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Alexander Paul Coe (born 4 September 1969), known professionally as Sasha, is a Welsh DJ and record producer. He is best known for his live events and
electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...
as a solo artist, as well as his collaborations with British DJ John Digweed as
Sasha & John Digweed Sasha & John Digweed are a British DJ duo comprising Sasha and John Digweed. Digweed had been DJing for ten years before getting a gig at Renaissance where he met Sasha, who had been working the past few years in various acid house music club ...
. He was voted as World No.⁠ ⁠1 DJ in 2000 in a poll conducted by ''
DJ Magazine ''DJ Magazine'' (also known as ''DJ Mag'') is a British monthly magazine dedicated to electronic dance music and DJs. Founded in 1991, the magazine is adapted for distribution in the United Kingdom, the United States, Spain, France, Italy, Lati ...
''. He is a four-time International Dance Music Awards winner, four-time
DJ Awards DJ Awards is a celebration of electronic music, and aims to recognise and honour Disc jockey, DJs and individuals who have influenced electronic dance music worldwide. Held annually in Ibiza at the end of the summer season, DJ Awards has retaine ...
winner and
Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...
nominee. Sasha began his career playing
acid house Acid house (also simply known as just " acid") is a subgenre of house music developed around the mid-1980s by DJs from Chicago. The style is defined primarily by the squelching sounds and basslines of the Roland TB-303 electronic bass synt ...
music in the late 1980s. He partnered with John Digweed in 1993, touring internationally and producing a series of
mix album A DJ mix or DJ mixset is a sequence of musical tracks typically mixed together by a DJ to appear as one continuous track. DJ mixes are usually performed using a DJ mixer and multiple sounds sources, such as turntables, CD players, digital audi ...
s (compilations of other artists' work played in a continuous fashion). Sasha has
remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...
ed tracks for artists such as D-Ream,
Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone ( ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Referred to as the "Queen of Pop", she has been recognized for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, ...
,
Moby Richard Melville Hall (September 11, 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, disc jockey, and animal rights activist. He has sold 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic considers him to be "amo ...
,
the Chemical Brothers The Chemical Brothers are an English electronic music duo formed by Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands in Manchester in 1992. They were pioneers in bringing the big beat genre to the forefront of pop culture. Originally known as The Dust Brothers, th ...
and Hot Chip. Sasha's remixing and production often combine electronic music genres, making it difficult for critics to pinpoint his musical style. As well as remixes and compilation albums, Sasha has produced three albums of original works: ''
The Qat Collection ''The Qat Collection'' is the debut studio album by Welsh DJ Sasha. It was released on 23 August 1994 through Deconstruction Records. The album features co-production from Tom Frederikse and was released with two singles: "Magic" and "Higher G ...
'' in 1994, '' Airdrawndagger'' in 2002, and '' Scene Delete'' in 2016. After achieving success as a producer and DJ, Sasha worked with younger DJs and producers such as BT and James Zabiela. His use of live
audio engineering Audio most commonly refers to sound, as it is transmitted in signal form. It may also refer to: Sound *Audio signal, an electrical representation of sound * Audio frequency, a frequency in the audio spectrum *Digital audio, representation of soun ...
equipment helped popularise technological innovations among DJs who formerly relied on records and
turntables A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration Waveform, waveforms are recorded as correspond ...
. In 2007, he formed a record label with Renaissance Records called emFire, which is the exclusive outlet for his new music.


