XLTD010-05-Luca Formentini - Touch a line

"Low Of Vibration(excerpt)" by Tetsu Inoue from Ambiant Otaku

Deeply melodic acid techno with classic 303/808/909 sounds merged with with both playful and melancholic atmospheres and a deep soulfulness. Tape Tracks is also a moody work, as sugar-rush acid squelches counterpoint deep atmospheres and deftly constructed rhythms. This recording evokes Detroit techno, and what you missed about early Autechre and Richie Hawtin, the melody and soul to emerge from acid. Every now and then a special electronic album surfaces and this is one of them. Not since Donacha Costello’s Color Series has anything so beautiful surfaced. Spak Cubes is the alias of Audrius Vaitiekunas, born in Klaipėda, Lithuania and residing in London, England. In spring 2010, he presented I, Absentee with Spak Cubes, a one-off acid/electronica project recorded live to tape. Regardless of which name he’s using, Vaitiekunas is definitely a producer on the rise. File under: Electronic, techno, IDM.

Spak Cubes - Tape Tracks

Year Zero is the second album of collaborative work from Apollon/Muslimgauze and is also Muslimgauze's last recorded work before he died.

The album uses dark textural soundscapes and cut-ups - the sonic equivalents of William Burroughs writings - interwoven with experimental electronic beats and pulse, ranging from mock dub to crunch drum + bass and middle-eastern patterns and sounds. The dynamic shifts between padded eerie ambience, full-on electronica and white noise distortions give the listener a feeling of unease while the concept is unfolding over 15 tracks and 66 minutes.

A rare collaborative work from Muslimgauze, the two artists work with synergy to create a truly remarkable and powerful album. The album was officially released on 1st January 2000. 

Muslimgauze - "Marrakesh Flyswot"

Dark Thoughts is the first album to be released under the name Apollon/Muslimgauze a collaboration between Martin Lee-Stephenson and Muslimgauze following Apollon's release on D.O.R.'s Earth compilation.

Dark Thoughts is an experimental album without the synthetic feel of other contemporary electronica albums, keeping itself alive by constant change, multi-layered soundscapes of tactile and at times brutal breakbeats, bass lines, electronic voice phenomenon and sonic wizardry.

The album is a 23 track 79 minute sonic journey to the darkest corners of your mind

Muslimgauze/Apollon - "Inject"

Uzi Mahmood 8 (excerpt) from Uzi Mahmood by Muslimgauze

Uzi Mahmood 5 (excerpt) from Uzi Mahmood by Muslimgauze

Aquadorsa is a new musical Italian ambient project formed by Enrico Coniglio and Oophoi.Their first work “Cloudlands” is a perfect mix of glithc,classical and orchestral glacial ambient soundscapes. Enrico Coniglio is a guitar player and composer and his research has increasingly focused on the relationship between 'music' and 'landscape ', in an attempt to represent the contemporary crisis of the territory, the loss of nature and identity of places, and the unknown on the evolution of post-urban and post-industrial territory. He has collaborated with various artists, including: Nicola Alesini, Joachim Roedelius and Elisa Marzorati.He has produced some releases such as "AREAVIRUS - topofonie vol.1" (2007 Psychonavigation), "dyanMU" (2008 Psychonavigation) and digital releases Sapientumsuperacquis on Touch Radio (Touch records) and Crònicaster (Crònica Electronica).Gianluigi Gasparetti better know as Oophoi started his own music experiments in 1995, trying to explore the shores of deep space-ambient. His live album "The spirals of time", released in 1997 by Amplexus, has been voted as one of the best ambient albums of all times.Oophoi uses traditional instruments as synths and sampling machines and his music is recorded using analog-only devices in The Kiva.He has released CDs for many International labels such as Amplexus, Hypnos, Nextera, Prikosnovénie and Glacial Movements and he has collaborated with Louisa John Krol,Alio die,Mathias Grassow and Klaus Wiese.

Aqua Dorsa - A Pillow Of Clouds

Wurm is the name of the world’s most recent glaciation which ended around 10000 years ago and have occurred in the Pleistocene epoch. The term WÜrm comes from a river in the Alps where the glaciation was first identified. During the height of glaciation, most of Europe and Eurasia was open steppe-tundra, while the Alps presented solid ice fields and montane glaciers. Scandinavia and much of Britain were under ice.

Immense white expanses...infinite silences...sunrays reflected by eternal icefields...every release of this new series will be a circular, slowly-unfolding and ethereal long-form musical piece, in which the artist will describe this endless Ice Age, its eternal ice, the blinding white light, the abyssal silence. Music will transport the listener to peaceful and unexplored lands.

