Kodak Ghosts Run Amok

The subtitle "Chronological Singles, Etc., 1980-86" tell the whole story; Kodak Ghosts Run Amok covers the best work of Eyeless in Gaza's first incarnation. Taking its title from the group's debut 1980 EP, the album runs through the A-sides of all of their singles, adding a few key album tracks to flesh out the picture of the early days. Starting from their rather minimalist and icy early work, the first few songs progress Martyn Bates and Peter Becker's slow transformation from artsy students into purveyors of a peculiar brand of pop music that's both sonically inviting and coolly distanced. By the time side one ends with the surprise chart hit "Veil Like Calm," the change is complete; the first half of side two is a run of singles as good as anything the U.K. indie scene offered up in 1983 and 1984, with Bates' vocals more subtle and controlled than the anguished wailing that tends to predominate on the early songs, and Becker's musical backing adding gentle acoustic guitars and sunny harmonies to the synthesizers. "New Risen" and "Sun Bursts In" are both classics of their time and place. Frankly, though, by the end of the album, the duo has listed too far in the chart-pleasing direction; "New Love Here" and "Back From the Rains" are nearly as empty and glossy as Wham!'s contemporaneous singles, and a whole lot less memorable. The original cassette release appended the whole of 1982's Caught in Flux. ~ Stewart Mason