Early years

Sasha was born in
Bangor, Wales Bangor (; ) is a cathedral city and community in Gwynedd, north Wales. It is the oldest city in Wales. Historically part of Caernarfonshire, the community had a population of 15,060 at the 2021 census, and the built up area had a population ...
, on 4 September 1969. His early musical taste was primarily
Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "To ...
pop music like
The The are an English rock band from London, formed in 1979 by singer-songwriter Matt Johnson, the only constant member, and often the sole member. achieved critical acclaim and commercial success in the UK, with 15 chart singles, seven reaching ...
and
The Police The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. Within a few months of their first gig, the line-up settled as Sting (lead vocals, bass guitar, primary songwriter), Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland (drums, percussi ...
. After what he described as an "idyllic childhood", Sasha passed the entrance exam for Hatfield College at age 17. However, he did not like Epsom and left before completing his
A-Level The A-level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational ...
examinations. Instead of continuing his schooling, Sasha moved to Bangor to live with his father and stepmother. Sasha's stepmother forced him to take piano lessons which, although he disliked them at the time, he ultimately found to be beneficial to his music career. Sasha became aware of electronic dance music in 1988 at The Haçienda, a
Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
dance venue. Drawn to the rough sound of
acid house Acid house (also simply known as just " acid") is a subgenre of house music developed around the mid-1980s by DJs from Chicago. The style is defined primarily by the squelching sounds and basslines of the Roland TB-303 electronic bass synt ...
music and the rebellious attitude he associated with it, he visited Manchester weekly and soon moved to nearby
Disley Disley is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Cheshire, England. It is located on the edge of the Peak District in the Goyt Valley, south of Stockport and close to the county boundary with Derbyshire at New Mills. The popu ...
. Sasha purchased records and began to teach himself how to mix. A local DJ at a club Sasha frequented announced that he was looking for other DJs to travel with him on a regional tour; Sasha volunteered and made his first live appearance in nearby
Stockport Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt, Rivers Goyt and River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame merge to create the River Mersey he ...
. He recalled of his debut, "I'd never even touched a Technics: I thought the pitch control was the volume, I didn't even know where to plug my headphones in! I'm sure I was absolutely horrendous." Sasha soon found himself in debt due to low-paying performances and the many records he bought. To finance his record collection, he performed at illegal warehouse
rave A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mus ...
s in the
Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the River Ribble, Ribble Valley, east of Preston ...
and
Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...
areas. With the assistance of another local DJ, Jon DaSilva, Sasha secured work at The Haçienda, where he learned key mixing (matching melodic keys) from DaSilva and refined his ability to beatmatch (to synchronize the beats of two simultaneously playing records). Though he enjoyed playing at The Haçienda, in 1990 Sasha left for a club called Shelley's Laserdrome in
Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England. It has an estimated population of 259,965 as of 2022, making it the largest settlement in Staffordshire ...
. There, he established part of his signature sound by mixing euphoric acid house music with Italian piano house and emotional
a cappella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...
s. Because of his increased popularity and visibility at Shelley's, ''
Mixmag ''Mixmag'' is a British electronic dance and clubbing magazine published in London. Launched in 1983 as a print magazine, it has branched into dance events, including festivals and club nights. History The first issue of ''Mixmag'' was printe ...
'' featured Sasha on its first cover, under the headline "SASHA MANIA – THE FIRST DJ PINUP?". While continuing to DJ, Sasha began to produce several of his own dance tracks. This, he later noted, was contrary to the career paths of many successful DJs, for whom it was more common to start out as producers. Upon signing a
recording contract A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording act (artist or group), where the act makes an audio recording (or series of recordings) for the label to sell and ...
, he also set up an entire
recording studio A recording studio is a specialized facility for Sound recording and reproduction, recording and Audio mixing, mixing of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home proje ...
at the same time, which led to a "painful learning curve" at the outset. He released his first Remix single, "Appolonia", The Sasha Mixes of the Italo House Track By Indie, under the name ''BM:Ex'' (the name is short for The Barry Manilow Experience, a joke in reference to Sasha's love of the piano), with producer Tom Frederikse on Union City Recordings. After DJing at Shelley's for several years, Sasha left his position because of increasing gang violence in and around the club. As a result of his growing reputation, Sasha was offered work in several
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
and Australian clubs. He accepted, instead, a spot in the DJ rotation at
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
, a club night started by Geoff Oakes at Venue 44 in Mansfield, England. Later in 1993, Sasha, collaborating with Danny Campbell for
Pete Tong Peter Michael Tong (born 30 July 1960) is an English DJ who works for BBC Radio 1. He is the host of programmes such as '' Essential Mix'' and '' Essential Selection'' on the radio service, which can be heard through Internet radio streams, for ...
's
FFRR FFRR Records (sometimes credited as Full Frequency Range Recordings) is a dance music label founded as a subsidiary of London Records in 1986, with A&R run by the British DJ Pete Tong. Originally a part of London Records' label roster, FFRR ...
, produced "Together", his first single under the name ''Sasha''. "Together" peaked on the UK Singles Chart at #57. With this success, Sasha began a series of records for
Deconstruction Records Deconstruction Records is a British record label founded in 1987 by Pete Hadfield and Keith Blackhurst, together with Mike Pickering of M People. According to '' DJ Magazine'' it is "best remembered for marrying underground credibility and div ...
with the singles "Higher Ground" and "Magic" (for which Digweed produced a remix) and ''
The Qat Collection ''The Qat Collection'' is the debut studio album by Welsh DJ Sasha. It was released on 23 August 1994 through Deconstruction Records. The album features co-production from Tom Frederikse and was released with two singles: "Magic" and "Higher G ...
'' with Frederikse and vocalist
Sam Mollison Sam Mollison is an electronic music producer and vocalist. He has collaborated with Sasha for his release of "Magic" and '' The Qat Collection''. He has also had his own work released on FFRR and INCredible Incredible may refer to: Music A ...
.


