3LP Gold Edition - strictly one per customer
First time vinyl press of Bryn Jones' double LP opus from 1993. And not a moment too soon - this one doesn't deserve to be lost to time and/or the obscurists. The Muslimgauze catalogue is an intimidating beast, diffuse across a few different labels and maddeningly in and out of print, likely due to Jones' shockingly premature death just before the turn of the century. It's more than fair to ask where to start, and how? Outlier as it is, Veiled Sisters wouldn't be the worst place. Muslimgauze debuted back in the early 80s amidst the birth of the industrial underground and evolving electronic experimentations, but by '93 they'd shifted into something distinctly their own. Veiled Sisters stands at the intersection of several ideas, parlaying minimal/dub techno, post-industrial ambience and non-euro centric vision into a heady, mesmerising monolith. The title is an obvious reference to Islamic practice and muslim identity, though the message remains out of reach - the song titles obfuscate more than they reveal and snatches of vocal samples are contextless, indistinguishabe or untranslateable. Its mystery is haunting and compelling, and with it feels notably contemporary, its influence at least some way present in Raime, Dominick Fernow and a decent portion of the early Blackest Ever Black output (Black Rain, Dalhous++). Can't overstate just how significant a record this is, vital for anyone with interests in minimal techno, industrial or ambient - Jones shows their bones while calibrating them something that's crucially its own, super supple and somehow almost sentient. Seems to be sold out almost everywhere already, so be quick.
