Muslimgauze

Fathom Distribution now has a growing catalog of Muslimgauze releases, from music to posters. Please check this section regularly for recently added items.

Camel Through A Needles Eye $25.00 + shipping

“It was one of those rare occasions when you hear something, you cannot help but think ‘where the hell does this come from?” -Steve Wilson

The Muslimgauze Preservation Society are proud to offer you MPS 02, Camel Through A Needles Eye, featuring two discs of unreleased music that clock in at just under three hours. Muslimgauze like you never heard it; a yin/yang of both the abrasive textures and ethereal, beat-driven and ambient—fused into wondrous harmony. To commemorate this release, the MPS sourced covers in Egypt to be hand-printed onto genuine papyrus. A second cover is set amidst a 9 panel fold insert with extensive liner notes on one side, and a fold-open poster featuring Jones’ original art work on the other. A bonus sticker of Jones’ art work is also included. The music and packaging is all set within a super jewel case to protect this special edition limited to a run of 500. Quantities are already selling fast! MPS 02 $25.00 + shipping. ***please note, track 8 on disc 1 and track 9 on disc two are the same. Original album time span was 2 hrs and 51 mins, but is now 2 hrs and 58 mins.*** Ships Thursday, December 16th, 2010.

Muslimgauze - Lazhareem Ul Leper CD $16.00

Chott El Djerid by FathomDistribution

An attribute of a good work of art, besides craftsmanship and beauty, are revelations of a new details with each experience. Lazhareem Ul Leper by Muslimgauze certainly qualifies for its range of percussion instruments, atypical electronics, skillful de-construction of ethno-traditional music. In turn, said music is re-assembled with urban stylings with a technical deftness akin to the way a Shao-Lin monk wields weapons. The Staalplaat crew think this among the more unusual of Muslimgauze works, fans undoubtedly will think it both refreshing and as striking now as when first committed to DAT. Muslimgauze enthusiasts may recognize sounds from Izlamaphobia on the odd track as they were made roughly the same time, only Lazhareem is arranged differently and with more unique elements to form a stand-alone album. Stylistically Lazhareem straddles the line between ethno-electro releases like Silknoose for its pervasive use of Indo-Pak music melded with Persian and Mid-East; along with more Industrial releases like Izlamaphobia and Blue Mosque for its occasionally tight, near-mechanical loops. Fans will be pleased to notice never-before-heard (to this listener, at least) percussive textures layered into lush rhythmic harmonies punctuated by chimes on track five. Track ten is also singular for the way it opens with a clamor not unlike a knocked-over box of tin cans one moment, the next, this seemingly dissonant noise is harnessed and re-edited into a well-crafted rhythm track. Track six flaunts music production standards by rolling three or four tracks into one continuous 20 minute piece, vintage Bryn Jones. Yet another stand-out work is track seven, a piece that is more than its assemblage of rhythms and counter-rhythms and fused together, an underlying pulse takes possession of the track and ultimately the listener. Since 1995, masters for Lazhareem Ul Leper languished in Staalplaat vaults when it should have been put out for immediate appreciation by fans. This work of art is now available on CD, and not a moment too soon.

Muslimgauze Preservation Society, release 01

Fathom Distribution, on behalf of the Muslimgauze Preservation Society, are pleased to offer, numbered limited edition hand silk screened retro-Muslimgauze posters. The color is predominantly black on manila with bits of gold, green, and brown mixed into the ink. Each poster is hand-numbered and printed on thick, manila tag stock. The image is a collage very much in the style Bryn Jones used for his album/cassette sleeves, letters, and zines during the 80′s. In fact, all the art work is by Bryn Jones, both previously used and unpublished images—’remixed’ by Toronto poster artist, Michael Comeau. Comeau is considered a ‘photocopy machine virtuouso’ who like Jones, eschews computer based design in favor of a more ‘ransom note’, hands-on approach. Comeau spent much time and effort to assemble these gorgeous 18 by 24-inch posters of no more than 300. Each copy comes with ‘liner notes’ that delves into Jones’ little known history as a graphics designer along with commentary by Comeau. $25.99 + shipping. Discount applied when you buy something else.

The Muslimgauze Preservation Society are a collective who intend to preserve the legacy of the late Bryn Jones through reprints of early art works and re-release of out-of-print (and previously unreleased) music in unique, highly collectible packaging. The poster you see is their first release. Fathom Distribution was selected to disseminate offerings on behalf of the Society.

Uzi Mahmood - triple LP $50.00 (shipping included), or dbl cd $20.00

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 DAT 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. 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. 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. format: Triple LP $50 (shipping incld.) or Dbl CD $20.00

Muslimgauze - Iran $15.00

Fathom Distribution is proud to offer one of the first Muslimgauze CD’s, in reissue. Three long tracks that culminate in one of the finest Muslimgauze releases in the catalog. Layers of acoustic, ethno-traditional, and electronic drums along with vocal accents and haunting reverb make for an intense listening experience. As always, the political context of the times whence this music came is ever-important and informs the sound. For this reissue the CD packaging has been completely redesigned. The new package is printed entirely on high quality heavyweight papers, and is a work of art in its own right, rivaling the music recorded on the CD it’s designed to hold. A sturdy slipcover pocket holds a black-and-white four-page booklet together with a CD slipcase made with scented, metallic gold paper. It is truly an art object to cherish and treasure.

Bass Communion V Muslimgauze CD $15.00

In 1996 Steven Wilson, the mind behind Bass Communion, wrote to Bryn Jones to express his admiration of Muslimgauze. Subsequently they met and Steven gave Bryn some of his own music, although he suspected that it wouldn’t appeal to him. It didn’t, but as with all the music that Bryn was exposed to, his natural instinct to rework it into something that did proved irresistable. And so it came to pass that only four days after their meeting Steven received a parcel containing two and a half hours of reconstructions and obliterations of his orginal music. The new pieces were distorted, grainy, loop-driven tracks, but Steven felt they were too close to Bryn’s own music to simply release as a remix album. Instead he decided to use them as the basis for new pieces, and re-edited and overdubbed the tapes, finally returning them to Bryn for approval. So began a period of collaboration by post. Each time Bryn would provide rhythms and each time Steven moulded the raw material only to have Bryn obliterate it again!! Finally in early 1997 the battle was over and an album was complete, but was somehow swept away under the deluge of Bryn’s own release schedule and never issued. Now in the aftermath of Bryn’s death these recordings are finally being issued by Soleilmoon in a limited edition of 600 copies at a special low price. For Muslimgauze fans these recordings are significant in that they represent one of the only instances of a true two-way collaboration betwen Bryn and another musician, as opposed to being simply a remix project. For Bass Communion fans the recordings are an opportunity to hear Steven’s ambient textures, sonic fluctuations and low-end bass fused with the hard edged ethnic rhythms that were Bryn’s trademark.