Blue Mosque by Muslimgauze

Blue Mosque features a lot of what Muslimgauze does best: it takes layers of treated percussion and exotic rhythms, adds a veneer of electronics or a heavy dance-beat, and winds up with something minimal yet occasionally intoxicating. No melodic or harmonic elements ever arise. Unfortunately, it all becomes a little too much; certainly there's a significant trance aspect to this music, but after a couple of listenings, I couldn't really tell you what distinguishes "Bitter Citrus" from "Pakistani Nuclear Box," or "Rattan Kiss" from "Freedom Fighter," or the two versions of the title cut, from each other. On the other hand, I'm not sure whether this music works at all in small doses. The individual tracks are pretty static, and probably wouldn't make much sense on the radio; you need to play Muslimgauze at length until it starts to seep into your consciousness. Maybe that's why the flood of Muslimgauze product continues unabated.

Muslimgauze occupied a strange place in the musical world. He was a powerful, prolific innovator, releasing albums that were alternately beautiful and visceral, full of ambient electronics, polyrhythmic drumming and all kinds of voices and sound effects. The recordings earned him a devoted following in underground, experimental and industrial music circles worldwide.

The New York Times 1999