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Cassette
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FTR 384CS
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"This new tape by Asheville NC's Tashi Dorji is a hard-edged suite for solo acoustic guitar recorded in the depths of the Plague. Because I've been listening to Remko Scha a lot lately, it's impossible for me to not-imagine the music here (especially the title track) as an extension of the marvelous Machine Guitar works by that great Dutch artist. Tashi is known for creating harsher acoustic tones then many of his contemporaries, but that often seems more based on his decisions to constantly disrupt melodic expectations inside his work. On dead cities lie buried... his approach has a massive circular logic, in which small sonic events take place behind a revolving, repetitive waterfall of cascading notes. The other pieces on the tape offer variations on this technique, although even through repeated listening, there is something about the first piece that really gives a heightened sense of otherness. Of course, all of Tashi's work, whether solo or not, rarely takes any easy or well-trammeled pathways. This is true on the three LPs we have done with him -- Manas (FTR 208LP, 2015), Manas III (FTR 330LP, 2017), and Mette Rasmussen/Tashi Dorji (FTR 403LP, 2018) -- but you knew that. Tashi is always worth hearing in any performance format, and dead cities lie buried... is another triumph for the meat wheel of eternity, and a damn fine listen." --Byron Coley, 2021
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LP
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VDSQ 017LP
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2016 release. Rarely has a guitarist emerged with as distinctive and singular a voice as Tashi Dorji has with this series of nylon-string improvisations. Recorded in the U.S. and Bhutan, Solo Acoustic Volume 13 stands as a defining document of a great 21st century guitarist.
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LP
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XRAY 001LP
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Frosted clear 180-gram vinyl in screenprinted PVC wallet with download code. Blue Tapes inaugurates its X-Ray Records vinyl series with a reissue of one of its most loved tapes, Blue Twelve by Tashi Dorji. This was Tashi's first set of electric guitar recordings and was originally released in March 2014. Since then he has released a widely acclaimed LP for Ben Chasny's Hermit Hut label and toured with luminaries and admirers like Sir Richard Bishop. This is a very special LP package on frosted clear vinyl with screenprinting that forms a photo negative of the original tape artwork when held up to the light. It doesn't sound like a guitar. But I know you like guitars, so don't let that put you off. It sounds less like an instrument, in fact, than many voices -- swooping and surrounding the listener. Whispering lovely nonsense-poetry in one ear while their shadows quietly circle and shout abominations in the other ear. You know Forbidden Planet? Yeah, sort of like that. Not music so much as a real-time dialog of different distinct voices, each with its own character. Except it is a guitar. One guitar. All recorded live, improvised, with no edits or overdubs. What's more, this is Tashi Dorji's first ever electric guitar release. His previous cassettes and download albums have stoked up feverish praise from fans. Ben Chasny was so impressed with Tashi's gorgeous acoustic improvisations that he formed a label -- Hermit Hut -- specifically to put out Tashi's music.
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LP
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HERMIT 001LP
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"Tashi Dorji grew up in Bhutan, on the eastern side of the Himalayas. Access to any music created outside the country is limited, as are most cultural options, given the geologically isolation of the country. How Dorji went from a life so remote to developing his innovative and revelatory guitar style is mind-boggling. Yearning for access to the world outside, Dorji pursued and obtained a fully-paid scholarship to a liberal arts school in Asheville, NC, in his early twenties. He's since settled in there (save a short stint in Maine), soaking up a vast array of music, most notably the works of Derek Bailey and John Zorn. Along the way, Dorji developed a playing style unbound by tradition, yet with a direct line to intuitive artistry. His recordings feature improvisations that spasmodically grow along tangential, surprising paths. All references break loose during a composition, as Dorji keys into his own inner world. After a handful of cassettes on various labels, Dorji presents his first proper album on Hermit Hut, the label created by Ben Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance) and inspired by spreading word of Dorji's talents. The six compositions here are hand-picked by Dorji and Chasny as the most representative and far-reaching of his recordings. Taken together, they announce a new guitar music unlike anything being made today."
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