I have to admit, I’m one of those people who was more familiar with the name of Eyeless in Gaza than their material. They seemed to be one of those seminal bands who influenced a lot more artists who became popular than achieving widespread popularity themselves. Perhaps it was their ever-changing musical directions that made me view them as a whirling playground roundabout; already set in motion spinning and I just never felt motivated to jump aboard. So I treated myself to a crash course on the group’s history via their rather comprehensive website to play catch-up, and was rather impressed with what I found.

I knew Martyn Bates was involved with Eyeless but my exposure was limited to his "Murder Ballads" project with M.J. Harris (Scorn) which I really enjoyed. I was not familiar with the other half, Peter Becker. I also didn’t know that Eyeless in Gaza began as an industrial/experimental outfit (Antagonistic Music/Dissonance) releasing tapes as early as 1980. What with their various genre explorations from avant-folk to pop, funk, improvisational, experimental, isolationist, and so many other sonic permutations, the band has a rich and varied musical history, not only within the confine of their own project, but also in conjunction with other artists that include Anne Clark, Deirdre Rutkowski (This Mortal Coil), Lol Coxhill, Bill Laswell, Mick Harris, Genesis P. Orridge, In Embrace, and numerous others.

If Eyeless in Gaza was divided to a simple equation (practically impossible I imagine), Martyn Bates would seem to be the pop-folky half of the band, while Peter Becker, seemingly the more avant-garde element. But the superficial assessment is merely that; it is the combination of the two that makes Eyeless in Gaza the eclectic entity it really is. The juxtaposition of Bates’ vocal style (warm and soulful Brit folk-pop) with often uncategorizable musical arrangements is indeed quite a contrast. The atmosphere and ambience shares equal importance with the melodic and lyrical content. Improvisation is as important as structure. Minimal passages are as weighty as cascading sheets of thick sonic substance. There is really no separating the elements here, even if one composition seems to favor a certain set of elements more than another.

I get the impressions that SUMMER SALT & SUBWAY SUN is meant to be taken as a whole work, and not separate tracks, or even separate albums. While by no means a restrospective, it would seem to sum up a good portion of what Eyeless in Gaza is all about, perhaps even more important, what they’re about NOW. The 2 CD set was originally released in 2006 on another label, limited to 1000 copies. Between then and now, the only other Eyeless in Gaza releases were previous albums remastered and a book of lyrics. I don’t know how the original release of SUMMER SALT & SUBWAY SUN was packaged, but this one comes in a nice heavy duty glossy colorful box with two heavy duty glossy colorful cardboard sleeves and a glossy yellow lyric and instrumental credit booklet. (It helps if you favor the color yellow, particularly "golden yellow" on your color chart as that is the predominant color throughout.) I would have liked to have the initial limited release with the extra CD, "Wildcat Fights" to review, but there were only 400 copies of those and they’re probably long gone. Besides, that would be more like telling you what you can’t have, rather than what you can.

Rather than dissecting tracks, I’d rather give an overall impression of SUMMER SALT & SUBWAY SUN. Although not present on every track, I think it’s important to really enjoy Martyn’s vocal style to appreciate music of the music on these CDs. If you’re unfamiliar with it and you don’t care for a sweet, pure emotional, often delicate, nearly commercial voice, you would be best to spend your money elsewhere. You would be missing a lot of interesting music, but the Bates vox is part and parcel of the package. In the music there are shoegazing elements, post-punk elements, semi-psychedelic, ambient folk, industrial beats, gentle folk pop, cinematic soundscapes, Eastern motifs, and more. It’s really quite an eclectic pastiche. One comparison that comes to mind in terms of an artist who mixes an accessible vocal style with an experimental format is David Sylvian. Although the bulk of Sylvian’s output keeps closer the commercial song format, there are parallels in mixing an emotional vocal style with musical improvisation and unusual ambiences. SUMMER SALT & SUBWAY SUN exhibits a wide diversity of sound palettes and there are numerous passages on the CDs that may seem more like anything BUT what you might associate with Eyeless in Gaza. Then again, the unexpected is what they built a career on. These are two very moody, atmospheric CDs that provide a challenging, yet rewarding listen. Every track may not resonate with you, but there is enough excellent material here to call this an essential Eyeless in Gaza purchase, especially if there is a lack of their albums in your collection.

