Muslimgauze
| Muslimgauze | |
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Image taken by Martin Parker from D.O.R.
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Bryn Jones |
| Also known as | E.g Oblique Graph |
| Born | 17 June 1961 |
| Died | 14 January 1999 (aged 37) Manchester, England, United Kingdom |
| Genres | Experimental, ethnic electronica, ambient, dark ambient, noise, Asian Underground |
| Instruments | Drums, percussion, chimes, synthesis, drum machine, tape loops, sample discs, sound modules |
| Years active | 1982–1998 |
| Labels | Extreme Records, Staalplaat, Soleilmoon Recordings, DOR, BSI, Law & Auder, JARA, The Label, Arka Sound, Third Eye, Chlorophyll, Vinyl on Demand, Daft, Universal Egg, Klanggalerie |
| Associated acts | Bass Communion, Species of Fishes, Suns of Arqa |
| Website | www.muslimgauze.info |
| Members | Bryn Jones |
Muslimgauze was a music project of Bryn Jones (17 June 1961 – 14 January 1999), a British ethnic electronica and experimental musician who was influenced by conflicts in the Muslim world, with an emphasis on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. With dozens of albums released under the Muslimgauze name, Jones was prolific, but his mainstream success was limited due in part to his work being issued mostly in limited editions on small record labels. His music was described by one critic as "among the most startling and unique in the noise underground."
The name Muslimgauze is a play on the word muslin (a type of gauze) combined with Muslim, referring to Bryn Jones' preoccupation with conflicts throughout the Muslim world.
Jones first released music in 1982 as E.g Oblique Graph on Kinematograph, his own imprint, and the independent co-op label Recloose, run by Simon Crab. E.g Oblique Graph came from the do-it-yourself (DIY) ethos of the time and was musically composed of electronic/experimental drone with occasional synth-melodic hooks and use of radio broadcast samples. Track titles were sometimes politicised such as "Murders linked to Gaullist Clique" on Extended Play (1982) and "Castro Regime" on Triptych (1982).
After operation Peace of the Galilee, the first Muslimgauze album, Hammer & Sickle (1983) appeared on another of Jones's label monikers, Hessian. Under the Muslimgauze alias, music switched from emphasis on pure synthesis to percussion textures, which grew to encompass acoustic drum kits, drum machines, assorted ethnic hand percussion, and even rudimentary objects like pots and pans. Synthesis and tape loop samples were often relegated to accompaniment.
Releases at the time were occasionally on cassette, more often vinyl EPs and LPs; the longest running of Jones' label monikers, Limited Editions, started with Hunting Out with an Aerial Eye (1984) followed by Buddhist on Fire, put out by Recloose the same year. Since then, Jones roughly released an album a year, given scarce financial resources until 1988, when he began making inroads with then-emerging labels Staalplaat, Soleilmoon, and Extreme Records. In 1988, Staalplaat released the first Muslimgauze CD, Iran, the subsequent catalogue migrated to mostly that format.
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