Uzi Mahmood
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.
Press release from Soleilmoon.
The following appears on An Adventurer In Text.
Muslimgauze fans are probably aware the Uzi Mahmood triple-disc full length is now available from Soleilmoon for an admittedly hefty price tag but make it worth your while by packaging it in a deluxe full-color sleeve designed by Plazm. With regards to design, Plazm director Josh Berger said he wanted "…people to think about what is going on in the world in a deeper way. It started with (Soleilmoon owner) Charles Powne mentioning ‘Mahmood’ as a little boy’s name. This in combination with ‘Uzi’ is what led to collecting images of guns in their hand, I feel to be both enlightening and disturbing." While many will be incensed with images of Caucasian children with guns, non-white children will probably not elicit the same levels of outrage. I have seen examples of this double standard frequently in our society. If a white person is shot or killed, it is a tragedy; a non-white person, 'it just happens'.
As for the music, excerpts of this release was made previously available on the Uzi Mahmood 12" EP (1997) and Hussein Mahmood Jeeb Tehar Gas (1999) and could generally be considered part of the hip hop style Jones sometimes worked with. These releases can comfortably be played alongside Jaal Ab Dullah (1997) and Hamas Cinema Gaza Strip (2002) for the general beat structure and perhaps stereotypical record scratching as opposed to ‘turntablism. There is another, deep side to this release more directly influenced by the Muslimgauze collaboration with the Rootsman evidenced in speaker-case rattling beats more fitting for clubs and giant, anaconda bass lines that hungrily coil through tracks – not to mention dubwise effects like guitar skanks and staggered instrumental bits. As if these elements were not enough, this release is deft with clever editing, field recordings that bring an 'Indo-Pak' radio-play atmosphere and unique processed-instrumental and electronic textures. Regrettably, Soleilmoon's copy of the Uzi Mahmood masters did not include song titles and are simply labelled "Uzi Mahmood 1, 2, 3, etc." Among the gem tracks are "2", a menacing bit with all the tension of an assassin looking for her/his mark to 'take down' – constantly on the verge of pulling the trigger but never quite. Returning to the radio play idea, surveillance seems to be a subtext as voices speak in Arabic, Urdhu, Hindi, Punjabi and probably even Pashtun to create the sensation of listening-in on members of the Taliban. Shortwave radio feedback, electronic equipment chatter, and voices from different communications channels only heighten the overall sense of paranoia. On "Uzi Mahmood 3", a woman gently sings an old Bhangra ballad to herself – surveillance equipment still recording after the men have left the room to a capture sweet, uninhibited moment. Of particular interest to this writer are "Uzi Mahmood 9" and "12" that have excerpts of what could be Quranic recitations blasted on megaphone speakers from some obscure urban field recording. Generally, this is a religious 'no-no' and Muslims would not be too happy about it. However, such sound samples were done out of reverence from Jones as opposed to ridicule and he was likely not very clear on the rules. Hopefully Mullah's are not sitting around a mosque prayer hall saying, "Brozers, did you hear the latest Muslimgauze release" If only…
According to "Mo" who runs Arabbox, Uzi Mahmood masters were also sent to Laurent Diouf who solicited Jones for a contribution to a compilation Wreck This Mess: Remission 1 released in 1998 on the formers' Noise Museum imprint. Diouf is an active Paris, France-based music journalist who specializes in dub and has championed Muslimgauze music in the media. His weekly radio show can be accessed here. Upon request, in typical Jones fashion, a full master was sent to Diouf with instructions to select the track he liked best ("Uzi Mahmood, Trick Start Version") and then return it. Alas, Jones passed away before Diouf had the opportunity to do so. Below is a copy of the master notes with track names in Jones' own handwriting. These notes were likely not sent to Soleilmoon as Jones was often too busy spewing new recordings to be on top of all his masters. In addition to the 11 songs listed below, Soleilmoon included two bonus tracks for this release. Muslimgauze fanatics can now categorize most of this album with two song titles. Special thanks to "Mo" of Arabbox for making this information widely available to Muslimgauze fans.
review by: Ibrahim Khider
An Adventurer In Text (19/11/09)
