MUSLIMGAUZE レコード& CD

Review: The late great Muslimgauze has one of the most unique sounds in electronic music, even now, many year son. His fusion of the electronic and the ethnic, the experimental and the noisy is in a class of one. Return To The City Of Djinn came first back in 1999 and is the seance of two collabs between John Bolloten aka The Rootsman and Bryn Jones aka Muslimgauze. It is a mash up of The Rootsman's Into The Light and 52 Days to Timbuktu albums with added Arab cultural references from Jones. There are cut up loops, glassy effects, dub drums and well rod vocal fragments that make for an atmospheric sound track to a stroll through a busy Eastern city.

Review: The eternally mystical Muslimgauze was as experimental as they come. They turned out a wealth of now cult albums that still sound like very little else out there'd there has been a rather extensive reissue project in the world over the last few years. The next of their albums to get put put in remastered form across various formats is Khan Younis from back in 1993. All fused into the competing tracks that make it up are sounds from the worlds of experimental, ambient, acid house and dub to make for a truly unique listen.

Review: Staalplaat continue to take care of Bryn Jones' Muslimgauze legacy, here presenting a vinyl edition of the Kashmiri Queens album they originally released as a limited CD edition in 2001. Some of the tracks had previously appeared on the Nadir Of Purdah EP in 1995, but as a whole this release reframes them in the broader context of the wholly unique soundworld Jones crafted for himself and his music. There is a range of moods on offer, with synthesis and meditation more prominent than the abrasion sometimes associated with Muslimgauze, especially on the extended trip of the second track.

Review: Muslimgauze's Intifaxa has previously only been released on CD and is one of a series of four double albums on the cult Australian label Extreme Music. It's another sublime example of the late experimental artist's ability to blend electronic beats and Middle Eastern influences into a unique fusion of sound that is part underground house and part psychedelic trance music. Released posthumously, the album transports listeners into a world of hypnotic rhythms, intricate percussion, and haunting melodies. The tracks are awash with modulated field recordings and tribal grooves that make for a transcendental and immersive listen all while showcasing Muslimgauze's vision and innovative approach to production.

Review: Early on in Muslimgauze's (Bryn Jones') career, the musician released two ultra-mysterious releases on the equally mysterious label Hessian, which some speculate might've been comprised entirely of Jones himself. Hammer & Sickle was one of these two early LPs from the faux Arabic auteur, and was notable for its distinct lack of any back cover artwork (who needs a visual stimulus when you've got such great music on board?). Though still indicative of Jones' work as Muslimgauze, superfans will note that this release sounds a little more formative than some of his later releases, owing to its lessened use of Middle Eastern instrumentation and sparser production in general. B-sider 'Fear Of Gadaffi' is the most intermittent in this regard, revelling more than anything in the simple effect of spring delay on sampled, freeform perc hits.

Review: It's nice to get a new edition of Muslimgauze's 'Emia Bakia', a long out-of-print and hard to find album from 1994, because the album remains one of the most unique in the late, great producer's vast catalogue. The set's uniqueness lies in the surprising shape and focus of the rhythms that Muslimgauze utilised on the album; while as percussion-rich as ever, and often cloaked in his usual dark ambient sounds, dub-influenced basslines and Eastern exoticism, the beats are regularly far more dancefloor-focused than you'd expect. This isn't otherworldly ambient dub, but rather some mind-altering mutation of psychedelic house music that still sounds like nothing else around.

Review: Muslimgauze was an experimental visionary up until their passing, with a 96 title discography that has since more than doubled in posthumous rereleases and unreleased material. The British electronic producer's work all revolved around ideas and discourse in the Muslim sphere, with stories that obviously bear repeating. This release is a standalone reissue of CD3 from the 1996 triple album 'Fatah Guerrilla', a melodic and oftentimes industrial pounding - with 10-second loops repeated with liquid bass and interspersed vocal samples such as on 'Guilded Gulag Mind-er'. It's easiest to describe the album as a sonical collage, with sections clipping into each other and distorting like a scratched record like on 'Gifts from an Afghan''. 'Chechnya Over Dub' is a fantastic opportunity to dive headfirst into the expanded Muslimgauze universe.

Review: Eleven miasmic, brooding tape meditations from the legendary Bryn Jones, reissued and packaged by Ukrainian label I Shall Sing Until My Land Is Free. Recorded in the immediate wake of the Oslo I accords, the album both bares Jones' stance on the peace pact and eerily predicts its aftermath, with humming, resonant drones, tinny vocal fragments and reversed percussion colliding in aural analogues of political tension, distrust and cyclicality. Overall it is an equally meditative and ominous listen, peppered with many of the hallmarks of mid-nineties Muzlimgauze productions, from swung, steppy, proto-DMZ ride cymbals, to plucked FM synth MIDI earworms, to his ever-present swathes of darkly churning string drones. Essential!

Review: The story of this unexpected collaboration dates back to the summer and autumn of 1998, when Bryn Jones aka. Muslimgauze, the politically conscious music genius from Manchester, discovered Species Of Fishes' albums through the Dutch label Staalplaat. Jones embarked on a journey of reinventing the Muscovites' tracks, infusing them with hypnotizing noise pulsations that were both harsh and sharp, yet profoundly humane, while evoking ethereal Arab echoes. The original remixes became the inaugural release on Species Of Fishes' self-titled label in 1999, with a limited circulation of 500 CDs. The first edition featured a selection edited from the original DAT cassette, accompanied by minor revisions, while the second one faithfully reproduced the entire studio session, providing insight into the creative process rather than focusing solely on the final result. In this new reissue, Species Of Fishes have curated the tracks, discarding repetitions, unsuccessful takes, and technical pauses. The result is a more dynamic compilation that retains the core elements of the original work while reducing the total duration by almost half.