Six years after his latest studio album containing original songs (the beautiful Depeche Mode cover album "Color Theory presents Depeche Mode" has been released in 2003 but I'm not counting it now) titled "Something Beautiful", Brian Hazard a.k.a. Color Theory is back with a new album titled THE THOUGHT CHAPTER. Well, the first thing that pops out while listening to the eleven songs plus the Death Cab For Cutie cover of "Photobook", which originally has been released on 2000 on their "The Forbidden Love" E.P., is that Brian thought a lot: if "Something Beautiful" was piano driven and more acoustic on THE THOUGHT CHAPTER the experience of covering DM songs affected his songwriting and his way of arranging a track. The album sounds more electronic and richer. The instruments are well balanced and the characteristic Brian's song gain in pathos sounding more effective. "Hypothetically" for example could be a perfect simple piano/vocals song but the choice of picking up a synth sound where the notes sound like a mix of an hammond and a synth open up the sound and when the piano plays few chords the atmosphere changes again. Also the choice of using different drum machine sounds widen the sound palette and also recording upbeat songs like the following "If not now when", "Behind the rhine" or the great "Zero crossing" has been a wise choice because Color Theory fans will felt rewarded for the waiting. Check some songs at Color Theory website and if you are fans of bands like The Lotus Eaters and you like also electronic sounds, this is your time to give to Brian a chance... P.s. I'd like to give kudos to the four Maya Klein's drawings because they match perfectly the atmosphere of the album

While some may find the analog-origin of this material limiting (there are artifacts of the original tape recordings), I get the impression that Troum took careful attention to create an overarching and dramatic listening experience with AIWS. The crackles which launch the disc into the air also lend themselves to establishing a solid foundation for the analog soundworld that Troum inhabits, hinting at the journey ahead.

AIWS is the first full-length release by Troum since 2003. As per the accompanying notes, this is a collection of their own favorite works. Featured nicely are guitars, bass, voice, accordion, flute, sufi-songs... the list goes on. What is nice, however, is how seamlessly these instruments are woven together to create a tapestry of melancholic and sublime sounds that run a gamut of emotional and meditative states.

By track 7, Penthos (sorrow of mourning), one feels as though they’re watching an army trek across the fields of Siberia, or perhaps the listener is treading the path themselves. Very thought-provoking music, whose essence is difficult to capture with words. My favorite track on the album and a mere 2’46 long.

This album should appeal to a fairly wide audience, as the sound is ambient in nature but has hints of Rhys Chatham and Steve Reich, with the inward journeys of Godspeed You Black Emperor(!) or the scapes and arrivals of The Dead Texan, to boot. Kudos also goes out to the design for the disc, which makes AIWS a fine addition both visually and sonically to any collection.

Patton's label Ipecac is known for scouting interesting pearls of music from across the globe, as in the case of Bohren & Der Club of Gore, a German quartet that definitely plays their own unique version of lounge jazz and slow doom without guitars, if you can believe that. Bohren has been around since 1988 and their debut release dates back to 1994. Ever since then, they've been stripping down their sound to less and less, removing the guitars and adding a saxophone (which doesn't come in right away and surprises you with all its Lynch/Badalamenti atmosphere and melancholy).
Their eerie and gloomy musical creations feature nothing but drums, organ, vibes, Rhodes, piano, sax and lots of reverb and venture down in the 20-25bpm range, about as slow as it gets (you can basically go get a coffee between the kick drum hit and the following snare hit). They reverse-engineer and deconstruct doom metal into this light (in sounds) but still heavy (in moods) blend that almost sounds like a cleaned up and completely undistorted and un-fuzzed version of Sleep, Thergothon, Boris or Sunn O))). Sinister but soothing, hypnotic and mysterious, depressing and enlightening Bohren plays without a doubt some of the most original music out there. Some have called it "horror jazz" (whatever that means), but make no mistake, there are no brushes (although some multi-rods), there is no swing and there are no seventh or major ninth chords here: "Dolores" is almost entirely in minor chords, and although there are identifiable melodies, they take a step back to let the overall moods shine in the dark light of "Dolores".

Albany-based industrial-metal/EBM trio Doomsday Virus rose from the ashes of a band called Twilight Mistress and they embrace the philosophy of a full throttle sonic attack of Die Krupps-type industrial beats and electronic bass lines supported by heavily distorted Rammstein-like guitars. Of course, as many bands of that creed do, they mention as influences the untouchable gods of the genre (Skinny Puppy, NIN, Ministry, KMFDM, My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult and so on and so forth) and although they are pretty good at what they do, I have to say I'd still rather go back to the classics (few bands of today even come close). Nevertheless if you are tired of the classics or looking for some new blood or a new spin of the old, their self-released "Drink the Kool-Aid" gives you 11 tracks of just that, packaged with a cool looking and original black&white&green artwork.