Live At by MANAS

released May 18, 2018

Artwork by Shifter

N/Z026

"Tashi Dorji’s guitar playing is so fertile it has spawned two powerful duos, one with Tyler Damon on drums, and the other, Manas, featuring drummer Thom Nguyen. It’s pointless to compare the two (especially since Damon himself played on one Manas record), as both outfits generate lots of different sounds, from dense, obliterating improv to sparse, careful sculpture. All of that is on display on Live At. Through two side-long, 14 minute tracks, Dorji and Nguyen shape sonic energy like landscapers carving animal topiaries out of bushy trees. Except these musical animals keep morphing, shifting through ideas and moods so energetically it feels like the air around them is reforming by the second." - Marc Masters, Bandcamp

"The best way to make a connection with these sounds is to keep a simple focus. Live At is a shattering performance utilizing percussion by Thom Nguyen and some form of strings by Tashi Dorji. Through the course of the thirty minutes recorded on this cassette, sounds take on all perspectives. From sustained heavy rhythms and crashing patterns of stringed riffs, to an inferno of cacophony. There are moments when the aural landscape quiets. Heard from somewhere in the distance an old bell ringing or some loose piece of metal colliding in a repetitive manner against a resonating source. Then listeners are transported to the cause, what was intriguing now becomes close to terrifying. So adjacent to the origins of creation, the sound wave fervor bestows effects causing paralysis. Like sonic predators, Tashi and Thom emit hypnotic pulses, causing thoughts to recoil and hide deeper within the consciousness. The process cycles and those with fortitude inch forward to a different enlightenment." - Lost in a Sea of Sound