Music Review: Muslimgauze

Bryn Jones was an extremely prolific electronic musician, strongly influenced by Middle Eastern music and politics. Although he was neither Arabic nor Muslim, he was a staunch supporter of Hamas and the PLO. Born in Manchester, England, he never visited the Middle East because he believed it was wrong to visit an occupied land.

He first began making music in 1982 under the alias E.g Oblique Graph. In 1983, he changed his name to Muslimgauze. The name was a play on the word "muslin," a type of gauze, and his own intense interest in the Middle East.

Strongly against the use of computers and samplers in music, Jones always recorded his music with old analog equipment. He would record himself playing various Middle Eastern instruments and record voices of Middle Eastern people from old tapes. Jones's music was heavily percussive; a review of a rare live performance notes that Jones used a "backing DAT tape with pretty harsh, rhythmic textures, his sort of patented spiraling hypnotic beat, to which he played on two or three different drums with great skill." He actually never looped his music; it was all recorded live, and edited/mixed afterwards. The end result was often fuzz-toned and loud, with sudden changes in volume.

Every Muslimgauze piece of music was inspired by a political fact or event. "The political facts of Palestine, Afghanistan and Iran influence the music of Muslimgauze" declares the back cover of one album. Album and song titles (e.g., "Hebron Massacre," "The Rape of Palestine" and "Vote Hezbollah") were intentionally provocative and confrontational.

Jones was never concerned with how many copies of his records were sold, or even how much listeners enjoyed his music, but rather how original his music was. Jones disliked live shows but was rarely asked to do them anyway, which is why Muslimgauze performances were so rare.

He always stated that he never had time to listen to other people's music, although in a 1992 interview with Impulse Magazine, he mentioned that he enjoys traditional music of Japan, the Middle East and India, as well as the works of artists such as Can, Throbbing Gristle, Wire and Faust. However, despite a few collaborations, Jones didn't trust anyone when it came to remixing his music. Instead, he would usually take pieces of music that were sent to him and remix them to his own liking.

The Muslimgauze discography is extremely vast. In 1995, he had six releases; in 1996, fifteen; in 1997, nine; in 1998, sixteen. Altogether, he released over 90 original albums on 32 different record labels, creating nearly 2,000 original songs. Most of his albums were released in limited editions of only 200-1,000 copies.

I spent much of today listening to his 9-CD release "Box of Silk and Dogs." William S. Burroughs once wrote that Arabic music seemed to work on what he called "hashish time," evolving without discernable beginnings and weaving and drifting endlessly through the air. My first reaction to hearing this music was wanting to check that the CD wasn't damaged - was it really supposed to sound like that? Perhaps a speaker wire is loose? The sound is fuzzy and static-laden, a lo-fi soundscape with sudden drops and rebounds in volume.

On December 30, 1998, Bryn was rushed to a hospital in Manchester. He had a rare fungal infection in his bloodstream, and had to be heavily sedated. His body eventually shut down, and he passed away on January 14, 1999.

I wonder how his music, with its provocative and confrontational song titles, would be received if he had lived to see the post-911 world, or his own England after the London bombings. If he weren't outright censored, his militantly noncommercial music would likely never find an outlet nor be heard in today's corporate climate.