Career


Digweed era

In early 1993, Sasha partnered with fellow
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
DJ John Digweed. Sasha and Digweed honed their DJing skills, often performing in tandem and focusing on track selection and technical mixing abilities. Renaissance was pleased with their performances, and had the duo compile the triple-CD
mix album A DJ mix or DJ mixset is a sequence of musical tracks typically mixed together by a DJ to appear as one continuous track. DJ mixes are usually performed using a DJ mixer and multiple sounds sources, such as turntables, CD players, digital audi ...
'' Renaissance: The Mix Collection'', releasing it on the club's own Renaissance Records label. The album featured tracks from such artists as
Leftfield Leftfield are a British electronic music group formed in London in 1989, a duo of Neil Barnes and Paul Daley (the latter formerly of The Rivals and A Man Called Adam). The duo was influential in the evolution of electronic music in the 1990s ...
, Fluke, and 2 Bad Mice, and original productions and remixes from Sasha and Digweed. ''The Mix Collection'' was released soon after Sasha's departure from Renaissance in April 1994. Following his success at Renaissance, Sasha was again featured on ''Mixmag'' with the
tagline In entertainment, a tagline (alternatively spelled tag line) is a short text which serves to clarify a thought for, or is designed with a form of, dramatic effect. Many tagline slogans are reiterated phrases associated with an individual, so ...
"SON OF GOD?", though he resented the accolade. After touring together for two years, the duo became "true superstars" with the release of their double CD ''
Northern Exposure ''Northern Exposure'' is an American comedy-drama television series about the eccentric residents in the fictitious town of Cicely, Alaska, that originally aired on CBS from July 12, 1990, to July 26, 1995, with a total of 110 episodes. It rec ...
'' on mega-label
Ministry of Sound Ministry of Sound or Ministry of Sound Group is a multimedia entertainment business based in London with a nightclub, shared workspace and private members' club, worldwide events operation, music publisher (popular music), music publishing busin ...
. Around this time, Sasha began a recurring mentorship and partnership with fellow producer BT with the album '' Ima''. As well as providing guidance for BT, Sasha produced a "euphoric" and "introspective" 42-minute rendition of the album which formed the centrepiece of the UK release and appeared as a "bonus" second disc on the US release. He continued to advance his own production work by pairing with vocalist Maria Nayler to produce the single "Be as One", which reached #17 on the UK singles chart. In 1997, Ministry of Sound released '' Northern Exposure 2'', Sasha and Digweed's next double-CD entry in their Northern Exposure series. To support the album, the duo toured internationally, and in the process helped to define the sound of trance music in the late 1990s. After extensive touring, Digweed and Sasha took up residency at
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
's famous Twilo nightclub, where they would DJ for the entire night. In 1998, the two released separate mix albums on the Boxed label, as part of the Global Underground series: Digweed's '' Global Underground 006: Sydney'', and Sasha's '' Global Underground 009: San Francisco'', which drew from his experience touring on the
West Coast of the United States The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast and the Western Seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the Contiguous United States, contig ...
. Both DJs formed their own record labels that year: Sasha created Excession Records and Digweed started Bedrock Records. Excession released fewer than ten records, the last in 1998; the experience, however, led Sasha to found the management agency Excession: The Agency LTD. Excession remains a booking agency for many DJs, including Hybrid,
Nick Warren Nicholas John Warren (born 24 October 1960) is an English DJ and record producer. He is best known as a member of the electronic music duo Way Out West (duo), Way Out West, his record label and global live events brand, The Soundgarden, and for ...
