Re-Mixs Volume 1 + 2

Album Review

Consisting of three lengthy, untitled tracks, Re-mixs features Bryn Jones tackling his own work in an indirect sense — rather than specifically reworking any songs, at least by name, this is Muslimgauze reworking some of the basic elements of many past pieces into new contexts. It's not as groundbreakingly different from earlier work as might be thought, but in terms of finding new ways around rhythm and atmospherics, it compares favorably to the similar radical revamps on albums like Azzazzin, but with its own particular style. The first track's best moments are in the middle, with a mysterious electronic semichime over a stripped-down pulse; unexpected interjections of random sounds crop up at times, leading into a gentle bell rhythm accentuated by very gentle drums and keyboards. The second track begins with a slightly static-laden dub-influenced beat, eventually moving into an echoey combination of acoustic percussion, gentle bells and some other unidentifiable noises, arranged carefully into a complex rhythm and coming across as both attractive and gently disturbing. It then moves into a rough, deliberately-paced hip-hop loop — as always, with strange interruptions and tweaks along the way — before concluding on a bubbling, minimal drum track. The final piece features a female-sung vocal loop for a while, before apparently reducing that same loop to a series of background echoes while a mostly electronic rhythm blurps out a regular but still quite undanceable beat, concluding with a series of low-key but attractive loops of ringing metal and various drums, along with other sounds that could easily have escaped from one of Main's similarly rhythm-obsessed releases. If not one of the best Muslimgauze releases, it still has a certain something going for it.