Narcotic
Release date: June 10, 1997
We at Staalplaat like some confusion here and there. (ed. - Narcotic was originally intended to be the 11th release in the subscription series) And we will do what we think is right. 'Narcotic' is Muslimgauze's next release and it's our office favorite. That's why we decided to release this in an unlimited edition. Music wise 'Narcotic' continues the laid-back style of "Return Of Black September' or the more recent release of 'Gulf Between Us' (in a shorter version also apparent on 'Narcotic')
Highly uncontroversial cover on this CD: we don't want more journalists to be expelled from writing for magazines showing their love for Muslimgauze It's our option to change!
Press release from Staalplaat.
The following appeared on Almost Cool.
Muslimgauze is yet another electronic artist that I hadn't taken the time or money to explore until recently. Admittedly, one of the main reasons I heard about the group was because of a fair amount of press that went around last year when Bryn Jones (the man behind Muslimgauze) died of a very rare blood disease at a young age. Being on an electronic music mailing list, I started hearing the name over and over and finally did a little research on the music that he created. While I was delving into this research, I not only found out that it was something that I would probably like, but that Jones was also terribly prolific as an artist. While many of his releases are now hard to find because of limited press runs, on average he released over 2 albums worth of material every year for at least the past 5. Even after his death, a 9-CD (yes, that's 9 CDs) box set is planned for release sometime around the end of 1999.
Now I'll try to go onto the music. Although Muslimgauze compositions are for the most part instrumental (electronic), there is a definite message behind the work. If you delve at all into the catalogue of work that was produced in such a short time, you'll find that almost all of the releases have some sort of middle-eastern theme, usually one of a political nature. Although I'm by no means an expert in the music of Muslimgauze, all the work I've heard definitely has a message behind it. While it's difficult to sometimes convey a political message through songs with lyrics (let along music without them), Muslimgauze manages to do it well, whether it's attacking the establishment with industrial-edged harder tracks, or identifying with an oppressor through a moving ambient track.
As an album, Narcotic does these above things and more. The opening track "Medina Flight" bangs on with a metallic sounding looped drum track that blares with distortion at some points while background voices chant out vocals nearly throughout. The track is flavored with other harsh sounds and even a few woodwind sounding instruments before subsequently breaking down and starting back in several times. "Believers of the Blind Sheikh" is a 10-minute middle-eastern sounding dub track sprinkled with live drum sounds and more occasional vocal samples of unknown conversation. "Saddams Children" leans more toward traditional instruments, but one can hear the gurgle of electronics lightly in the background.
The instrumentation of the album is amazing. When I first started seeing that Muslimgauze released so many albums in such a short amount of time, I naturally thought that the quality might fall suspect, but Narcotic is a solid piece of work that covers quite a chunk of the electronic music spectrum, although a lot of the rhythms tend to fall on a little harder side. It manages to blend ethnic and electronic sounds into quite an interesting mix. I don't know enough of the politics to know whether it succeeds on a political level or not, but I guess it's probably the point of the disc to make me want to learn.
Rating: 7.5
The following appeared on Rate Your Music.
A surprisingly dreadful front cover accompanies this release. But not to worry, the music is brilliant.
Herein are the sounds Saladin would have listened to before going into battle with Richard the Lion Heart during the Crusades in 1099, (had it been around at that time, of course).
No-one sounds like Muslimgauze, although not many bands have tried, and no wonder! Has there ever been an artist who's views were so extreme and objectionable to some, and who ruffled so many feathers? Most people either love or hate them - with no-one in-between.
This is a very clean recording compared to a lot of the later recordings. It's crystal clear. It's also quite accessible to the uninitiated in the huge world of Muslimgauze and would be a good starting point for those with an interest who have no idea where to begin.
Like most Muslimgauze releases, this is a confrontational bastard of an album, interspersed with moments of beauty. As 'Kürtz' said in Apocalypse Now - "If I had 10 Divisions of like minded men, this war would be over in 6 weeks".
reviewed by Dobermensch
Rate Your Music (April, 10, 2009)
The following appeared on Discogs.
In such a vast discography as the one associated with Muslimgauze one may easily mislead the opinion or interest, it just take to choose the wrong kind of album for start. My first encounter with Muslimgauze was disappointing in a way, the minimalism and distinctive repetition from the "The vampire from Tehran" was way too much for me back in the day, nevertheless I found exotic the introduction of oriental samples in the work, same happened with "Fedayeen" even though I could feel the hypnotic power that emanated from it. It may sound kind of out of note to talk about one album by talking about others but the point is with Muslimgauze things become more interesting in his more structured works, at least for a beginner, or someone who may be behind the more tribal based works.
Narcotic is perhaps one example of an album in both camps of the spectrum, it denotes the expertise acquired in oriental percussion by Bryn Jones after a crescent development and practice through action, numerous albums, and classics precede it and now it evidences this character part Tribal, part Ambient with shades of texturized noise, glitch details and field recordings, as result the listener is inside this intoxicant atmosphere of exotic madness, where the basic musical premise constituted by the consistent tribal beats from darbukas and tambourines contrasting radically with the eerie sounds from organic noise, distortions and minimal jams.
The images of a surrealistic desert land inhabited by the bizarre and general strangeness abounds in between the strong rhythm usage and cinematic atmosphere unbound, subsequently the decisive progression from the album increases this sensation. The listener easily gets submerged into this opium like state, succinctly guided by the beats and echoes from oriental sounds that wander in and out of the speakers and far away and so close from the mind.