Oophoi - An Aerial View

Francisco López is known all over the world as one of the main figures of all time experimental music. He performed in hundreds lives, projects and sound-sets in 60 countries of 5 continents and his huge discography has been released by more than 200 labels all over the world. His musical universe moves from human-ear limits to the deepest abysses of sonorous power and it is mostly composed of field recordings caught along the wildest areas of Earth or between the sounds of industrial world.For “Amarok” composition two years of hard work have been employed using sounds and processed field recordings. It’s a unequalled conceptual soundscape in this artist’s huge discography and it perfectly joins to Glacial Movements aesthetics. After a few seconds from the track beginning we are dip into an arctic trip which lasts more than an hour and in which tangled weavings in a masterly fashion handled by the Spanish artist appear, develop and dissolve. Gusts of arctic wind, the Amarok’s wheezing breath (Amarok is the name of a gigantic wolf in Inuit mythology) and the sense of loss in the polar night are only some of the sensations that this cryogenic hallucinatory acustic is able to evoke. “Amarok is probably one of the more isolationist and spookiest work I’ve ever done” Francisco López,march 2009

Francisco Lopez - Amarok

On Line Jihad can be likened to when a crazed duppy takes possession of a roots dub studio; evidenced in the sudden Turrets-syndrome shifts in gain, acid bath distortion, schizophrenic panning, and random Jamaican patwa intonations amidst rocksteady guitar skanks, riddim wild, and staggered echo. Somehow, East Indian and Arab vocals and instruments make their home in Kingston, Jamaica to rally the poor and oppressed against first-world colonialist oppressors. Nowhere is this mood more exemplified in “Holy War (Part 1)” which leads as insurrection amidst sustained calls of “God is Great” in Arabic, followed by a rallying riddims, earth-shaking bass lines and shrapnel ricochets. The Muslimgauze Preservation Society is proud to offer Muslimgauze remixes The Rootsman, and the collaborations. On Line Jihad is pressed exactly as received, set in super jewel casing with papyrus cover hand-printed in liberated Egypt, 18-panel fold open poster with liner notes, and glossy sticker. This is part one of a multi-part series.

The Rootsman/Muslimgauze - On-line Jihad

These recordings include the voice of David Icke. They reflect on the role of the media in shaping and informing opinions (the war in Iraq for example showed the shameless use of the media by a government intent on war whatever the real facts were) and in furthering prejudices and persecution of those who have differing views and dare to express them. In 1991 Icke was "interviewed " on a well known prime time chat show with the sole purpose of public humiliation for "entertainment " value. There are many instances of the use of media for manipulation and propaganda and many have succumbed to the pressures when the media has been directed against them by malevolent forces (Dr David Kelly , UN weapons inspector in Iraq)
The words of David Icke are used here in a benign and impartial way. Whatever your views about the thoughts of the man you have to admire his tenacity against the odds .

Rapoon "talkin' But Can't Hear You"

The Muslimgauze Preservation Society are proud to offer you a fragment of previously unreleased musical history, vintage Muslimgauze from 1990. It was around this time when a young John Goff wrote a fan letter to Bryn Jones, along with his wishes to release a Muslimgauze track. Jones promptly responded with a cassette master of not only a track, but a whole album. At the time, Muslimgauze was signed to Extreme who were wary of fans who wanted to release music by their marquee artist. On the other hand, Jones was stymied by Extreme's one-release-a-year schedule, but that did not stop him from making more music. At Jones urging, however, Extreme relented and Goff released the exquisitely hand carved single track 7-inch “Red Crescent Part 3” (The Way Out, 1993), but the rest of the tape remained unreleased. Not long after Jones' passing on January, 1999, Goff organized a tribute remix album based on fragments from the masters. Many responded, more than the album could accommodate. The results were From the Edge (Chlorophyll, 2003 on vinyl and Azra, 2004 on CD). The unreleased remixes joined the unreleased masters in the vaults, until now in a wonderful two disc set! Disc one has two tracks at 20 minutes each. Track one is “Muslimgauze live at the Manchunian Turkish Baths”and track two is “Muslimgauze Unreleased Tracks”. The music was composed not long after Uzi (Parade Amoureuse, 1989) and is a cousin to Intifaxa (Extreme, 1990), only livelier. Tracks are comprised entirely of percussive textures; from machine, to acoustic, and ethno-drums along with cymbals, bells, high-hats, chimes, and gongs among others. The sole treatments are reverb, delay, and echo. Despite the narrow palette, this is still a lush and full recording, rhythms energetic and deeply kinetic. Not quite industrial, not quite IDM, From the Edge straddles the nether-regions between genres; classic Muslimgauze. The cassette master was brought to John Delf for post production and restoration. Together, Delf and TMPS made an aesthetic decision, to focus on the music and not remove the tape hiss for fear of compromising the sound. Hence, there are source limitations, but we feel the beauty of the music more than makes up for this. Cassette culture was a fact of the 80's and we urge fans to approach this recording the way one would a recording of an old blues 78 from the 30's, a psych-rock 45 from the 60's, or an Industrial tape from the 80's. As for the remix disc, some songs will be familiar to those who have earlier editions of From the Edge, but others will be new, including a few from a band Jones loved called Faust. As always, the discs will be packaged in a super-jewel case, with papyrus covers hand printed in Egypt, a fold-open poster with liner notes, and a bonus sticker. This is lovingly restored piece of history and a missing link in the musical development of Muslimgauze. Limited to an edition of 500. 

