All art reflects the times it was created in and all art is by extension
political. This isn't a novel concept, it's art critique 101, really. So
what do we really mean when we say that a work of art is
politically charged? Colloquially we use the term to describe something
whose explicit intent is to comment on, reflect or challenge the status quo
it was made under. Tashi Dorji's music has always been (colloquially)
political, an instrument that gives voice to his radical and anarchist
ideals wielded with revolutionary fervor, and it's precisely the kind of
music we need right now.
Somewhat uncharacteristically for him, though, this album (his third on
Drag City) is a quiet album made up of fragile, open melodies, delicate
volume swells and shimmering harmonics coated in a thick dust of amplifier
hiss and all-encompassing reverb. If one were to try, this album could be
pigeonholed in the periphery of what we consider Ambient, but the music
never allows you to fully drift off: the improvisations are complex and
multi-faceted, there's always an unexpected note, a surprising turn and the
hint of the aforementioned fervor keeping the audience engaged and
consistently dragging the tracks forward.
In the same way, the sound itself that Dorji conjures out of his guitar
keeps the listener on their toes. The clean and spanky amp is always on the
verge of breakup, the massive reverb always a hair away from feedback, it's
a balancing act that doesn't let go and makes you hold your breath for
when, if ever, the balance will break. Wrangling this almost
self-sustaining behemoth of sound is as instrumental to the music as the
note choice is, and one informs the other. It's high praise but there's
something very Jimi Hendrix about that.
The tension broiling under the surface of the whole album finally gets
released on "Black Flag Anthems" with its clusters of dissonance,
a fully driven amp and a furious pick attack that scrapes and grinds the
guitar strings in a continuous crescendo, everything we've come to expect
from Dorji's playing. What follows these bursts of rage is not nihilism,
but hope. Despite how somber the music is and in the face of the times it
was recorded in, this is a very hopeful, aspirational album, a rallying cry
for people to come together and support each other, a spit in the face of
the oligarchs and tyrants that rule us. While this beautiful music can be a
refuge from the ugliness of the world I think it's important to highlight
that this is not a refuge meant to pacify, it's meant to inspire action.
Dorji's work has been reviewed extensively on this site over the years and
he's been extremely prolific, be it with his collaborations with Tyler
Damon, his work in Kuzu, Manas or
his brand new collaboration with Audrey Chen. It's great to see how surprising his music can still be and I hope we'll
keep discussing it for many more years to come.
Available on vinyl and digitally
on Bandcamp
or from Drag City, a second pressing has just come out so you have no choice
but to get it.
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