, and Steve Lawler. Sasha reached a more mainstream audience with his remixes of
Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone ( ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Referred to as the "Queen of Pop", she has been recognized for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, ...
's " Ray of Light" and GusGus's "Purple" for those artists' single releases. His success in pop music led him to score the music for the
PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...
video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
'' Wipeout 3''. In 1999, Sasha and Digweed reunited in the studio to record their third edition in the Northern Exposure series, '' Northern Exposure: Expeditions''. In addition to mixing and DJing, Sasha joined Charlie May of Spooky to produce the '' Xpander EP'', the title track of which many clubbers still view as "one of the greatest trance tracks of all time". He used the title track as a centerpiece for '' Global Underground 013: Ibiza'', his second Global Underground release. Sasha continued his collaborations with BT on the track "Ride", which was released as a single on Yoshitoshi Records and on BT's '' Movement in Still Life''. Soon after, he worked with
Underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...
's
Darren Emerson Darren Paul Emerson (born 30 April 1971) is an English musician, DJ and producer best known as a former member of the British electronic music group Underworld. Career Early life Emerson began mixing hip hop records at the age of 14, and by ...
on the single " Scorchio", Sasha's first charting single in four years. In between touring and producing original material, Sasha and Digweed released the mix album ''
Communicate Communication is commonly defined as the transmission of information. Its precise definition is disputed and there are disagreements about whether unintentional or failed transmissions are included and whether communication not only transmit ...
'' in 2000, prompting them to temporarily leave their Twilo residency for a promotional tour of the United States. ''Communicate'' had mixed reviews: '' Spin'' stated that despite a "few stellar moments, 'Communicate''is ultimately a let-down".
LAUNCHcast Yahoo! Music Radio (formerly known as LAUNCHcast) was an Internet radio service. The service, which featured both an advertising supported free version and a subscription fee-based premium version, allowed users to create personalized Inte ...
, too, described ''Communicate'' as "boring and lackluster...stalled in a monochrome world of dead beats". During the late 1990s, the increased popularity and visibility of "superstar DJs" led to the creation of superclubs such as Liverpool's
Cream Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this proces ...
and Sheffield's Gatecrasher. By 2003, however, electronic dance music clubs languished. ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
s pop critic, Alexis Petridis, attributed the "terminal decline" of dance music to its over-commercialisation by big-name DJs, such as Sasha, and to their demands for increased fees for performances. Though dance music had been declared "dead" by many in the dance industry, Sasha continued to tour—despite the closing of many superclubs, including his resident club Twilo in May 2001. After the closing of Twilo, Sasha and Digweed embarked on their ambitious Delta Heavy Tour of the United States in 2002. Featuring veteran tour producer Kevin Lyman and opening act Jimmy Van M, the tour covered 31 cities and played to 85,000 people. The appearances, complete with laser shows and video production, were more akin to rock concerts than to typical DJ events. This development was new to the DJing scene, and compelled other DJs to host similar concerts. A DVD of performance highlights, interviews, and behind-the-scenes footage was released as '' Sasha & John Digweed present Delta Heavy'' by System Recordings. Ben Turner, creator of the DanceStar awards, retrospectively described the Delta Heavy tour as "a landmark moment for electronic music". Though the duo of Sasha and Digweed never explicitly split up, demanding schedules and frequent independent touring prevented any substantial collaboration for a long period after Delta Heavy.


