Infataxa

Muslimgauze is a British post-industrial collective with a serious political chip on its shoulder. Thats not a bad thing, necessarily, and they do deserve kudos for bravery, since their stance (explicitly pro-P.L.O., implicitly anti-Israel) is sure to offend most of the Western world. But if Intifaxa is representative of their work, its difficult to see what the groups expressed political agenda has to do with anything -- the album consists of seven very long, purely instrumental tracks, all of which could probably be argued to have some sort of Middle Eastern influence (mainly in the percussion sound) but none of which deals even obliquely with any sort of political message. Thats not a bad thing, mind you. But without a message youre left with nothing but music to focus on, and theres just not much of that here. All of the tracks create dark, ominous moods of various kinds, but what are they meant to portend? "Fazisi" is particularly pointless, and although "Kirghiz" at least provides the first really propulsive beat of the album, it, too, sounds like a long introduction to a musical idea that never materializes. Ultimately, this album is pretty but aimless. ~ Rick Anderson