MUSLIMGAUZE Vinyl & CDs

Review: Here be another posthumous release by Muslimgauze, the prolific and controversial project of the late Bryn Jones, an obsessive musician who dedicated his life to making music inspired by the struggles and conflicts of the Muslim world. Eye For An Eye was recorded in 1993, around the same time as his classic Veiled Sisters, and features a similar blend of ambient dub and tinkling, wacked-out beats. Nevertheless, its body is simply four long pieces, unfurling subtle changes in rhythm and texture over time. Be thankful for this reissue, as it originally only came out as part of Staalplaat's subscription series.

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: This reissued version of Muslimgauze's 'Emia Bakia' is a long out-of-print and hard to find album from 1994. It is 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: Bryn Jones was the man behind the always hugely experimental Muslimgauze project. The late Mancunian has a catalogue of music that is complex and dense, especially for newcomers but the ongoing reissues of it will help people get stuck in and explore. Lo Fi India Abuse has been remastered for the occasion and comes on vinyl, picture disc as here, or CD. It is a mix of brilliant, brutal and beguiling sound collages that ride ramshackle rhythms and chew up and spit out biased bass, rusty metal, middle eastern melody, psyched-out dub funk and plenty of hard-to-define sounds in between.

Review: 25 years after his tragic, unexpected and untimely death, Muslimgauze's music still stands out as a landmark - not to mention huge - collection of bold experimental journeys into the farthest reaches of electronics. The fact he was doing this in a very different time, long before beats and basslines started looking outside the US-European axis for influence, and when equipment was analogue, only makes the legacy more impressive.

One of several reissues of the Manchester underground noise hero's albums, all aimed at commemorating the sad anniversary, Emak Bakia is in many ways a more traditional dance music album than most of his others, and as such will hopefully find favour in contemporary record bags bound for clubs with more open music policies. From raw drums and sparse atmospheres, to driving Arabic-edged techno and hypnotic, low-slung groovers, it still sounds as fresh today as when we first heard it.

Review: Veiled Sisters is the 1993 album by Muslimgauze. Mancunian Bryn Jones was the man behind the music and his sudden passing aged just 37 in 1999 left many things unanswered, as well as plenty of unreleased work on the shelf. Some of it has crept out in the years since but reissued here is one of his well-regarded and most bewitching works. It is the first time this album has ever been available on vinyl and not was dedicated to the Palestine Liberation Organization. Both halves of the record lean on the history and conflicts of the modern Islamic world and musically, a balance is struck between raucous instrumentals and lush ambient.

Review: Pulled from the labyrinthine archives of the eternally mystical Muslimgauze, Muhammadunize was originally released as the first disc of Fatah Guerilla in 1996. It was recorded and mixed at the Abraham Mosque in Manchester, and it captures the essence of Bryn Jones' imperious project in perfect form. Drawing heavily on Arabic musical motifs and fusing them with a haunting post-industrial sound palette, there's nothing else in the musical world quite like Muslimgauze. This particular reissue also features 'Intifadah (Extended Remix)', which originally came out in 1988 on the Iran release. This vinyl pressing is a must for fans and new arrivals to Jones' work alike.

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: Bryn Jones' complex musical legacy as Muslimgauze will still be pored over for a long time to come, but even by his obscure standards this release from 1999 is a bit of a curveball. Without knowing the exact back story, it seems that Jones wound up creating an album by remixing parts from two different records by Species Of Fishes, a Russian duo who were in the early wave of techno and electronica artists in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse. Compared to the heavily Arabic sound sources and pervasive drums of most Muslimgauze releases, this is a much lighter affair which glides between dislocated electronica and dub, never taking a particularly safe or obvious route but certainly not as ominous as much of Jones' venerated catalogue.

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.