Post-Digweed

During the latter half of 2002, Sasha collaborated with
big beat Big beat is an electronic music genre that usually uses heavy breakbeats and synthesizer-generated loops and patterns – common to acid house/techno. The term has been used by the British music industry to describe music by artists such as the ...
artist
Junkie XL Tom Holkenborg (born 8 December 1967), also known as Junkie XL, is a Dutch composer, multi-instrumentalist, DJ, producer, and engineer. Originally known for his trance productions, he has moved to producing electronica and big beat music and fil ...
on the single "Breezer". Junkie XL, along with Charlie May, also assisted Sasha on his second album of original material, '' Airdrawndagger''. ''Airdrawndagger'' took several years to produce due to Sasha's desire for the album to be "as near to perfection as possible." That March, Sasha suffered a
perforated eardrum A perforated eardrum (tympanic membrane perforation) is a prick in the eardrum. It can be caused by infection ( otitis media), trauma, overpressure (loud noise), inappropriate ear clearing, and changes in middle ear pressure. An otoscope can be ...
in a traffic accident, further delaying the album's production. Though the accident temporarily impaired his hearing, he drew inspiration for the album from his ordeal. ''Airdrawndagger'' was finally released, in August 2002, to much fanfare. However, the album was "received with a lot of head scratching", according to Sasha, which he attributed to its unexpected mix of genres. The album did not feature the heavier "club sound" of Sasha's previous mix albums, bearing a closer resemblance to
ambient music Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes Musical tone, tone and atmosphere over traditional Musical form, musical structure or rhythm. Often "peaceful" sounding and lacking Musical composition, composition, beat, and/or structured melod ...
. ''Airdrawndagger'' generally received favorable reviews, though critics noted that it was not as consistent and well produced as his DJ mixes. Sasha himself described it as "a selfish, slightly self-indulgent record", though he maintains that he is "happy with it to this day". Some critics, however, called it "sleepy"; '' E!Online'' described it as being "more in league with
Yanni Yiannis Chryssomallis (; born November 14, 1954), known professionally as Yanni ( ), is a Greek composer, keyboardist, pianist, and music producer. Yanni continues to use the musical shorthand that he developed as a child, blending jazz, clas ...
than
Moby Richard Melville Hall (September 11, 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, disc jockey, and animal rights activist. He has sold 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic considers him to be "amo ...
". To encourage listeners' interest, Sasha held an amateur remix contest for the album's single, " Wavy Gravy". Due to the contest's success, Sasha released all the tracks from ''Airdrawndagger'' on his website, so that fans could download and create their own versions. After the release of ''Airdrawndagger'', Sasha took the young DJ James Zabiela "under his wing". He introduced Zabiela to the CDJ1000 turntable, and signed Zabiela to the Excession talent agency. The two toured the United States together, which extended Sasha's influence to already-popular American DJs such as Kimball Collins. In 2004, Sasha signed with Global Underground to produce another mix album. However, he found the process of creating a standard mix album unrewarding, and decided to apply his production and DJing skills to a mix compilation that resembled a "real" album—that is, one featuring original material. Sasha's next studio album, '' Involver'', was "a fusion of mix album and production record", consisting entirely of Sasha's reworkings of tracks by other artists. "I tried to take all the separate sounds to all the tracks nd recombine them, he later explained, "and it allowed me to mix the tracks together on a much deeper level." He accomplished this by
sequencing In genetics and biochemistry, sequencing means to determine the primary structure (sometimes incorrectly called the primary sequence) of an unbranched biopolymer. Sequencing results in a symbolic linear depiction known as a sequence which succ ...
the album using Ableton Live and
Logic Pro Logic Pro is a proprietary digital audio workstation (DAW) and MIDI sequencer software application for the macOS platform developed by Apple Inc. It was originally created in the early 1990s as Notator Logic, or Logic, by German software devel ...
. Ableton Live is a
music loop In music, a loop is a repeating section of sound material. Short sections can be repeated to create ostinato patterns. Longer sections can also be repeated: for example, a player might loop what they play on an entire verse of a song in order to ...
-based software package that Sasha uses to engineer tracks in real-time, whereas he used Logic Pro primarily for premeditated edits to audio tracks. In 2005, Sasha produced his next mix album, '' Fundacion NYC'', based on his nights DJing in New York at the Crobar club. ''Fundacion NYC'' received positive reviews for its originality, though ''JIVE Magazine'' found it "too complicated for the ear". Sasha is pleased with the album, and plans to make a series of Fundacion albums. The next year, Sasha released 10,000 copies of a June 2006 DJ set for sale using Instant Live, making him the first DJ to use Instant Live's licensing and publishing services. In August 2007, Sasha announced the formation of his record label, Emfire, which will be the exclusive outlet for his new material in both vinyl and digital formats. Its first release was "COMA", a collaborative track by a group of the same name, which features Sasha, Barry Jamieson, Charlie May, and Duncan Forbes. While continuing to regularly DJ, Sasha began work on another ''Involver'' mix and the next ''Fundacion'' mix. Sasha's '' Invol2ver'' was released in September 2008, and '' Invol<3r'' was released in March 2013.


