Muslimgauze

CD version. Khan Younis collects six Muslimgauze tracks first issued between 1989 and 1996, almost all of them on various artists compilations from small labels. Its title is the name of a city in the south of the Gaza Strip, in keeping with a project whose titles and imagery came from the Middle East. Remastered and given new artwork, the set gathers in one place material that was spread across six different releases.

Muslimgauze was the project of the Mancunian musician Bryn Jones, born in 1961. His interest in the politics of the Middle East was sparked by Israel's conflict in Lebanon in 1982, and the conflict between Israel and Palestine stayed at the centre of his work, although he never visited the region. He made around a hundred albums, many of them for Staalplaat, Extreme and Soleilmoon, and died in January 1999, aged 37. This compilation was assembled by Terry Bennett and Oleg Galay, who also designed the sleeve, and remastered by Višeslav Laboš. It first appeared in 2020 as a bonus cassette inside a limited box set from Other Voices Records.

The title piece appears three times. The opening Khan Younis, just over seven minutes, comes from the 1995 compilation No Sleeve Notes Required on 110 Below. Khan Younis RMX, the shortest track at under four minutes, was taken from Golden Star by Nonplace Urban Field (Incoming!, 1996), and Khan Younis (Version) from the Gonzo Circus compilation Le Sacre du Printemps (1994). Masawi Wife and Child (Version) comes from Extreme's Assemblage Volume Two (1996) and Shiva from X-X Section (Extreme, 1991). The oldest recording closes the disc: an excerpt of Lion of Kandahar from Directions 2 (Direction Music, 1989). The label describes the music as tribal dub with Arabic influences and a post-industrial edge, built on hypnotic rhythm.

The name Khan Younis had already titled a track on Hamas Arc, released by Staalplaat in 1993. Choosing his ten favourite Muslimgauze records for The Vinyl Factory in 2013, JD Twitch of Optimo praised that album's "supreme, bottom-heavy dub" version. He also noted that Jones "eschewed computers and samplers in favour of the more laborious process of tape-looping".

This edition is a single CD in a gatefold mini-LP sleeve, limited to 300 copies, released in 2022 as a co-production between Other Voices Records and Kontakt Audio (VOX 58 CD). The same remaster was issued on black and picture disc vinyl.