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MUSLIMGAUZE – Syrinjia – 2xCD – 05974

Syrinjia was first issued in 1998 as a limited edition of 850 vinyl LPs. It has been sold out since winter 2002. Bryn Jones (Muslimgauze) always intended for us to release it on compact disc after the vinyl edition was gone, and today we’re happy to announce the fulfillment of his dream with the release of “Syrinjia” as a double CD. Ever the prolific composer, he recorded 20 songs for the album, of which only the first nine were included on the LP, leaving the rest to be released at a later date. Although Muslimgauze was never known for making particularly dance-oriented music, “Syrinjia” was a rare exception to the start-stop noisy feedback-driven assault that defined his style. This change in direction, more a detour, really, was the result of a simple request put to him to make an album that DJs could play for people who might not normally appreciate what he was doing. Rather than look at the request as a demand to compromise or sell out to commercial requirements, Bryn took it as an opportunity to explore a completely different foundation from which to work. While it could be said that the majority of his songs find their inspiration in Arabic or Islamic traditions, “Syrinjia” breaks the mold by looking west towards Jamaica and its vital reggae scene. The beats are rock steady and a sinuous bass line bubbles underneath at a rolling boil, and it’s standing room only once again on Air Palestine flight 132 to Kingston. A limited edition collectors version of “Syrinjia” was issued on CD on July 12, 2004. It waspresented in a luxurious handmade silk folder with inserts made from recycled silk fiber. The entire run of 518 copies was sold in the first week of release. This regular edition is presented in a standard jewelbox and comes with a friendly price.

MUSLIMGAUZE – Arabbox – CD – 05157

ARABBOX was recorded in 1993 following the first Gulf War. 10 years later, following the second Gulf War, Soleilmoon is pleased to finally release this important Muslimgauze album. On April 15, 2003, we issued it in an expensive limited edition of 500 copies, packed in a hand-made metal box. This second edition, in an edition of 1000 copies, is released without the box but has a friendly price. It’s commonly known that Bryn Jones, the late musician behind Muslimgauze, was driven by the passion of the Palestinian people’s fight for an independent homeland. What is less well understood is how he found inspiration in other parts of the Muslim world, including Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. India, with its dominant Hindu culture, might seem like an odd place to include in the list, until you remember that more than one hundred million Muslims live there. In fact Jones, who loved language and wordplay (consider the name “Muslimgauze”, for example), frequently plundered the south Asian subcontinent throughout his long musical career for song titles and album names, coming up with gems like “Old Bombay Vinyl Junkie” and “Tandoori Dog”. So it’s not surprising that two song titles on ARABBOX can be traced to India. “Ganges Swimmer”, heard in another form on the Staalplaat CD IZLAMAPHOBIA, and “Firozsha Baag”, the fictitious Bombay (now Mumbai) setting for a collection of interconnected stories by Indo-Canadian author Rohington Mistry. Thus it is appropriate that the images and packaging of this release are derived from India. But Iraq is very much in the news again, and that country is not neglected here. Track names like “Kurdish Red”, “Sadaambush”, and “Basra” all come directly from that region. Incredibly, it seems the more things change, the more they stay the same. Stylistically, the songs of ARABBOX follow other works recorded by Muslimgauze in the early 1990’s. Fans familiar with the Soleilmoon double CD VEILED SISTERS will recognize the flowing, humanistic sounds, natural sounding percussion, and gently shimmering keyboards that sent the reviewers running to their dictionaries to search for new words to describe what they were hearing. Now that Bryn is gone we’re left to listen to his work and interpret his genius on our own.

