Soleilmoon

Uzi Mahmood triple LP

Uzi Mahmood triple LP $50.00, includes shipping! 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 digital audio tape 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. Two more songs were later used to replace a pair of corrupted tracks on the master tape for “Hussein Mahmood Jeeb Tehar Gass”, released on CD in 1999. 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.  Fast forward to the present: The year is 2009 and the four song EP has been out of print for more than five years, seven more songs lie waiting in the vault, still unreleased, and the two tracks tacked onto “Hussein Mahmood Jeeb Tehar Gass” are the only ones in wide circulation. Which is why Soleilmoon is so very pleased to finally be releasing all thirteen songs together on one record. “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, again, already, of course.

The Melancholic songs of the desert… These songs were composed during the last days of the Bush/Blair era and reflect the feeling of isolation and disconnection from any part of the political process and any sense of identification with the prevailing air of hos- tility and intolerance generated by this pair of religious xenophobes. The unjustified war in Iraq and the subsequent lies and propaganda engendered a feeling of revulsion and powerlessness. Once again it was “unpa- triotic” to criticize or protest against the government’s actions, and there was a rise in nationalism and extrem- ist views. These songs are a retreat into the one place that no government has yet found a way into, the free and open spaces of the mind. They are spontaneous and meditative reflections looking for an inner peace in a world made ugly by hatred and war. They symbolize a kind of “walkabout” and a reconnection with a lost sense of belonging spiritually, intellectually and physically with the world we inhabit. In a broader sense they also reaffirm long held sympathies with the thoughts of writers and philosophers such as Camus, Sartre and Burroughs, and the profound wisdom of eastern philosophies such as Taoism and Zen. The music here looks for a sense of inner being that one can only find in quiet isolation. File under ‘Ambient’.

Randy Greif - Alice in Wonderland $30.00

Sample from disc 1

disc 2

disc 3

disc 4

disc 5

Alice In Wonderland, by Los Angeles, California composer and musician Randy Greif, is a gripping and imaginative telling of Lewis Carroll’s classic story. Using electronics and altered acoustic sounds, along with more traditional instruments, Greif creates a dark and beguiling atmosphere that captures the listener’s imagination. The spoken text is deconstructed into indecipherable phonemes, or laid into rhythmic, musical structures roughly approximating songs. At times, the sonic backdrop is used in a cinematic style behind electronically manipulated voices. Running about six hours, the work was created to move within the real-time cycles of a psychedelic experience. Although the original story has many layers of meaning, Greif intends this interpretation to include some that may be beyond the scope of the original, such as a little girl’s shift from childhood to adolescence, and our species’ evolution into technological beings. This is not your father’s audiobook. Unless your father was Timothy Leary. Come with 5 discs, booklet and Alice in Wonderland trading cards.

Muslimgauze - Iran $15.00

Muslimgauze - Iran view

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.