Interesting and attractive the album keeps a middle ground status, half experimental and other half adapted for the tribal and linear structure common to Muslimgauze, the listener will find quite another of the many faces of this enigmatic artist.
reviewed by enfantterrible (Ayax Gudziol)
(Discogs February 10, 2012)
The following appeared on Rate Your Music.
An underrated gem.
My favourite Muslimgauze album.
This album is largely percussion focused and very atmospheric but not necessarily in the way albums like Vote Hezbollah or Mullah Said are. Narcotic focuses much more on dubby, washed out and dense atmospheres that make you feel like you're wandering through an Arabic street on a hot summer's day. a truly amazing record to me, featuring extremely memorable tracks like the hypnotic Gulf Between Us (which the 23 minute long extended mix of is excellent, by the way), Effendi, the fabulous and completely entrancing Believers of the Blind Sheikh and all 3 excellent Narcotic suite tracks. just an absolute gem of a record and the one that always sticks out the most to me, due to it's unique atmosphere and immensely coherent track list.
A definite recommend. start here if you've never heard Muslimgauze before, as it's probably one of his most accessible and gives the best overall view of his sound in my opinion. it's a perfect mix of the ambient dub, percussion and hypnotic soundscapes i love from him.
reviewed by StoneInFocus
Rate Your Music (October 25, 2020)
The following appeared on Boomkat.
A keenly awaited, dead clean vinyl edition of Muslimgauze’s mesmerising ‘Narcotic’ finally lands as part of Staalplaat’s unending archival salvo for the late, great artist.
‘Narcotic’ first came out in 1997, in the years before his death from a rare blood disease. It falls deeply into the latter phase of his oeuvre with richly atmospheric dubbing and some of his most lip-smacking, syncopated rhythms executed in a way that came to define his best work, and would exert a huge influence over the likes of Vatican Shadow. Seriously, the mastering job on this one is HD compared with previous releases and makes for an ideal entry point for anyone who’s been wondering where to start with Muslimgauze’s sprawling catalogue.
Plunging us into his soundworld with the intoxicating mix of field recordings and super wide, spatialized drums in ‘Medina Flight’, the album proves why it’s often hailed among Muslimgauze’s best with a slow burning fever dream sequence of events between the ambient arabesque, ‘Ramadan’ and scenes of slithering drums and oozing acidic synths punctuated with ricocheting gunfire in ‘Effendi’, while ‘Nazzareen’ feels as though we’ve slipped off down some ginnel from Cheetham Hill into a private backroom session in Ramallah. The opiated wooze of ‘Gulf Between Us’ and his beautiful duet for 303 and santur (?) ‘Saddams Children’ hold up among his finest ambient vignettes, priming for the album’s three-part title tune and again, some of his most enchanting sampledelia brought to life as we’ve never quite heard it before.
The following appears on Staalplaat's Muslimgauze Bandcamp page.
Narcotic is perhaps one example of an album in both camps of the Muslimgauze spectrum, it denotes the expertise acquired in oriental percussion by Bryn Jones after a crescent development and practice through action, part Tribal, part Ambient with shades of texturized noise, glitch details and field recordings, as result the listener is inside this intoxicant atmosphere of exotic madness, where the basic musical premise constituted by the consistent tribal beats from darbukas and tambourines contrasting radically with the eerie sounds from organic noise, distortions and minimal jams. The opening track "Medina Flight" bangs on with a metallic sounding looped drum track that blares with distortion at some points while background voices chant out vocals nearly throughout. The track is flavored with other harsh sounds and even a few woodwind sounding instruments before subsequently breaking down and starting back in several times. "Believers of the Blind Sheikh" is a 10-minute middle-eastern sounding dub track sprinkled with live drum sounds and more occasional vocal samples of unknown conversation. "Saddams Children" leans more toward traditional instruments, but one can hear the gurgle of electronics lightly in the background.
The instrumentation of the album is amazing. When I first started seeing that Muslimgauze released so many albums in such a short amount of time, I naturally thought that the quality might fall suspect, but Narcotic is a solid piece of work that covers quite a chunk of the electronic music spectrum, although a lot of the rhythms tend to fall on a little harder side. It manages to blend ethnic and electronic sounds into quite an interesting mix.
The images of a surrealistic desert land inhabited by the bizarre and general strangeness abounds in between the strong rhythm usage and cinematic atmosphere unbound, subsequently the decisive progression from the album increases this sensation. The listener easily gets submerged into this opium like state, succinctly guided by the beats and echoes from oriental sounds that wander in and out of the speakers and far away and so close from the mind. Interesting and attractive the album keeps a middle ground status, half experimental and other half adapted for the tribal and linear structure common to Muslimgauze, the listener will find quite another of the many faces of this enigmatic artist.
The following appeared on Rate Your Music.
One of his most coherent albums but still not really a foot taper. Tribal rhythms with sounds and samples popping in and out of the mix and some dank dub bass. "Narcotic" strips things down to just rhythms and is actually one of the most enjoyable pieces. Very short version of "Gulf Between Us" which he will dedicate an EP release to in expanded form. One of his best.
reviewed by bnoring
Rate Your Music December 21, 2022)
see also Beyond The Blue Mosque & Narcotic & Fatah Guerrilla, Narcotic, Sandtrafikar, Vampire Of Tehran & Zuriff Moussa
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