones creaking like a rusty hinge in an old horror film, but "All New" is a gorgeous dream, delicately picked guitar notes piling up onto themselves and building an ocean of sustained textures while Bates' croons echo languidly back and forth like a school of sunfish. "Phantom Music" manages to be both soporific, thanks to its stony organs, and wonderfully emotive, thanks to the interplay between Becker's melodian and Bates' vocals. Likewise, "Broken" uses layered whistles and hand percussion to achieve an exotic sensuality, but Bates' singing is just strong enough to keep things from floating off into space music territory, rendering the juxtaposition of ethereal music and earthy vocals all the more powerful. If "Broken" is like a desert mirage, then "Song-Like in the Dead Night" is a cathedral epiphany, splintering light cascading through jagged stained glass as Bates' voice drifts through cavernous reverb. "Five Songs" ends the album like old stone warmed by noonday sun, with organs joining soft strums as a glockenspiel clangs slowly, deeply, languidly. Summer Salt and Subway Sun is a hard album to wake up from, but it's a powerfully affecting release that creates a completely unexpected mood from the usual post-industrial building blocks. Play it in the afternoon on days when it's too hot to move.