”Orange Ice & Wax Crayons”
- Great - an opportunity to exorcise some old demons and much loved songs.... And the story goes like this; Document had got hold of (from some Impossible Attic) the outtakes from the last Eyeless LP.... 4 things, and they wanted to put ’em out, and had we got anything else? ANYTHING ELSE? My God, there are so many as yet unearthed gems, that the thought of getting some of ’em (at least) out into the light of day even makes those 4 ’Back from the rains’ outtakes sound not quite so bad after all.... - One thing about Eyeless, no one ever understood the fun we had doing it.... that fun quality was never visible on the surface.... but Pete ’n’ me laughed bucketfuls throughout it.... which was, I guess, odd, ’cause we were always completely serious about what we did.... I think the main reason was how we felt like a pair of kids finally being allowed to run riot.... small wonder we named our first primitive recording studio THE WENDY HOUSE - Eyeless always, only ever worked for the love and fun of the thing itself, other aspects didn’t come into centre stage, not until the latter days. By that time we were feeling frustrated at the way we didn’t seem to be getting across to a larger audience (as if EIG’s attitude to music-making encouraged a bloody larger audience!) which was stupid really ’cause we could see that our untypical approach and working methods were having a direct effect on the audience in terms of inspiration and stuff - AND we got so impatient.... thought that we’d focus on our POP-stuff in order to ’break thru’ (whatever that meant).... but, we had too much of a truly butterfly spirit about us to stay in any one place for too long and, ended up (typically and perversely) stuffing a bunch of acapella things and odd impressionistic folky pieces on our BIG-POP LP, I’m bloody pleased to be able to say - MARTYN BATES
- ’YEAH, loads o’ that’ - PETE BECKER
WAYS OF RACHEL ; Recorded at Whittleford library, Autumn
’84.
MB; The studio at Whittleford faced right onto a busy
main thoroughfare, and was so badly sound-proofed that
you could hear peoples conversations as they walked
by.... of course voices and articulated lorries were
forever spoiling takes.... I can remember Pete screaming
”shut up you noisy bastards” at passing innocents,
but on this track they’ve still managed to get on the
take somehow, and I’m glad we kept ’em there....
PB; Sometimes the simplest ways of recording can be
the best.... this 4-track demo captures everything....
all the classic Eyeless trademarks, like Spindly Guitar,
long synth notes, sparse percussion that is both simple
and haunted.... with a perennial EIG theme in Martyn’s
lyric ’bout pursuing perfection, and about the restless
spirit that seeks that perfection.... a search that
drains yet energises and exhilarates at the same time....
STAY; Recorded at Milton Abbey, Oxford ’84.
PB; Again, I prefer the original four track of this,
but this is pretty good - A nice uplifting quality
about it.... it builds optimistically and it’s nicely
outgoing.... this is the acceptable face of our pop-shit
tendencies.
MB; Shame this one didn’t really see the light of day
’til now.... we never did record this one right....
nah, I never did like my vocal sound on this.... I
register my complaint here and now....
WHAT I WANT TO KNOW; Recorded at Whittleford library
early ’85.
PB; There’s a side to me that likes to listen to pop,
a side that wants to make pop music, but.... I’ve never
felt like I’ve wanted to STAY at the same thing all
the time, it’s just uninteresting to me.... with Eyeless,
this stance often created a problem of sorts.... the
audience would turn up expecting MUSIC A (as per album
A) and they’d get MUSIC B or C even, depending on what
we were into at the time.... because the important
thing with music it is to keep it fresh and true, where
you can always put 100% in, in every situation....
and you just can’t do that passionately if you’re forever
wishing you were playing other stuff.... the thing
was, we always believed the audience would be able
to tell if we were just going through the motions....
so we never did.... and, yeah, maybe we did lose audiences!
But.... ’ to thine own self be true.... ’
MB; This could have been a great POP single - if only
someone could have heard it.... hmm.
OLD LIME QUARRY; Recorded at Riversley Road Art School,
Circa ’82.
