Re-mixs

CD - available (16/9/96)

'Remixs' is the newest Muslimgauze CD to be released in the US since last winter's 'Gun Aramaic' (Soleilmoon SOL 27 CD). It's a full 60 minutes of Muslimgauze at their best, but it's priced like a mini-album. Although the title says 'Re-mixs' (not 'Remixes') there's nothing you'll recognize from any other albums. They've taken their own raw materials as a starting point and made an amazing and profound album of noises, beats, drones and loops that sound like Muslimgauze yet still manage to sound unlike anything ever released before, While some might like to dismiss the band for being so prolific, we remind you that to ignore them for more than a few months is to lose touch with one of the most passionate and original groups making music today. We especially urge magazine editors and radio programmers who would censor this band because they find Muslimgauze's pro-Arab stand personally offensive to consider the consequences of their decisions. Listen to the music and ask yourselves if by denying Muslimgauze their voice you don't also deny all our voices.

Press release from Soleilmoon.

The following appeared in Pillowfight Recordviews.

This three-track CD (don't be fooled, Re-mixs clocks in at over an hour), finds Muslimgauze reworking, relooping, and remixing old compositions into completely unrecognizable new ones. The sounds herein are, on the whole, trance-inducing hums, buzzes, and beats that bounce around your head like insects you only tolerate because you realize their higher purpose.

After repeated listens though, these "insects" do their pollinating" and you're left with a higher level of understanding than you once thought possible. In other words, this stuff grows on you. Just listen to it a lot.

review by: Roy C. Usery
Pillowfight Recordviews (E-mail)
PO Box 14060
Seattle, Washington
U.S.A.
98114

The following appeared in Wired.

Though he repeats rhythms until they become atmospheric textures and uses abrasive effects, Muslimgauze isn't just an ambient artist crossed with an experimental sound sculptor. Unlike the former, his beats are discernible, composed of Arabic tones and patterns; unlike the latter, his songs aren't formless noise. On Re-mixs - which, despite it's title, isn't remixes - this means employing a wailing saxophone, weaving speech snippets that drift over Middle Eastern percussion, and altering tempos and sounds regularly and rapidly. The end result is futuristic, haunting, soothing, and strikingly atmospheric.

review by: Paul Semel
This text originally appeared in Wired magazine (issue 5.03).

The following appears in All Music Guide.

Consisting of three lengthy, untitled tracks, Re-mixs features Bryn Jones tackling his own work in an indirect sense - rather than specifically reworking any songs, at least by name, this is Muslimgauze reworking some of the basic elements of many past pieces into new contexts. It's not as ground-breakingly different from earlier work as might be thought, but in terms of finding new ways around rhythm and atmospherics, it compares favorably to the similar radical revamps on albums like Azzazin, but with its own particular style. The first track's best moments are in the middle, with a mysterious electronic semi-chime over a stripped-down pulse; unexpected interjections of random sounds crop up at times, leading into a gentle bell rhythm accentuated by very gentle drums and keyboards. The second track begins with a slightly static-laden dub-influenced beat, eventually moving into an echoey combination of acoustic percussion, gentle bells and some other unidentifiable noises, arranged carefully into a complex rhythm and coming across as both attractive and gently disturbing. It then moves into a rough, deliberately-paced hip-hop loop as always, with strange interruptions and tweaks along the way before concluding on a bubbling, minimal drum track. The final piece features a female-sung vocal loop for a while, before apparently reducing that same loop to a series of background echoes while a mostly electronic rhythm blurps out a regular but still quite undanceable beat, concluding with a series of low-key but attractive loops of ringing metal and various drums, along with other sounds that could easily have escaped from one of Main's similarly rhythm-obsessed releases. If not one of the best Muslimgauze releases, it still has a certain something going for it.

review by: Ned Raggett
All Music Guide

The following appears on Amazon.com.

Brilliant mixture of the cultural and avant-electronics...

societies, which otherwise are often horribly mashed together in some DJ coffee house / car commercial nightmare. The music was not afraid to be harsh as well as it could be pleasant.

The thing about Muslimgauze is that the man behind the music was fiercely political about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict as well as Muslim/Arab culture, and one could gather this by reading his titles alone. Bryn Jones was very passionate about his work, however he had no vocals really (except on the times he used vocal samples) making it mostly instrumental. It was rather the feeling the sound gave that said his piece, instead of words which could not. When Bryn Jones died he left behind scores and scores of unpublished work, some of which is still coming out today.

Despite how some may feel over the composer's political stance, this release has no traces of political alignment, and the music is captivating as he dives back into past releases of his discography to create 3 large remix segments (lasting around 20 min. each) bending and reshaping the sound to great effect.

Fans of the IDM and avant-electronic scene could find this recording completely different, if not essential, for them.

squarehawk2 "squarehawk2" (USA, January 5, 2005)
Amazon.com

see also Arab Quarter, Return Of Black September, Re-mixs, Gun Aramaic and Occupied Territories, Azzazin, Return Of Black September, Re-mixs, Arab Quarter & Gulf Between Us, Re-mixs & Arab Quarter, Re-mixs & Deceiver, & Return Of Black September, Re-mixs, and Occupied TerritoriesErectile Dysfunction,

November 20, 2006