Muslimgauze
Mullah Said

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Repress of this 1998 1000-copy subscription series release, which concentrates on the softer yet still ominous side of Muslimgauze, coming across as meditative, late-night music which still has an understated edge to it all. A 50 minute suite of prime Muslimgauze middle eastern ambience, 'Mullah Said' displays two aspects of the work of Muslimgauze. Firstly, musically, it is in the delightful drifting ambient vein. The percussion is mainly acoustic hand drums - providing a rhythm of aural features - the trademark shimmering string sound heard on a number of releases is much in evidence, rhythms are generally slower, there are lots of samples of people speaking in conversation, markets wherever. The title track sets its mood well, with a dark and subdued synth/string arrangement set against a very low-key drum machine beat and gentle interjections of wind instruments and random vocal bits. ‘Every Grain Of Palestinian Sand’ ups the tempo slightly, adding more drones and percussion, and an attractive central string melody. From there the album continues in the same general vein, adding tweaks and changes as it goes. Both versions of ‘Muslims Die India’ are a bit more active, while still maintaining the same generally dreamy and drifting feeling (the second concentrates a bit more on percussion interplay throughout its quarter-hour length); and the second reading of ‘Every Grain…’ sneaks in more echo and samples of machines into its quiet though intense groove.