From daniel Sent Mon, Jan 18th 1999, 05:19
From daniel Sent Mon, Jan 18th 1999, 05:19
With the passing of Bryn Jones I felt it appropriate to do a brief review of some discs that I play quite often. Muslimgauze - Gun Aramaic CD This cd is best described as driving through some ancient arabian city with your windows down. Through these open windows you would hear radio stations, conversations, noise, and traditional sounding arabic instruments. Essentially all the tracks are the same. But upon closer listen you start to hear changes and movement. In time the cd becomes mesmerizing. This is a good introduction to the ambient side of muslimgauze. It is at once ethnic and modern. Muslimgauze - beyond the blue mosque CD. This is essentially a best of releases. It features tracks from out of print items. The style is all over the place. It spans strange distorted drumming to odd electronic drone pieces. Urgency seems to be the common theme here. There is a certain nervousness and violence about the whole thing. A good introduction to the more harsh and percussion based themes that muslimgauze pursued. Muslimgauze - remixs (sic) vol 2. CD Supposedly this is older material that is relooped, redited and remixed. To my ears it sounds like all new material. Here we are presented with dub based arrangements and odd stereo effects. Distortion is also utilized but not to the extreme (unlike some other releases). What is left is repetitive (in this case it is not a bad thing) dub based groove. Easy to get lost in. Muslimgauze - Syrinjia lp A very fine release. At once experimental and accessible. The music incorporates dub, hip hop, ethnic percussion, voices and electronic trickery. I could easily see an adventurous dj dropping this into their set. This release is fairly limited and I suggest you pick it up. In the end Bryn Jones was an enigma. His music was all his own. It was neither idm, experimental or ambient. He defined his own genre. However, his politics upset many a listner (including me) but it was these strong beliefs that led to the creation of his music. It is the music that will live on. rest in peace. -daniel