★Staalplaat
Souk Bou Saada
Another Muslimgauze discovery in Staalplaat's reissue series, with eight rare tracks from the mind of Bryn Jones. Hefty slabs of beefy beats are seasoned with spicy South Asian melodies while mouth numbingly hot bass lines are smothered in distortion chutney; Souk Bou Saada was broiled in Machester's finest tandoor and is now served by Staalplaat. If you love East Indian flavors with a neo-bhangra beat, this disc will not disappoint, equally at home on the dancefloors of Bradistan, UK or Mumbai,…
Iranair Inflight Magazine
This is a mostly beat-driven album with little background noise, ambient space, or reverb. There is also no big emphasis on Middle Eastern sounds, which (and you should be figuring this out by now) is a frequently occurring theme in Bryn Jones' politically-driven music. Occasionally, there is some melodic material, or a touch of the Middle East sprinkled in, but it's played down in favor of beats that could best be described as very raw and closer to early Autechre minimalism than something from…
12" Single One
*300 copies limited edition* At this point the vast swathes of unreleased Muslimgauze material Bryn Jones left behind when he passed away over 25 years ago is as legendary as any of his work. And sure enough, there's still some being unearthed today. The second entry (and only 12”-sized one) is in a series of four (three 7"s and one 12") taken from one of Jones' customary completely unlabelled DATs he sent to labels seemingly as fast as he finished them.
A new series of singles collecting one of…
Hamas Cinema Gaza Strip
In the vast and uncompromising catalog of Muslimgauze, certain works stand as crystalline statements of Bryn Jones's singular vision—albums that distill decades of political engagement and sonic exploration into their most essential form. Hamas Cinema Gaza Strip, composed less than a year before Jones's untimely passing in 1999, emerges as perhaps his most cohesive and sonically refined release, now returning via the MG Archive series in a limited edition of 200 manually screen-printed copies. T…
No Human Rights For Arabs In Israel
In the uncompromising world of Muslimgauze, few releases capture the raw urgency and political fire of Bryn Jones's vision as powerfully as No Human Rights for Arabs in Israel. Now returning via MG Archive Vol. 033 as a double CD in a limited edition of 200 manually screen-printed copies, this confrontational masterpiece stands as one of the most rhythmically relentless and politically potent works in the entire Muslimgauze catalog. The album's genesis reflects the chaotic creative process that …
Single# One
This 7" unveils rare Muslimgauze tracks from unlabelled DATs, featuring vibrant, rhythmic experiments—Side A with upbeat synths, Side B embracing dub textures—showcasing Bryn Jones’ relentless innovation.
Mort Aux Vaches
2001 release ** Limited edition of 600 hand-numbered copies. Special packaging with a fastener. "Roger Rotor has been involved in various projects of electronic music since the 80s (Bloodstar, Myiase and Rotor Syndrom among others), from grind/noise to industrial techno, characterised by their hypnotic rhythms and improvised manipulations. Without the use of sampling or digital sequencing, Rotor (synths, rhythm, tapes, effects) is joined on this recording by Rolf Brunner (car, synths, tapes). Th…
Into Dark Water
1992 release ** "Following on from the excellent "Scene In Mirage" reissue that broke O Yuki Conjugate to a whole new crowd, Emotional Rescue return to the archives of the over-looked Nottingham "dirty ambient" outfit. Their second LP "Into Dark Water", originally released in 1987, is just as powerful as the first - a hypnagogic journey fuelled by a global stew of sound, feeding into elegant, evocative pieces. Fans of classic Jon Hassell will find much to enjoy here, but equally those appreciati…
Hammer & Sickle
Originally released in 1983, in the same year that the first two Muslimgauze LPs were released, Jones released an obscure 7inch ins a blank black sleeve on a label called Hessian. »Hammer & Sickle« is only release on the label ever – it might have been a camouflaged self-release. »Hammer & Sickle« operates in a similar territory as the mentioned LPs (but if anything a little further out from the main body of Jones’ work): They’re much spacier, more drifting, and notably less interested in using …
Kashmiri Queens
»Kashmiri Queens« – previously released as a limited CD – presents a more accessible side of Muslimgauze, featuring a faster tempo and fewer sonic overtones than his previous endeavors. The music's core is rooted in drone and raga samples complemented by a rich array of ethnic percussions. This 12inch stands out for its authenticity, allowing the sounds of tablas, sitars, and various ethnic wind instruments to flourish openly without being interrupted. There's a notable departure from the usual …
Three Music Machines
300 copies limited edition From 1985, the beginning of their collaboration in Amsterdam, Peter Bosch and Simone Simons have been involved in performances, concerts and theatre productions. Since 1990, however, they have focused in particular on the development of autonomous music machines.