Reuniting with Digweed

Though frequent performing kept them apart for several years, Sasha and Digweed announced that they would reunite for a few Australian performances. In November 2006, the duo performed at several venues, including
Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
,
Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...
, and
Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
as well as numerous tour dates throughout 2007. In 2008, Sasha and Digweed kicked off an American tour with a performance at the Winter Music Conference. The duo played at mainly larger venues on the weekends and smaller (750–1000 people) shows on weekdays. Sasha described their music as "driving and dark" with "a little throwback of Twilo sounds". Sasha runs a music studio and lives in New York City, and maintains a house in London. He brings his wife with him on his frequent tours. Sasha finds the constant touring to be physically tiring, though he also feels that he thrives on it. While fans may regard Sasha to be a DJ "hero", he is uneasy with fame; Sasha considers himself "shy at heart" and is typically uncomfortable discussing his personal life. He has mentioned on numerous occasions that he is so busy with DJing and production that he rarely has any free time. However, he enjoys watching
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
, cooking, and sampling the cuisine of the countries he visits. The movie "New Emissions of Light & Sound" won the Best Original Score at the X-Dance Film Festival. The score was made up of new and previously unreleased tracks. Sasha and Digweed have re-united again in recent years. The iconic duo Sasha & John Digweed performed a Back to Back set at the Ministry of Sound in London on 24 March 2016. Shortly thereafter, the duo announced a list of tour dates for September 2016 to re-launch themselves in a series of gigs and performing Back to Back.


