One of the most unique and compelling artists I’ve listened to. Muslimgauze is an 80s ethnic electronica project by British musician Bryn Jones, who used his music to address issues within the Islamic world, as well as other conflicts regarding occupation (Chinese occupation of Tibet, Russian occupation of Grozny, etc). I was surprised when I found out that Jones was not Muslim and refused to visit the Middle East, despite it being the subject of his life’s work. He explained it in an interview with an American culture publication:
I don't think you can visit an occupied land. It's the principle. Not until it's free again.
In all honesty, I am still quite conflicted on whether I agree with this statement or not. I lean towards disagreeing with him, but I have immense respect for his steadfast adherence to his principles.
In my opinion, the most interesting aspect of Muslimgauze’s music is that it lacks lyrics. This initially seems counterintuitive, as if the point of his music was to highlight political and humanitarian issues, it would make sense to express his beliefs through lyrics. However, Jones purposely chose to leave his compositions without lyrics, requiring his listeners to be more active participants in discovering the music’s deeper meanings. As Jones himself explained:
There are no lyrics, because that would be preaching. It is music. It is up to you, to find out more. If you don't want that, it is up to you. You can listen to only the music or you can preoccupy yourself more with it.
The lack of lyrics, combined with the obviously political song titles and album covers, encourages listeners to actively seek out the context and research the conflicts themselves. Another reason is that Jones was a complete shut-in who was almost incapable of having normal conversations with people unless they were about his music or Middle Eastern politics. He also admitted that he "like[s] to do everything [himself] and [he] can't sing.”
Apart from the political implications of his music, Muslimgauze’s music style suits my tastes perfectly. The styles vary across different albums/EPs, but Muslimgauze tracks are usually extremely ambient, strongly rhythmic, and have a really great balance between the heaviness of post-industrial music and the hypnotic and atmospheric qualities of traditional Middle Eastern and North African sounds.
Recommended songs: Mullah Said, RMT Tape13 A1 (and the rest of the RMT Tape 13 album)
I’m pretentious and annoying when it comes to Panchiko because I was a /mu/cel when Panchiko was still considered lost media, and I obsessively followed the search for them. (For the employed, 4chan is an anonymous imageboard known to be an unfiltered corner of the internet where virtually anything can be posted. It was the birthplace of the decentralized hacker group Anonymous and many other Internet phenomena and memes. /mu/ is 4chan’s music discussion board).
Panchiko is a British indie rock band with an extremely interesting success story. In 2016, a 4chan user discovered a disc of the album D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L in a charity shop, which Panchiko had originally produced in 2000 when the band members were 16-17 years old. The user shared it on /mu/, and a cult following of channers trying to find the band quickly formed.
Original 4chan /mu/ post
I believe D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L gained such an immense following because of the combination of the following reasons:
The band remained completely unaware of their newfound fame until 2020, when a 4chan user discovered the lead vocalist’s Facebook profile and messaged him about it. The band reformed in 2021 with most original members and performed their first show in over twenty years in their hometown of Nottingham. However, even to this day, one of the members of Panchiko has still not been found, as all other original members of the band had lost contact with him years before the D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L disc was discovered in 2016.