All these machines are dynamic: Sound and movement are constantly evolving. »Krachtgever« is their best-known piece for its Golden Nica, received at Prix Ars Electronica, Linz, 1998. The other projects on the …
Ratchets/Motors
*300 copies limited edition* "Jens Brands has created a large number of installations, musical performances, and interactive media works. He uses the concepts of parallel activities rather than ideas of fusion. The pieces presented on this recording focus on sonic events related to electronic music (such as intense volumes and dynamics, white noise, square or sine waves) but stay entirely acoustic. On a live performance of the ratchets, the sounds are generated with the idea of a physical, scul…
Sine~Plus (LP)
*Limited edition of 200 copies. Purple LP in a purple inner sleeve between two perforated metallic coloured paper sheets in a plastic cover that is silk-screened by hand* Sine is one of the earlier works by renowned sound-artist, composer and sound designer, Radboud Mens. It was constructed in 1998 and released on CD by Staalplaat in 2000 who now reissue this on vinyl in 2021, featuring an entire side of new material. Having forged out a unique path in music for many years this is a means by w…
Noisephony of Lawn Mowers (LP)
*Limited to 300 copies* Taavi Suisalu is an Estonian media artist particularly interested into complex and adventurous sounds, field recordings, and harsh audio emergencies, organized under the form of symphony or as a result of performative interactions. In 2014, Suisalu received the Young Estonian Artist Prize as curator of Project of In-existent Villages, an articulate exhibition full of installations and site-specific sound performances. The use of peripheral spaces and the crossovers, somet…
Narcotic
Narcotic is perhaps one example of an album in both camps of the Muslimgauze spectrum, it denotes the expertise acquired in oriental percussion by Bryn Jones after a crescent development and practice through action, part Tribal, part Ambient with shades of texturized noise, glitch details and field recordings, as result the listener is inside this intoxicant atmosphere of exotic madness, where the basic musical premise constituted by the consistent tribal beats from darbukas and tambourines cont…
Islamic Songs
The sun always shines bright, very bright in the Middle East. Windows open up and we hear music. Not the music by Muslimgauze, but traditional music. We hear the Adhan, the call for prayer, the souk and people talking. Music comes from all directions -- rhythmic, mysterious, monotonous perhaps, but swirling like a dervish, round and round it goes. The music of Islam was such an inspiration for Bryn Jones (1961-1999), although perhaps "inspiration" probably doesn't justify the seemingly endless f…
Sadaam's Children
Long-time Muslimgauze fans with keen eyes and/or photographic memories may immediately notice something about the newly unearthed Sadaams Children album; with some slight orthographic differences, it just about shares a name with a short track from the classic Narcotic (Staalplaat, 1997; the similarity and the difference is pretty much expected from someone who both liked to reuse names and didn’t care for consistency in spelling as Bryn Jones did). While none of the four lengthy tracks found on…
Ffroggssichorddd
**200 copies** A famous English conductor said that the harpsichord sounded like "two skeletons copulating on a tin roof". An instrument that was once the basis of every orchestra and chamber ensemble was long ago replaced by the stronger and, for some, sweeter sounding piano. Now the harpsichord is very much the preserve of specialists and early-music supporters and has seen very little progress in design. Enter architect and musical philosopher John Körmeling. In addition to designing utopian …
Lalique Gadaffi Handgrenade
**700 copies** Incredible late '90s dub-noise gear from Muslimgauze resurfaces along with previously unreleased, genius electro-dub goodies in the latest Staalplaat volley. Can a person ever have enough Muslimgauze records? The answer is a firm no, and Arab Jerusalem (1996), found on the A-side, is a sterling example of the Manchester-based outlier at his trippy, expressive best, swirling samples of Arabic voices in a thick mist of dubwise FX with sloshing tabla and drones that seem to fade in a…
Babylon Is Iraq
**500 numbered copies. sold out at source** Unsurprisingly for a creator as prolific as Muslimgauze's Bryn Jones was, when he was asked for a contribution for any sort of group project, he would tend to provide more options than necessary. In the case of longtime label Staalplaat's 1996 compilation Sonderangebot, where Jones would find himself in the company of everyone from Charlemagne Palestine to Reptilicus, the selected track was the characteristically head-spinning Kaliskinazure, nine minut…