By all accounts Bryn Jones of Muslimgauze was a prolific musician, as any glance at his discography will confirm. Even nigh on a decade after his untimely death, new (or rather previously unreleased) material is still emerging steadily into the light of day. Jah-Mearab is one such, bringing together unheard material originally recorded in 1998 and simultaneously inaugurating a whole series of archive CDs to be issued by his European label.
It is intensely difficult to separate the music of Jones from his politics, now more so than ever. Today’s fragile political climate somehow makes his music more relevant, given the Western hemisphere’s seeming paranoid obsession with ‘radical’ Islam. It would be fascinating perhaps to see how his music would be received today, whether he would be branded a terrorist sympathizer simply because of his espousal of the aims of the Palestinian peoples and his support for Hamas. All that however is by the by; as inextricably and tangibly bound up as the music of Muslimgauze was in the miasma of politics of the Near East, it yet retains an independent flavor all its own.
Jones was able to bridge the gulf between the Western and Eastern hemispheres, spanning (and understanding) the more traditional forms of Arabic music, as well as styles of ‘eastern’ music built upon Western foundations. The difference though is that Jones brought with him a deep respect for the music of that region, and he never allowed his interpretations to fall into cheesy bastardizations. What he managed in some respects was to make the fusion with Western hip-hop and dance rhythms, for instance, seem like nothing more than the next logical evolutionary steps from their traditional antecedents, and this is emphatically underscored on this album. For instance, “In Search of Sudan Nerve Gas," is a hip-hop cut-up based around a stuttering beat and a repetitive vocal loop, interspersed with stabs of noise and micro-snatches of instrumentation. Despite the span of a decade since it was recorded, it’s still fresh and vibrant. Similarly, the album opener and title track, “Jah-Mearab,” a laidback trip-hop piece overlaid with market-square voices and song punctuated with rasps and scrapes, sounds as newly-minted and up-to-date as anything released today. Moreover, despite the Western inflections, the two pieces are heavily marinaded in the radical ferment and political flavors of the region. The often calamitous intersection of Eastern and Western politics, and their very different priorities, is brought home well by the fusion of styles here.
Contrastingly, track nine, “Jar of Salahuddin," is very much staking out traditional terrain. Heavy Arabic-style percussive rhythms provide a solid backing for a traditional wailing male refrain, the whole focusing nicely to create an oriental redolence with which we can all identify. However, it’s the furthest thing from being just a mere cultural appropriation. It carries with it a deeply felt sense of authenticity that gives it some weight of authority. Furthermore, even within the more Western-tinted interpretations, there is still that vein of authenticity coursing through them strongly. Regardless of the means that he uses, Jones always manages to aim the message straight for the target.
Jones was an intensely shy, private, and awkward man, someone who obviously preferred to let his music do the talking. That every note he played and recorded was infused with his passionate beliefs and feelings is immediately apparent from even a cursory listen. As an introduction perhaps to his breadth of musical style and vision, along with his strength of political passions and beliefs, Jah-Mearab can be considered a good starting point from which to set out on an exploration of Muslimgauze’s legacy.
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