Muslimgauze

Muslimgauze was the main musical project of Bryn Jones (17 June 1961 – 14 January 1999), a British experimental musician who was influenced by conflicts and history in the Muslim world, often with an emphasis on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. With dozens of albums released under the Muslimgauze name, Jones was prolific, but he never achieved mainstream success. His music, categorized as an example of ethnic electronica, has been described by one critic as "among the most startling and unique in the noise underground".

Despite his project name, Jones was not a Muslim. The name Muslimgauze is a play on the word muslin (a type of gauze) combined with Muslim, referring to Jones' preoccupation with conflicts throughout the Muslim world.

Biography Early musical career Jones first released music in 1982 as on Kinematograph, his own imprint, and the independent co-op label Recloose, run by Simon Crab. 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.

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.

By the late 1980s, Jones ran out of funding to self-release, and other labels that did put out Muslimgauze releases such as Recloose and Permis De Construire (which put out Coup d'Etat) did not pay promised royalties. Recloose head Simon Crab cited lack of sales and damaged records from firebombing as his reason.

At this time, distributors Soleilmoon, Staalplaat, and Extreme Records transitioned to becoming labels with the advent of the compact disc format, which became less expensive to produce and ship than vinyl over time and gradually became a physical staple of the Muslimgauze catalogue.

Later musical career

It was with the release of United States of Islam (1991) a formalised agreement was reached with Extreme Records, which helped fund professional studio recordings, designed attractive packaging, and used a more extensive distribution network. Though pleased at first, Jones was frustrated with Extreme's one-release-a-year policy and in 1993 signed with then-sibling labels Soleilmoon and Staalplaat, which offered a more frequent release schedule. 1993 saw the release of Vote Hezbollah, Veiled Sisters and a re-release of Iran on Soleilmoon and Hamas Arc, Satyajit Eye and Betrayal on Staalplaat.

Legacy Since Bryn Jones's death in 1999 at the age of 37, his music under Muslimgauze has continued to be released. He often inundated labels and collaborators with music, and consequently the latter had to be selective of what was eventually put out. Labels, including Soleilmoon and Staalplaat, continue to publish unreleased albums, as well as releases of demos, his own reworked tracks, and abandoned full-length tapes. Jones' posthumous discography is known for including many studio variations of nearly all his music.

In April 2014, Vinyl On Demand released Chasing the Shadow of Bryn Jones 1983–1988, a 10 LP box set reissuing early albums originally released by Product Kinematograph, Recloose Organisation, and Jones' own Limited Editions. Each LP includes bonus tracks taken from period compilation albums. The release was also accompanied by biography written by Ibrahim Khider titled Muslimgauze: Chasing the Shadow of Bryn Jones.

Musical styles Muslimgauze's music is often difficult to describe due to sheer volume, content diversity, and often singular stylings: Jones never produced any hit albums or songs. However, it is possible to describe common features of his music as he tended to use many of the same strategies, modified from album to album to give each release a distinct feel or concept. Hamas Arc (1993) touched on a menacing "ambience that is not so far removed from the likes of [industrial metal acts] Godflesh or Scorn", and Gun Aramaic (1996) blended atmospheric sounds and vocal samples that "almost turns the album into a soundtrack for a non-existent film."

Political beliefs

Jones originally claimed Muslimgauze was formed in response to Operation Peace of the Galilee, Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon. This event inspired Jones to research the conflict's origins, which grew into a lifelong artistic focal point, and he became a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause, and often dedicated recordings to the Palestinian Liberation Organization or a free Palestine. Jones's research further grew to encompass other conflict-ridden, predominantly Muslim countries including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Chechnya, Iran, and Iraq. He concluded that Western interests for natural resources and strategic-political gain were root causes for many of these conflicts and should Western meddling halt, said regions would stabilise.

References in dedications, album, and track titles suggest Jones had researched the conflict regions in the Middle East, as well as Chechnya, Kashmir, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, and Indonesia, among others. He opposed the oppression of and dedicated pieces to Tibetan Buddhists and Tamil Tigers.

When asked what he would do if conflicts in the Muslim world were peaceably resolved, Jones replied his music would champion other conflict regions such as China's occupation of Tibet.

Simon Crab of Bourbonese Qualk described Jones as "naturally Conservative and quite right-wing," noting that Jones admired Margaret Thatcher during his youth. Though Crab states, "I suspect a lot of this was just to be contrary."

Discography

During his lifetime, Jones released over 90 original albums on 32 different record labels, creating nearly 2,000 original compositions. Many of his pieces were inspired by political facts or events. Many of his releases have been re-pressed as, after 1994, most of his albums were released in limited editions of 200–1,000 copies.

Live performances During the early phase of his career, Jones was known to have performed only one live show in 1986 at the V2 in s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands. At the behest of Bourbonese Qualk, of the Recloose label, Jones performed a half-hour set. The show consisted of Jones singing to a backing track while Simon Crab then members of Bourbonese Qualk added instrumental accompaniment. By all accounts the show went reasonably, but Jones was traumatised by the experience enough to swear off live performance until the 1990s.