Jaal Ab Dullah

Release date: October 20th, 1997

As another year draws to a close we present you with the latest works of Muslimgauze, and we're sure it'll make you happy. Jaal ab Dullah makes a crazy lunge out the noise gate and onto the dance floor, then gets sucked into a jet engine and ejected into space. All in the first song. It's a wild ride from start to finish, with quake-damaged noisebeats tumbling onto exploding turntables and hip-hop lava flows overwhelming The Quiet Village while Dub Demons do the Funky Monkey on a bed of hot coals. The struggle for a free Palestine has always been Muslimgauze's inspiration, even if the connection between the music and the cause has never seemed more than tenuous. 1997 has been a difficult year in the Middle East, and Muslimgauze seek to comment on the current situation, however obliquely, through Jaal ab Dullah. And let there be no doubt: Their position is resolutely pro-Palestinian. This year a number of American journalists have boycotted Muslimgauze for political reasons, feebly objecting on the grounds that to review a Muslimgauze CD is to advocate violence. Could the song "Anti-Arab Media Censor" from Arab Quarter possibly be hitting too close to home? Muslimgauze refuse to compromise, and until Palestine is free they'll keep provoking us.

Press release from Soleilmoon.

The following appeared in The Wire.

Muslimgauze has been whirling out CDs like a Dervish on acid, but as a relative newcomer, I found myself enjoying these Arabian trance sounds mingled with punchy beatbox skanks, fuzzy tablas and electronic tweaks. A streetwise folk-trance collage (some of the 26 tracks are only splinters) that eschews Fourth World luxury and mysticism for a sketchier agit-prop window on the Middle East, with titles such as "Kabul Is Free Under A Veil" and "Benazir Bhutto's Hands Are Clean". The lo-fi gutsiness reminded me of Tom Wait's streetwise/folk melange applied to Fertile Crescent samples.

review by: Matt ffytche
This text originally appeared in The Wire magazine (issue # 168).
Reproduced by permission.
The Wire on-line index.

The following appeared on The Voight Kampff Test.

Quite different from any other Muslimgauze I've heard (admittedly what I've heard is not exactly a sizeable portion of a discography nearly the size of Alaska), this is hard, distorted, and mad abrasive on the ears. Twenty six tracks, some over eight minutes long, many under a minute, and none of them comprised of more than one or two loops. Bryn Jones doesn't like to waste ideas, I guess - he just loops them and lets them run forever. Sometimes this is a good thing, sometimes it really seems like a waste of space, and worst of all, some of the best loops are contained in the really short songs ("Noose of Gold Silk" is the worst offender with a seriously awesome, seriously drunken noise loop, but you can put it on repeat and almost not notice that you're repeating, so it's not that big a problem). Given all this, the music is pretty simplistic and not as "accomplished" as a lot of other Muslimgauze, but then again, it isn't supposed to be "accomplished," it's supposed to be badass and distorted, which it is. Very much so. I particularly like how all the middle-eastern music samples are almost always chopped up into distorted, painful tiny shards and inserted into what would otherwise just be abrasive techno - sometimes it works amazingly well and gives off almost a totally fucked up and otherworldly hip-hop vibe. Granted, this does mean that the middle-eastern influences are significantly downplayed, and you don't get much of the feel for the middle-east (well sort of, given that Jones resides and works in England, but whatever) that makes the other Muslimgauze recordings so unique. Granted, he manages some kind of a "feel" on a couple of tracks, but it's not as exotic a sound as previous efforts - the loop in "Base Metal Trinkets, One Rupee" is a good example. It manages a middle-eastern feel, but more through its mantra like, gently nodding loops and percussion than through the actual music. 6/10

The Voight Kampff Test
The Voight Kampff Test is also an electro/industrial/experimental show on WPRB in Princeton, NJ, 103.3 FM.

The following appeared in Chain D.L.K.

Jaal ab Dullah is a 24 track CD (even if the booklet lists 26 tracks) ranging from arabesque-electro music and other ethnic-influences to more noisy and experimental stuff. In this album the use of electronic music is maybe a little bit more aggressive, or at least the atmospheres are less hard to absorb into the overall concept. Well the beats are rather going faster and therefore the employment of electronics gives to it a more direct and effective approach.

Review by: Marc Urselli-Schdrer
Chain D.L.K. Magazine (Issue #5)

The following appears on Amazon.com.

Real freaky Arabic / dance stuff.

OK, let's make it short! For those who don't know muslimgauze: he's just making original arabic music and samples it so it becomes a sort of mix between world, dance and ambient. Chilling' music!! this is one of his best!

"berus" (Holland, October 11, 2000)
Amazon.com

see also Erectile Dysfunction, Jaal Ab Dullah, Sandtrafikar, Zuriff Moussa, Sandtrafikar, Zuriff Moussa & Jaal Ab Dullah, Fatah Guerrilla, Narcotic, Sandtrafikar, Vampire Of Tehran & Zuriff Moussa

November 15, 2006