Prior to one hundred and forty-some (and counting) releases asMuslimgauze, Bryn Jones was known as E.g Oblique Graph. This limitededition set of 201 collects all of the tracks from the very rarecassette and vinyl releases: 1982's 'Extended Play', 'Piano Room' and'Triptych' and 1983's 'Inhalt'. What's on these two black CD-Rs bearslittle to no resemblance to trademark Muslimgauze. It's rather sparseand primal electronic music with a DIY attitude typical of the late'70s and early '80s. Jones plunked about and droned on synths, mixed invarious tape recordings and some pseudo-beats and lets it all churnwithin effects. The more dark or abstract the more interesting: marredchoirs and speech, reversed and otherwise manipulated tapes, electricdischarges, sonar-like pings, seemingly random juxtapositions, etc."Human Rights" is probably the first track (in title, at least) toaddress a socio-political concern while the final (and my favorite)track of disc one, the 20 plus minute "Piano Room", seems to be thefirst to utilize a drum machine amongst its varied movements. Israel's1982 invasion of Lebanon brought about a paradigm shift in Jones'inspiration, as evidenced by the titles of the two tracks that made upthe "Inhalt" cassette: "Islamic Koran In Camera Dome" and "Rapid WhiteFlag In Snapshot Blur". The blood is beginning to boil in the former asan upfront rhythm dominates most of the nearly nine minutes. Soon afterthis began Muslimgauze. 'Completely Oblique' isn't all that excitingreally, more of a historical footnote for Muslimgauze collectors.Though I do have a soft spot for this sort of amateur music making,having done it myself for a few years, I don't even listen to my owntapes anymore. The liner notes make it pretty clear that Jones wasn'ttoo interested in revisiting this or other past work either. So whileI'm grateful for the chance to finally hear it, I also have to wonderif re-issuing it was the right thing to do.
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