MB; ....an improvisation, the kind of thing that was
very important to us around this period; at the time
we were conscious of not wanting to sound like any
other group.... I saw before too long that the idea
was sheer folly.... you’ve got to be coming from somewhere
and similarly what you are doing has to going someplace
else.... you’re all part of the same chain or something....
but back then I felt differently - Still..... the attitudes
100% healthy....
PB; So titled ’cause it seems to conjure up dead seas,
apocalyptic events, aeons ago - like when you’re walking
thru a really old place, and the atmosphere is loaded
with the feeling and memories that haven’t gone away....
and that kind of feeling clashing with what’s happening
in the present gives a wired sort of tension, but also
a sensitivity.... and a gentleness.... that’s this
track!
ALL LONE HOURS; Recorded at Hot Nights Studios, London,
Dec ’85.
PB; - Love the trumpets, didn’t like the middle 8....
the whole song was rushed thru for some reason, but
I love it.... pure sunshine!
MB; popping it up to an overspill exuberance, and why
not?.... perhaps because we were never that good at
this style.... NAH, we were good at it.... then why
am I often uncomfortable listening back to this?....
I think it’s ’cause I must like EYELESS the better
when ’Fun’ is much more of a private thing and not
so upfront in the music.... mebbee....
(drums by Joby Palmer)
STREET LAMPS N’ SNOW; Recorded at The Wendy House, Weddington,
Autumn ’81.
MB; A piece recorded when we were very much under the
spell of free music - this sort of thing was so refreshing
to play and hear.... quite a test, I remember; Pete
was in the studio while I was in the kitchen.... we
were both playing to a tiny leakage.... i.e., we’d
practically no idea what the other one was doing!....
yeah, good idea.... exciting!
PB; it reminds me of when you’re a kid and it’s xmas
and it’s nightime - it’s snowing and you’re outside
under the streetlamps.... those sodium, orange ones....
you look up and you just see the orange glow and snow
coming down and everything - but sometimes it looks
like the snow’s going around the light, or up, or down,
or across.... and you get this giddy feeling about
you.... and because of the time of year you feel there’s
a kind of magical quality about it - which fits this
piece of music exactly.... except that it’s got that
tension between an innocent childlike quality and something
that’s a bit spooky and off-kilter.... seems to be
a recurring motif in Eyeless’ music....
EARLY EMPTY LANES; Recorded at Hot Nights Studios, London,
Late ’85.
MB; another BACK FROM THE RAINS outtake, a track we
never felt we did justice to.... lovely song, but....
PB; the lyrical sentiments great on this - love that
celebratory thing - Phew, Rock n’ Roll, outrageous!....
shit, it’s even got a guitar solo in it that works....
but it’s a song that was heading Eyeless into a more
’normal’ kind of ”group” sound and that certainly
didn’t feel too natural to me.... I dunno.... there’ll
always be a bit of a question mark over this for me....
(singing by Elizabeth S. - drums by Joby Palmer)
FROM DRAWN BLINDS; Recorded at Hot Nights Studios, London,
Dec ’85.
PB; Recorded at 4 in the morning when we were both dead
beat from recording for 16 hours previous.... it’s
a little too fast, some sensitivity’s lost.... damn.
MB; at the time of the release of BACK FROM THE RAINS,
our unhappiness with the vocal performance on this
track blocked our ok. on including it on that lp, but....
with hindsight, it works well enough....
(The title was lifted from a Laura Nyro lyric....)
HOURS GROW; Recorded at Whittleford library, early ’85.
MB; this song went through a lot of changes.... I still
find that this lyric about a beautiful, naturally evolving
bewitchment touches me.... connects.
PB; though I always loved the contrast between the moody
verse in this song and it’s up and poppy chorus, I’ve
always felt it needed something else....
FEAR CLUTCHES; Recorded at The Wendy House, mid ’81.
MB; much of the material on the first two EIG albums
was shaped in many differing ways by my experiences
at the George Elliott Hospital in Nuneaton working
as a meagre porter, chiefly in a rehabilitation unit
- I loved the job, it opened my eyes.... but first
there was a lot of debris to be sorted and shaken....
