Drone Records

MUSLIMGAUZE - Narcotic

Format: do-LP

Label & Cat.Number: Muslimgauze Archive Vol 54

Release Year: 2020

Note: re-issue of favored percussive album from 1997 (CD, Staalplaat), comes in gatefold sleeve...=> "Narcotic focuses much more on dubby, washed out and dense atmospheres that make you feel like you're wandering through an Arabic street on a hot summer's day. a truly amazing record to me, featuring extremely memorable tracks... just an absolute gem of a record and the one that always sticks out the most to me." [StoneInFocus]

Price (incl. 19% VAT): €29.50

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"Narcotic is perhaps one example of an album in both camps of the muslimgauze spectrum, it denotes the expertise acquired in oriental percussion by Bryn Jones after a crescent development and practice through action, part Tribal, part Ambient with shades of texturized noise, glitch details and field recordings, as result the listener is inside this intoxicant atmosphere of exotic madness, where the basic musical premise constituted by the consistent tribal beats from darbukas and tambourines contrasting radically with the eerie sounds from organic noise, distortions and minimal jams.

The opening track "Medina Flight" bangs on with a metallic sounding looped drum track that blares with distortion at some points while background voices chant out vocals nearly throughout. The track is flavored with other harsh sounds and even a few woodwind sounding instruments before subsequently breaking down and starting back in several times. "Believers of the Blind Sheikh" is a 10-minute middle-eastern sounding dub track sprinkled with live drum sounds and more occasional vocal samples of unknown conversation. "Saddams Children" leans more toward traditional instruments, but one can hear the gurgle of electronics lightly in the background. The instrumentation of the album is amazing. When I first started seeing that Muslimgauze released so many albums in such a short amount of time, I naturally thought that the quality might fall suspect, but Narcotic is a solid piece of work that covers quite a chunk of the electronic music spectrum, although a lot of the rhythms tend to fall on a little harder side. It manages to blend ethnic and electronic sounds into quite an interesting mix.

The images of a surrealistic desert land inhabited by the bizarre and general strangeness abounds in between the strong rhythm usage and cinematic atmosphere unbound, subsequently the decisive progression from the album increases this sensation. The listener easily gets submerged into this opium like state, suscintly guided by the beats and echoes from oriental sounds that wander in and out of the speakers and far away and so close from the mind.Interesting and atractive the album keeps a middle ground status, half experimental and other half adapted for the tribal and linear structure common to Muslimgauze, the listener will find quite another of the many faces of this enigmatic artist." [label info]

"....this album is largely percussion focused and very atmospheric but not necessarily in the way albums like Vote Hezbollah or Mullah Said are. Narcotic focuses much more on dubby, washed out and dense atmospheres that make you feel like you're wandering through an arabic street on a hot summer's day. a truly amazing record to me, featuring extremely memorable tracks like the hypnotic Gulf Between Us (which the 23 minute long extended mix of is excellent, by the way), Effendi, the fabulous and completely entrancing Believers of the Blind Sheikh and all 3 excellent Narcotic suite tracks. just an absolute gem of a record and the one that always sticks out the most to me, due to it's unique atmosphere and immensely coherent tracklist.

a definite recommend. start here if you've never heard Muslimgauze before, as it's probably one of his most accessible and gives the best overall view of his sound in my opinion. it's a perfect mix of the ambient dub, percussion and hypnotic soundscapes i love from him." [StoneInFocus]