Eyeless In Gaza - No Noise, The Very Best Of… (Cherry Red)

A 22-track, 25-year anniversary compilation is a fitting consolation prize for a band that were for so long ‘almost… but not quite’. As pure target market for eighties experimental pop I saw them on the fringes all the time (Smash Hits was great in those days, all you needed was an interesting idea or picture to get in their pages). But they never went one stage further into radio play territory – which is where the disappointment lies. If only they had they would – and I am 99% certain of this – been huge.

All the right elements were there but, before you think I’m labelling them as a sort of B-division Talk Talk, it’s worth remembering that Eyeless In Gaza weren’t copyists or chasing after other people’s glories. They had a unique sound, of which Martyn Bates’ Joe Strummer-esque howl was the centre point. “Martyn is one of the great white soul singer voices,” Alan McGee says on the sleeve notes, “by soul I mean Ian Curtis, not Jamiroquai…”

If the E’s in your collection include Eno, 808 State, Einstürzende Neubauten and Echo and the Bunnymen then there’s a place for this alongside them. It’s just a pity that a compilation subtitled The Very Best Of comes with such a measly eight-page booklet!