Alec K. Redfearn & The Eyesores — The Blind Spot

The central theme of "I am the Resurrection and the Light", the songcycle that makes up a large part of The Blind Spot is drugaddiction and loss, and it's a eulogy for friends of Redfearn who lost their lives battling an addiction. Accordingly, the music mostly is melancholic, if not depressed.

The music influenced by a plethora of bands and composers, but those of the Rock In Opposition movement are the most prominent. Slapp Happy, Art Bears and Henry Cow to be precise. One quality of that type of music is that it seems to exist somewhere outside of time, so that terms like 'retro' and 'dated' aren't much of an issue. The band is rather large, but they never get bombastic or massive. Technically they share some elements (like R.I.O.) with for instance Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, but The Eyesores miss the testosterone, are more refined and much more subtle. With a lot of acoustic instruments, like accordion, cello, glockenspiel, bassoon and intricate vocal arrangements the 'rock' often gets lost. Even the 'electronic mayhem' credited to Frank Difficult doesn't play a leading role, except in the intro (The Perforated Veil).

Reportedly they are more likely to include more noisy elements like feedback into the mix, but on this CD there's not much of that to be found. It's mostly a more dreamy mix of contemporary composed music, folkmusics from all over the world, cabaret and progressive rock to create a more pensive mood. For me personally drugaddiction as a theme isn't all that interesting (with all respect to Redfearn's concerns), but it's not at all necessary to appreciate the music. There are more universal emotions involved that you can easily relate to from your own perspective.