PB; I used to love playing really plaintive, open pieces
like this; kind of a folky feel, oriental too.... slightly
church-music-ish, a mix of C.O.E. and Buddhism on this
one.... it’s a really simple, just three or four notes
in the whole thing.... but, there’s a beauty in simplicity....
as the man said, ”Why make your life more complicated?”.
MY LOST MELODY; Recorded at Hot Night Studios, Dec ’85.
MB; ThisBACK FROM THE RAINS outtake misses as far as
I’m concerned.... it started life as a small, tender
little thing, so quiet and reflective.... somewhere
along the way it got injected with way too much....
size.
PB; Heavy-handed, over-projected, leaden.... the song
was murdered!.... probably going (once again) into
normal ’rock band’ territory and I’ve never felt an
affinity with that.... I’ve just never been happy there....
ah well, can’t win ’em all....
(piano by David Munday - drums by Joby Palmer)
P.S. FOR MICHAEL; Recorded at The Wendy House, early
’81.
MB; .... recorded during a rain storm, very, very audible....
a summer night, Oleksa’s bees swarming crazily....
The Wendy House, set back amongst the trees at Weddington,
was a haven, a heaven to us.... the title ”ORANGE
ICE AND WAX CRAYONS” was chosen ’cause it conjures
up that sense of play and experimentation, kind of
like the ’innocence of the child’ idea - that was exactly
the kind of spirit with which we entered into the initial
idea of EYELESS IN GAZA, way back when....
PB; again, evoking a childhood memory.... this is like
when you’re a kid, nicking off early from school....
running home and it’s really chucking it down.... and
there’s a kind of free feeling about it, that you don’t
really care about anything.... it’s just good to be
alive.... but then, it’s still a bit strange, a bit
slightly weird and dream-like.... Again, the music’s
got that ever-present ’tense’ quality to it.... nicely
off....
GREAT OCEAN LINER; Recorded at The Wendy House, Spring
’81.
MB; - an improvisation, something that didn’t make it
on to PALE HANDS I LOVED SO WELL due to lack of space....
this piece scared me half to death when we played it
back.... oceans od icebergs looming, stalking.... real
Jonah and the whale stuff, this!....
PB; - although in one sense these sort of pieces are
neurotic 20th Century avant-garde music, this ones
still got a lot of qualities that I like.... that cyclical
feel, that wide-screen feel.... one of the aims I had
when Eyeless was to make precisely this kind of impressionistic
piece, something that evokes different kinds of things
to the imagination, according to the mood of the moment....
this is the weirder, more nightmare-ish side of that,
for sure....
DOGS BARK; Recorded live at Den Haag, Holland, ’83.
MB; Taken directly from a cassette a fan made on a Walkman
and posted anonymously to me, THIS is the reason I
wanted to do this compilation (this and GREAT OCEAN
LINER/WAYS OF RACHEL). A stage favourite, this Terry
Riley-esque, hymnal - drone piece was something Pete
and I never got around to recording, much to my regret....
PB; beautifully old-fashioned and simple, this.... live,
I could really lose myself in it.... an improvisational
piece with recurring themes, which was exciting ’cause
you never knew where it would end up.... - despite
the abysmal quality of this recording, it’s a really
nice performance, where we were trading phrases and
gelling nicely.... this also reminds me of the period
around ’81-’82 where Martyn would just shout over the
stage for me to ”make something up!”....
the mad bugger....
FEVER PITCH AND BITE; Recorded at The Wendy House, Mid
’81.
PB; Classic Eyeless stuff of long, held notes plus that
’churchy’ feel, bit kinda folky, all the black notes
on the keyboard, simple but nagging and insistent....
and I think you can even hear me mooing away in the
background.... these were the days when Martyn used
to throw his voice around a lot, distorting it, growling
and such-like.... not so much on this track in particular,
just enough to make it cut through.
MB; ah, a plaintive hymn to paranoia.... and an apt and fitting finish to chew on.... au revoir - and don’t go away.
Nuneaton Oct ’91.