Website www.eyelessingaza.com | Past members Joby Palmer | |
Years active 1980 (1980)–1987 (1987), 1993 (1993)–present Labels Cherry Red, Ambivalent Scale Associated acts In Embrace, Hungry I, Drift, Twelve Thousand Days Origin Nuneaton, United Kingdom (1980) Genres Post-punk, Experimental music, Art rock, Alternative rock Members Martyn Bates, Peter Becker Albums Photographs as Memories, Pale Hands I Loved So, Rust Red September, Caught in Flux, Sun Blues | ||
Eyeless In Gaza are an English musical duo of Martyn Bates and Peter Becker, based in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. They have described their music as "veer[ing] crazily from filmic ambiance to rock and pop, industrial funk to avant-folk styles." Formed in 1980, the group went into hiatus in 1987, re-emerging in 1993.
Contents
History
Becker, a laboratory technician, had played in a covers band before buying and experimenting with a Wasp synthesizer (he released a solo cassette-album in June 1980 and a second a year later). Bates, a hospital worker, had previously been in a very early lineup of the unclassifiable Coventry-based band Reluctant Stereotypes, and also released a cassette of experimental electronic music in January 1980. Shortly afterwards they met (interestingly after having both been turned down for membership in Nuneaton's other famous band, Bron Area) and together they formed Eyeless in Gaza, both contributing vocals and several instruments. The band name is a reference to the novel Eyeless in Gaza by Aldous Huxley (which in turn was influenced by John Milton's Samson Agonistes). Bates has said he chose the name "for the sound of it.... I was reading the Huxley book when I met Pete.... It sounded perfectly nice." But Bates has also acknowledged an allusion to the "biblical myth" of Samson, saying, "I feel attracted by religion. I feel that people don’t pay enough attention to the spiritual side of their life; it is a very interesting side of the human psychism and it fascinates me." (Interview in Les Inrockuptibles, number 14, 1988)
After a self-released single, they signed to Cherry Red Records, releasing debut album Photographs as Memories in February 1981. After three further albums for Cherry Red and an album for Norwegian label Uniton, they added Aztec Camera drummer Dave Ruffy for single "Welcome Now" (1985), recruiting former Sinatras/In Embrace drummer Joby Palmer for the next album, Back from the Rains.
The group then went on hiatus after Becker married and temporarily relocated to Spain, with Bates (who had also gotten married by this point, to longtime girlfriend and occasional band collaborator Elizabeth S.) concentrating on solo work. They reunited in 1990 to collaborate with Anne Clark on her album The Law Is an Anagram of Wealth. In 1991 Bates formed Hungry I with former Primitives drummer Steve Dullahan.
They returned in 1993 (with Elizabeth S. as a full-time member) for the Fabulous Library album and have sporadically released records since, as both a duo and trio. Bates also recorded between 1994 and 1998 with M.J. Harris (Napalm Death/Scorn) under the name Drift, and in the early 2000s with keyboardist Alan Trench in Twelve Thousand Days. He has also continued to release solo material. In 2012, Martyn Bates and Peter Becker appeared on "Right North", the eleventh album, a double digipack, of the international collective 48 Cameras.
Albums
EPs
Singles
Videos
Songs
Kodak Ghosts Run AmokOriginal Albums Boxset · 2014
The Eyes of Beautiful LosersCaught in Flux · 1981
Veil Like CalmSixth Sense · 2008