Drum Machine

January 30, 2006 at 3:11 pm · Filed under audio

* Muslimgauze: Ravishnu Again (5.0 mb) | Deceive For Yourself (8.5 mb) | Kaffeen (7.0 mb) | Divotee, Lie With Dogs (6.5 mb)
From Box Of Silk And Dogs : Staalplaat Recordings : MUSLIMLIM 013

Muslimgauze

For some reason I’m having a really difficult time writing about Mr. Bryn Jones, the man behind Muslimgauze. Since 1982 until his untimely passing in 1999 (of a rare fungal blood disease), Mr. Jones recorded and released music at a furious pace. With his discography totalling around 100 original albums, he sometimes released more than four or five albums a year. Even now, 7 years after his passing, there’s still new music being released by his labels. He was an incredible percussionist who was outraged by the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and was thus inspired to create music about their situation. And what distinctive music it is.

With a strong rhythmic base, his music is very propulsive and driving. He recorded multiple percussion and Middle Eastern instrumental tracks on old analogue equipment in his bedroom and then edited and mixed the music later. And then on top of that, he would layer various sounds and vocals from old Middle Eastern tapes. His music was often distorted and noisy, filled with jarring edits and intense volume changes. While some accuse all Muslimgauze releases of sounding the same, this is most definitely not true.

It’s interesting to note that while Bryn Jones made all of the music, he didn’t concern himself with the artwork or disc packaging. The frequently over-the-top Although most of his releases contain beautiful imagery depicting Middle Eastern scenes, some of the albums contained politially inflammatory images that were chosen by whichever record company was releasing his album.

These tracks come from a now way out-of-print 9-cd box set of various full lengths and EPs, just one of about 20 albums released in 1999 alone!

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6 Comments

  1. Justin said,

    January 30, 2006 @ 6:49 pm

    I’ve been meaning to check this band out for a while, and never knew where to start… these songs shall help! Thank you.

  2. Akio said,

    January 30, 2006 @ 9:33 pm

    That’s some full-on sick drums.

  3. Anonymous said,

    February 1, 2006 @ 5:56 pm

    A few things:
    1. Israeli invasion of Lebanon?? Bryn Jones devoted his life to the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
    2. He died of leukemia. His immediate cause of death was fungemia (fungal blood infection) as he was immunosuppressed secondary to leukemia.
    3. “Over the top packaging”?? The artwork on his albums was frequently of Middle Eastern and Islamic scenes. Not sure what is over the top about that. His artwork pales in comparison to artwork to tons of typical indie rock groups.

    This may sound like picky remarks but if you are running a website to inform others it would be nice if you more informed.

  4. cb said,

    February 1, 2006 @ 11:24 pm

    Hey there Anon.

    1. According to all the articles that I’ve read, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon was the key motivating factor in him (Bryn Jones) morphing into Muslimgauze. That was my only point. It’s definitely true that most of the rest of his music was devoted to the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

    From the Village Voice (1994-10-28)

    The DIY agit-ambient unit known as Muslimgauze was formed in 1982 as a direct response to Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, says Bryn Jones, its founder, leader, writer, and sole performer. What Muslimgauze does is release mysteriously gorgeous music–lots of music: some 20 albums in a dozen years–inspired by the material specificity of a fact, event, or photograph.

    From the Industrial Nation (2004, Issue 20)

    In numerous articles, Bryn Jones said that his inspiration in starting Muslimgauze was the invasion of Lebanon in 1981. In an article in Network News in 1990, Bryn Jones said, “Every piece of music Muslimgauze release is motivated by a political fact, mostly Palestinian. Also, Iran and Afghanistan.” Yet, Bryn was an Englishman, had no ethnic ties to the Middle East, and never visited the region.

    From the Edge interview (1998-01)

    Starting at the beginning; what would you say was the main change in your approach to music and to the music itself when E.g Oblique Graph became Muslimgauze?

    The change into Muslimgauze came about at the time of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

    And so on.

    2. I didn’t know that he also had Leukemia and that was the reason for the immunosuppression. I guess the articles that I read just wanted things to be more dramatic. You’ll notice that the Industrial Nation article (and most of the other articles that I read) mentioned him dying of a rare blood fungal disease.

    In fact, I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen it mentioned that he had Leukemia.

    3. Maybe over-the-top was the wrong wording, but his releases often contained politically inflammatory (this isn’t the word I’m looking for either, but it’s closer) artwork.

    i.e. Fatah Guerilla

    But you’re also right in saying that there are many more over-the-top things to depict. In fact, I think the artwork on his albums is frequently very beautiful. I guess I’m guilty of wanting to make things more dramatic, myself.

    Thanks for the comments.

    -cb

  5. tinylife said,

    February 2, 2006 @ 12:55 am

    uhhhh…..are these supposed to be THIS distorted?

    i think something went awry

  6. cb said,

    February 3, 2006 @ 1:53 am

    tinylife-

    There ain’t nothing wrong with these tracks :) he’s got some that are even more distorted, and with volume jumps that’ll keep you on your toes…

    -cb

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