MUSLIMGAUZE – Veiled Sisters Remix – CD – 04498

“Veiled Sisters” was first released by Soleilmoon as a double CD in 1993 (SOL 20 CD). Bryn Jones, AKA Muslimgauze, recorded a follow-up in 1996, in which he reworked and recycled the materials into another album. It was delivered to Soleilmoon more as an afterthought than something he intended us to issue. “Veiled Sisters Remix”, as the piece was called, was held back from release at Bryn’s request, with the reason being given generally that he wanted us to release something else that was “newer and better”, in his words. Now, more than three years after his death, and with the consent of his family, we are pleased to finally be able to issue this forgotten gem of music. It’s typical of its period, a time in which his work was reaching a creative zenith, but it stands out for its unusual use of a single album as its source. In the time between the original “Veiled Sisters” and the”Remix” Bryn acquired and mastered the use of nearly all of the professional studio equipment that was so important to his later works. With this version he felt that he’d finally achieved the true vision of the album that he’d set out to record three years previously. The cover of “Veiled Sisters Remix” was designed by Alexander Baumgardt, the noted German designer who designed “Hummus”. Both CDs have a similar appearance at first glance, but they are in fact two distinctly different albums.

MUSLIMGAUZE – Abu Nidal / Coup d’Etat – CD – 00486

Both albums on one CD. Deluxe fold-out poster cover.

MUSLIMGAUZE – Jaal ab Dullah – CD – 00495

Muslimgauze are getting more bizarre with each release. This one is an intricately complicated ode to hip-hop music, but of course it’s all done in that strange way that makes this band so unique. You can almost dance to this one.

MUSLIMGAUZE – Uzi Mahmood – 3 X LP – 10621

Bryn Jones died January 14, 1999. The man best known as Muslimgauze was 37 years old, and at the peak of his career. During his short life he recorded an astonishing number of albums, some 200 at last count, a great many of them in years immediately preceding his death. Indeed, his output was so great that his labels couldn’t keep up with the virtual flood of music he produced. It’s no wonder new material continues to surface so long after his passing.

“Uzi Mahmood” was recorded to satisfy a specific request. Soleilmoon wanted a 12 inch single that DJs could play in nightclubs. The idea was to introduce Muslimgauze to a potentially enormous new audience. The request was made in the autumn of 1999, in a phone call lasting less than five minutes; Bryn was never one for small talk. He was all business, and he could record a complete album in three or four days, sometimes faster. Two weeks after agreeing to record a disco album for Soleilmoon, “Uzi Mahmood” was delivered to the label. But instead of the agreed on two or three tracks, he sent an eleven song compact disc, followed a week later by a 90 minute digital audio tape containing the entire CD plus two more pieces. Four songs were eventually selected for the experiment, and in the spring of 1998 a dirty-and-dubby 12″ EP was released. Two more songs were later used to replace a pair of corrupted tracks on the master tape for “Hussein Mahmood Jeeb Tehar Gass”, released on CD in 1999. The music was well received by fans, but the hoped-for dance floor revolution never happened, and the little record with the unconventional beats went out of print a few years later.

Fast forward to the present: The year is 2009 and the four song EP has been out of print for more than five years, seven more songs lie waiting in the vault, still unreleased, and the two tracks tacked onto “Hussein Mahmood Jeeb Tehar Gass” are the only ones in wide circulation. Which is why Soleilmoon is so very pleased to finally be releasing all thirteen songs together on one record. “Uzi Mahmood” is 90 minutes of the sexiest, most booty-shakin’ Muslimgauze music ever heard. It stretches luxuriously across three LPs – two running at 33 RPM and one at 45 RPM – presented in an lavish, no-expense-spared gatefold jacket, and is limited to 500 copies. Shocking cover art and design has been furnished by the fine folks at Plazm, again, already, of course.

MUSLIMGAUZE – Armsbazzar

Armsbazzar investigates both released and unreleased selected recordings from the intense period comprised between 1994 and 1997. Included are the out-of-print Hebron Massacre and Gulf Between Us singles, which feature two of the longest, most stunning and hypnotic MUSLIMGAUZE pieces ever _ plus two inedit, highly percussive tracks taken from the recording sessions of the mythic, yet still unreleased and unheard Zamindar album.

Presented in our custom 6-panel digisleeve packaging – which also houses a 5-color poster – adorned by the highly original and strong artwork from the fantastic Iranian visual artist Mohammad Fadaei. Mastered by Peter Andersson and limited to 999 hand-numbered copies.

