Eyes - Night Eyes
Eyes take the irreverent poses of Test Icicles and apply it to a mess of genres on their debut album for London's Seed Records.
Back in 2005, down the front at Test Icicles' debut Chicago show, you might have found various members of Eyes, arms in the air, smiles slapped across their faces, dancing like they had discovered the truth. Ironic '80s guitars, irreverent postures and beats thrown through grisly electronics are all present and correct; all that is missing from the formula is ballsy screaming, which is instead replaced here by a drawling Mark E. Smith disciple gurning at the jazzy fumbling of his bandmates. Clown Lady is indicative of the skewed appeal of Eyes' debut, a song that starts seriously, yet stumbles over a mixture of cheesy pop, R'n'B and noise, and, upon collapsing in giggles, crawls all the way to the punchline. You might not be laughing - Night Eyes can be trying at the best of times - but Eyes certainly are, and they don't care if you aren't going to join in.