Bryn Jones, also known under the name Muslimgauze, was a British music producer and an artist. He was an electronic and experimental musician, heavily influenced by the conflicts in the Muslim world. Jones soon found himself to be Pro-Palestinian. Originally he had been named E.g Oblique Graph, but “In 1983 he changed the name of the project to Muslimgauze in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon” (Fringeli, 2009). The name Muslimgauze is a play on the word muslin, a type of gauze, combined with Muslim, referring to his preoccupation with his interests in the Muslim society.
Muslimgauze’s music is very unique in comparison to other electronic music. Some describe his music to be “monotonous ‘ethnic’ percussion, interspersed with Middle Eastern sounds and atmospherics, with some excursions into ambient or slightly more dance-floor oriented material.” (Fringeli, 2009).
The track I will be analysing is Tariq Aziz. From the first listen of Tariq Aziz, I would consider this to be “slightly more dance-floor oriented material” as mentioned earlier. It reminds me of the hard hitting beats you may find in a Hip-Hop track or a Dance mix. We can hear a heavy kick which is massively distorted, a punchy snare and clap, both drowning out the rest of the drum kit. They carry the same rhythm throughout the whole song with multiple points where the beat drops out. The drum breaks in between may give the listener a sort of “breather” to process what they are currently listening to. This distorted kick could maybe reflect the noisy conflicts and wars happening in Muslim countries. Jones explains that “each piece of music is politically influenced before a sound is made” (Khider, 2013)
“He fetishized the poor (re)production quality of its cheap cassette tapes, obsessively reproducing those sonic effects…Distortion was his most obvious production trick” (Clayton, 2009). Instead of Middle Eastern music, Jones had rather wanted to produce the Middle Eastern sound. He did this by working with “melodies alluded to Arabic scales, street recordings with snatches of Arab voices” (Clayton, 2009). This gave a much clearer representation of the politically influenced atmosphere portrayed by Muslimgauze.
This song is very percussion-heavy whilst a layer of world music samples lay underneath the beat. The use of the stringed samples under the drumbeats demonstrates his influences of the Muslim world. In an interview, he said that he was “trying through music to bring particular areas of the world to people”. (Khider, 2013). He does this by introducing a familiar genre (electronica) and injects the cultural artefacts (the samples) of the Muslim world into his music.
The structure of the song itself has been arranged to be quite repetitive. Sections are similar with minimal variation. As mentioned earlier, the drum beat is the same throughout the song with multiple pauses sectioning the song in parts, all layered with a traditional stringed sample.
I feel that the musical output of Muslimgauze quite distinctly represents his intentions of spreading experiences that particular areas of the world have, in this case Muslim countries, to other people who may be unaware. “The records are a platform to propagate this war, and so are his appearances in the media” (Fringeli, 2009).
References:
- Khider, I. (2013) Muslimgauze: Chasing the Shadow of Bryn Jones | short documentary. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQVemOiTDus (Accessed: 2022).
- Clayton, J. (2009) Muslin Gaze, Bidoun. Available at: https://www.bidoun.org/articles/muslin-gaze (Accessed: December 5, 2022).
- Fringeli, C. (2009) Anti-semitism from beyond the grave – muslimgauze’s jihad, Datacide. Available at: https://datacide-magazine.com/anti-semitism-from-beyond-the-grave-muslimgauze%E2%80%99s-jihad-2/ (Accessed: December 5, 2022).