MUSLIMGAUZE – Speaker of Turkish

Speaker of Turkish was one of several albums recorded by Bryn Jones in a final year-long burst of creativity that peaked in the spring of 1998, shortly before his sudden and unexpected death on January 14, 1999. It consists of six long tracks, one of which is a reprised version of the opening track:

1. The Good Muslim
2. Exit Afghanistan
3. Turkish Speaker
4. Bedouin Tablet
5. The Good Muslim
6. Shah of Persia

Musically, “Speaker of Turkish” is comparable to “Your Mines in Kabul”, which was recorded just a few months before this album. Never one to waste space on a CD, Bryn committed 73 minutes of music to the master tape, and as with so many other of his recordings, asked John Delf to engineer the session at the Manchester studio he referred to as “the Abraham Mosque”. There was no dedication made with this album; dedications are mostly to be found on his earlier recordings. The first edition of “Speaker of Turkish” was released in January, 2006, in a limited edition hand-made papier-mâché case, with a double-sided window sticker and a hand-numbered 2006 mini-calendar card included inside. The second edition, released in June, 2006, is packaged in a digipak, with new artwork throughout: Colorful Islamic burial banners on the outside, and a mountain of sticky dates — eaten after the daily fast during Ramadan — on the inside.

MUSLIMGAUZE – Alms for Iraq – CD – 05325

Bryn Jones, AKA Muslimgauze, recorded this album in December 1995, just three years before his early and unexpected death at the age of 38. In the last years of his life Bryn acquired as much of the latest technology for his home studio as he could lay his hands on, and the advances and developments in his music reflected his growing proficiency with his new equipment. “Alms for Iraq” therefore has many of the hallmark sounds of the late-era Muslimgauze recordings already released, with abrupt starts and stops, swooping transitions and layer upon layer of samples and rhythms. There are nevertheless still plenty of surprises. Ever the groundbreaker, Bryn never recorded the same album twice. The packaging for this CD is a 6-panel 5.5-by-8 inch tall folder, with a cover photograph by Susilo Hadi, licensed from Getty Images for a cool $690.00. It shows a pair of feet poised above a pair of flip-flops bearing the words “ISRAEL” and “USA” printed on the soles. The inside panels include a number of pictures, some with strong or disturbing content, collected from various websites dedicated to publicizing the conflicts in Iraq and Palestine.

TRACK LISTING:
Harizat
Izzedin Al-Qassam
Gold Kalpakcilar Dome pt 1/2
Pale Elegant Egyptian
Hab Al-Zeitoun
Dark Bedouin Silver
Gujurati Moon
Alms for Iraq
Dirhams Your Dirhams
Hari Rupee
Divine Pink Jinn
Yigal Gun Amir
Gulf Camel Baksheesh
Kapali Carsi Souk
Date Odeur
Za-Hazzanani
Mehmet Quarter
Donated Organ
Bombay Wire Less
Malacca Cane
Serpent Sting
Caravan Sari
Fathi Shqaqi
Skin Tone
Madhat Basha
Tamil Tiger S.O.S.

MUSLIMGAUZE – Mazar-i-Sharif – CD – 01110

REISSUE OF CD OUT OF PRINT SINCE 2006.”Mazar-i-Sharif” is to polite society what a dozen angry Rotweillers are to a cafe full of poodles: An explosion. The diamond collars scatter across the tiles and the fur turns red as the perfectly clipped poodle-butts are torn apart by a pack of rabid Jerry Springer Spaniels. Your politically correct end-of-the-century tea party is officially OVER, and anyone thinking Muslimgauze is about to make a calculated move to new age radio should call a taxi right now because the missiles are already in the air.From the intense noise-and-rhythm barrage to the shocking cover image of a young boy with amputated arms, there is no part of this compact disc that will not offend someone. Yes, of course there are groovy Middle Eastern beats, and music loops are top notch as usual, and the true die-hard fans of Muslimgauze will not be disappointed, but we expect that there will be fewer of them after they hear this record. Track listing: 1. “Rezin Of Joy” – 13:39 2. “Sulymaniyah” – 4:17 3. “Mosul” – 12:13 4. “Bandar Abbas” – 9:57 5. “Zahedan” – 5:31 6. “Mazar-I-Sharif” – 7:56