|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CD
|
|
MUSLIM 021CD
|
Limited restock, originally released in 2003. This is a mostly beat-driven album with little background noise, ambient space, or reverb. There is also no big emphasis on Middle Eastern sounds, which (and you should be figuring this out by now) is a frequently occurring theme in Bryn Jones' politically-driven music. Occasionally, there is some melodic material, or a touch of the Middle East sprinkled in, but it's played down in favor of beats that could best be described as very raw and closer to early Autechre minimalism than something from the World Beat genre. Hiccupping along, distorted break beats sound like they were once made from real drums, but Mr. Jones has turned the gain up way too high and ripped the drums to shreds. Since then, they've been heavily tweaked, turned into glitches, bloops, and blips. A downbeat gets set, only for it to sound like someone hit pause on the CD player. Machine-like loops reminiscent of Krautrock repetitiveness suck me in, only to be shut off without warning. As the beat finally starts to seduce me and I realize I could happily listen to the same repetitive thing for the duration of the CD, the plug gets pulled and the beat is deprived of oxygen just as it finally proved it could "groove." Each title is a page in the Iranair inflight magazine. The title of track 3 comes from a passage of a Sunday Times article (October 4, 1998) about Bin Laden's men infiltrating the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Iranair Inflight Magazine was made towards the end of Bryn Jones' life and in addition to countless others (this man must have recorded about an album a week), has only recently been released for the first time. Record labels were simply not able to keep up with the prolific Jones while he was alive. CD digipack.
|