Muslimgauze: From the Edge (Deluxe Edition)

The Muslimgauze Preservation Society proudly offer a proper issue of the cinematic Satyajit Eye on 180 gram audiophile vinyl packaged in previously unrevealed sleeve art by Bryn Jones. Each release will also have a fold open insert of a Jones graphic, like ones included with Limited Editions releases (his own label during the 1980′s) as well as liner notes on the recording of this significant work in the Muslimgauze canon. Satyajit Eye is in fact a companion release to Vote Hezbollah, the first time John Delf and Bryn Jones worked together in the Cutting Rooms studios back in 1993. At the time, Delf was freshly trained to engineer conventional rock bands when in walked Jones with his instruments and DATs, asking, “there you go, can you mix it?” Delf had no idea what Jones wanted. The music and approach was unlike anything he heard or learned in vocational school. For Delf, Muslimgauze sessions were experimental as they proceeded to use the studio equipment in ways not originally intended to produce a sound not thought of before. Half of Satyajit Eye are excerpts from the Vote Hezbollahsessions, while the other half are extra songs. So began one of the mutually longest working relationships in Delf and Jones’ career. Among the early works, Satyajit Eye is also one of the more pristine and has the varied emotional range of an epic film, alternating between fervent and reflective moments like struggling through a storm to reach its quiet eye, then info the fray once more. Psychedelic, the music is evocative of fevered dreams of sun burned valleys of Pakistan, Pashtun controlled mountains of Afghanistan, post war plains of Iran, and Israeli incursions in occupied Palestine. Now is your chance to experience this high quality recording in an ideal setting, packaged the way Bryn Jones would have done himself, while paying homage by excerpting a fragment of the upcoming Muslimgauze: Chasing the Shadow of Bryn Jones.

Satyajit Eye sample

Ambient, field recordings, sound art, acoustic fragments, beautiful atmospheres

Genius Loci by Topografia

Ten East by Ten and Tracer from the Album, April Kids

"Qom" by Muslimgauze, from the album Iran

"Qom"by Muslimgauze

Excerpt from Molotov and Haze by Bass Communion 

Molotov and Haze by Bass Communion

Bass Communion "A Grapefruit in the World of Park" from Bass Communion II

Bass Communion "A Grapefruit in the World of Park"

Pete Namlook - Pearl

Namlook & Moufang - Stranger

Spyra "Budapest"

Excerpt from 10 CD limited edition Merzbow box set. 

Merzbow - Merzbient

“It was one of those rare occasions when you hear something, you cannot help but think 'where the hell does this come from?” 

So thought Steve Wilson in 1996 as he listened to the two Digital Audio Tapes (DATs) of remixes by Bryn Jones aka Muslimgauze of his bands Porcupine Tree and No Man. Wilson chuckled good-naturedly as Jones referred to the remixes as “improvements” over his own musicianship. Actually, Wilson was flattered since Jones, whom he met a week earlier at a Manchester pub, responded both promptly and creatively to promo CD singles passed along as both a gesture and musical calling card. While Wilson found the remixes intriguing, he did not know what to do with them. The DATs held only faint resemblance to the source material, which was smothered in the toxic waste distortion, deft manipulations, and industrial strength beats of Muslimgauze. Perhaps a handful of Wilson's fan base would have 'gotten it', but it would have simply went over the heads of the majority. Wilson rang up Jones and said there was no way he could possibly release this music. The response was yet another DAT a week later titled, the “We cannot possibly release this' remixes”. Wilson then suggested, rather than release remixes, to work on a collaboration which would be the basis of his then-new experimental music project, Bass Communion. Jones agreed and sent original Muslimgauze material which was the basis for the full-length and EP CD's Bass Communion V. Muslimgauze (Soleilmoon 1999 and 2000, respectively). The remix DATs as well as unused material for the collaboration languished in Wilson's studio until the Muslimgauze Preservation Society approached Wilson about bringing the music into the loving homes of Muslimgauze enthusiasts. 

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
 www.themuslimgauzepreservationsociety.org
 www.fathomdistribution.com


Muslimgauze: Camel Through A Needles Eye sample

Adventures in Audio, hand-picked audio gems at fair trade to the artist. 

FathomDistribution

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