Cobra Head Soup

The following appears on An Adventurer In Text.

I was asked about the latest Staalplaat Muslimgauze archive series release, Cobra Head Soup (double LP), a master sent to Staalplaat among many from Bryn Jones as a DAT/CD-R. Jones often followed a master a week or two later with another and a note ‘this master replaces the one sent the other week’. Consequently, Staalplaat amassed a collection of ‘replaced’ masters slated for release since Jones’ passing. During Jones’ life, no label or collective thereof could keep up with his prolific output and his passing gave everyone a breather to release at a label pace rather than a ‘devotee’ pace.

Some are of the belief that if Jones had a master replaced, then it was not intended for release and should not be. There are also other objections, more having to do with estate arrangements, but this is not the place nor time to get into that. As one of the Muslimgauze archivists, I am eager to listen to and study all Jones’ music and have this paranoia I could have missed a style or texture not documented previously. Besides, Jones was always of the opinion that there was never enough Muslimgauze music in the world.

When Staalplaat approached me to do press releases for the Muslimgauze archive series, I jumped at the chance. Geert-Jan Hobijn showed me a stack of masters and educated me on the ways Jones worked. I wrote releases for Sulaymaniyah and Sycophant of Purdah, but current Staalplaat owner Guillaume (Guillaume is the owner of the Staalplaat shop but Geert-Jan is still the owner of the Staalplaat label) decided (for whatever reason) to pass on a write-up for this round. I still have the CD-R for Cobra Head Soup and will geek-out a bit about it here. Archive releases often have pre-released material, or slight variations thereof as Jones habitually made numerous alternate versions of tracks. On occasion, the Archive series does have unreleased gems.

The masters for Cobra Head Soup were submitted to Staalplaat in 1997 and specially engineered for vinyl by Rashad Becker who is a premier audio engineer in Germany. In fact, Becker used to be in charge of sound and mixing for the live Muslimgauze sets in Germany and it is good someone of his stature lent his expertise on this release. Dub and dubstep enthusiasts will appreciate this release as it fits squarely with albums like Muslimgauze, Syrinjia, City of Djinn, Return to City of Djinn, and Ayatollah Dollar, among others. Some tracks may be familiar to those who have Remixs 2 and Red Madrassa. One of my favorite tracks here “Elect Izlamic Jihad” (from Remixs 2), a muscular yet menacing panther of a track on the prowl while an Arabic field recording (Quaran? Call to Martyrdom?) intones in the background. The track that provoked my interest most was “Cobra Head Soup” which reminded me of the atmospheric moments on Sandtrafikar. For lack of a better term, I would call this piece ‘Illbient’–a marketing term from the mid-to-late 90’s that describes a style of music that blends ambient, electronic, hip hop, musique concrete, and dub. Proponents of this style were DJ Spooky, DJ Olive, DJ Wally, Bill Laswell, Subdub, and Byzar among others. “Cobra Head Soup” is a deliciously eerie haunted dub excursion (already) saturated in vinyl record crackles with spacious oud strumming, ghostly atmospherics, and rumbling bass lines. A pretty good release, completists will want it, and c'mon…it’s Muslimgauze on vinyl, man.

review by: Ibrahim Khider (12/07/2009)
An Adventurer In Text

The following appears on Brainwashed.

The Tupac Shakur of dissonant Islamic dub, death hasn't slowed down Bryn Jones, who has still been prolific for over a decade after he passed away. The 11 tracks on this LP and 12" set are all from his most prolific period in 1997. Unsurprisingly, this is Muslimgauze by the numbers that does nothing drastically different or innovative than the slew of other releases from the era, and thus is really only recommendable for hardcore zealots and the dabbler who hasn't picked up an album from Jones in awhile.

The first of the two heavy slabs of vinyl in here is the actual LP, and it opens with "Muslim Brotherhood," which is undeniably Muslimgauze with its fuzzed out tablas, tortured violins, and low, dubby bass that can work a subwoofer over something proper. And it wouldn’t be Muslimgauze without a sizable portion of random tape stops and stutters. "Kashmiri Queens" is similar with its tapes of Middle Eastern horns and skittering fragments of rhythm.

The title track is a more complex mish-mash of hip-hop beats, rattlesnake hisses, and bizarre blips, and "Rabid Zionist Dog Muzzle" also brings the rhythm in the form of heavily distorted electronic drums and random sound collages. "Dogheadgod" also showcases a wonderful steady rhythm that is complimented by a slow, heavy bass line that rivals anything from most dub recordings in the past 20 years.

The two tracks on the 12" that is included are a bit more varied, but again, nothing that is going to shock or amaze. "Elect Izlamic Jihad" is all pegged out to the point of clipping drums, echoed beeps, and fragments of voice that have more of a layered, collage feel to them. On the flip side, "Dimple Kapadia Mumbai" (I think I got an email with that subject line selling me penis pills the other day) has a thick grimy layer of vinyl surface noise atop the usual beats and voice samples.

Unfortunately the most captivating tracks are simply too short. "Zion Junkie," for example, has a locked steady rhythm and junk percussion that just has a different feel to it from the usual distortion and tablas. "Gaza Strip" also goes a bit off on its own tangent, with cut up harmonica and pots & pans percussion, and field recordings mixed together to unique effect.

It’s not fair to expect any drastic developments or variations on this sort of archival recording, but Cobra Head Soup is sonically interchangeable with so many other albums from Jones. It is not a bad release by any means, but the casual fan (such as myself) wouldn’t be doing themselves a disservice by passing on it.

review by: Creaig Dunton ( 20/09/2009)
Brainwashed

November 6, 2009