Musical genres

Influenced by the early sound of The Haçienda, Sasha began his career playing records of the rough, danceable genre of acid house. By the early 1990s, he had moved towards a more dark European
house music House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 115–130 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground ...
style, though by the time of his Shelley's residency he had begun to experiment more with American house. His tastes further developed as he moved to Renaissance, and he began to incorporate the pop-based sounds of
Moby Richard Melville Hall (September 11, 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, disc jockey, and animal rights activist. He has sold 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic considers him to be "amo ...
, Spooky, and
Leftfield Leftfield are a British electronic music group formed in London in 1989, a duo of Neil Barnes and Paul Daley (the latter formerly of The Rivals and A Man Called Adam). The duo was influential in the evolution of electronic music in the 1990s ...
. Sasha's second Digweed collaboration, 1997's ''Northern Exposure'', was described as "epic house", and subsequent releases featured the spacey and atmospheric trance house sound of artists such as
Sven Väth Sven Väth (born 26 October 1964) is a German DJ and electronic music producer. He is a three-time DJ Awards winner, with a career in electronic music spanning over 30 years. The release of the single " Electrica Salsa" with OFF in 1986 launched ...
, Matt Darey, Tilt, and Armin Van Buuren. A rhythmic and bassy
progressive house Progressive house is a subgenre of house music that emerged in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. It is characterized by its evolving, melodic Musical form, structures, subtle Transition (music), transitions, and layered sound design.Gerard, ...
influence distinguished his ''Xpander EP'' and the mix albums of the late 1990s. At the time, Sasha's music rotation included records by artists such as Space Manoeuvres, BT, and Breeder, and Sander Kleinenberg's single "My Lexicon". With the 2000 album ''Communicate'', the duo's work moved towards a deeper and darker house music sound. The album featured tracks by
Morel ''Morchella'', the true morels, is a genus of edible sac fungi closely related to anatomically simpler cup fungi in the order Pezizales ( division Ascomycota). These distinctive fungi have a honeycomb appearance due to the network of ridges ...
, Mainline, and Jimmy Van M. The focus shifted from the melodic themes of previous releases in favour of a stronger emphasis on the bassline. The Delta Heavy Tour and '' Airdrawndagger'' marked a dramatic shift in style, and reflected the influences of relaxed ambient and
breakbeat Breakbeat is a broad type of electronic music that uses drum breaks, often sampled from early recordings of funk, jazz, and R&B. Breakbeats have been used in styles such as Florida breaks, hip-hop, jungle, drum and bass, big beat, breakbeat ...
music on Sasha's work. These influences inspired the album's strong melodies, occasional breakbeat loops, and limited use of percussion. ''Involver'' was primarily a fusion of the musical style of house and ambient breakbeat music characterised by
UNKLE Unkle (often stylised as U.N.K.L.E. or UNKLE, occasionally known as UNKLE Sounds) is a British musical outfit founded in 1992 by James Lavelle. Originally categorised as trip hop, the group once included producer DJ Shadow and have employed a ...
and Lostep. With 2005's ''Fundacion'', Sasha's style was mostly progressive house and
electro house Electro house is a genre of electronic dance music and a subgenre of house music characterized by heavy bass and a tempo around 125–135 beats per minute. The term has been used to describe the music of many ''DJ Mag'' Top 100 DJs, including ...
music, with work by James Holden, Tiefschwarz, and Swayzak. With his success in progressive house, Sasha has commented that he feels people try to "pigeon-hole" him into playing that genre. Rather than calling it progressive house, Sasha considers his most recent material to be between house, trance, and breaks, though he has stated that he prefers not to associate himself with a specific genre of music.


Techniques and technology

Sasha attributes his success to his technical skill and ability to "connect with his dancers". During performances, he balances new and experimental material, while ensuring that "the party is still rockin'". His spontaneity carries over to studio work; he typically has only a vague idea of the track listing when beginning work on a new mix album. Because of this, his albums never turn out quite as he expects. Sasha is known for applying new music technologies to both his studio and live work. Both Sasha and Digweed used
Pro Tools Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture (sound design, audio post-productio ...
on Mac computers when mixing their compilation albums, and used turntables and records during live performances. For their remixes, however, they used an
Atari ST Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the company's Atari 8-bit computers, 8-bit computers. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985, and was widely available i ...
—an obsolete
personal computer A personal computer, commonly referred to as PC or computer, is a computer designed for individual use. It is typically used for tasks such as Word processor, word processing, web browser, internet browsing, email, multimedia playback, and PC ...
from the early 1990s—with Notator, a
music sequencer A music sequencer (or audio sequencer or simply sequencer) is a device or application software that can record, edit, or play back music, by handling Musical note, note and performance information in several forms, typically CV/Gate, MIDI, or Open ...
used for arranging audio tracks. For more recent albums such as ''Fundacion NYC'', Sasha used Ableton Live for sequencing, partially because of Pro Tools' higher price. In live performances up to the late 1990s, Sasha performed exclusively using records. Before he started using the CDJ1000, a "turntable" used for CDs, he had his digital music specially cut to acetate records before each tour. Once he integrated CDs into his live act, Sasha operated CDJ1000s with Allen & Heath mixers and FireworX. Sasha began DJing with Ableton Live in his live act as well, using it in tandem with turntables. Having explored its functionality, Sasha found that he could perform entirely through Ableton Live. He then co-developed the Maven controller, which he uses as a physical interface to the Live software. (DJing with a
mouse A mouse (: mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus'' ...
alone, he has said, is "not going to look right or feel right".) ''Fundacion NYC'' was the first album on which he regularly used the Maven controller. During DJ sets, clubbers often believe Sasha is playing new, unheard remixes; in fact, he is often playing modifications of tracks created in Ableton. Sasha most often uses the built-in Ableton plugins, preferring their superior stability and performance over third party plugins. For the first public performance of ''Involver'' material, he used a PowerBook running Ableton, but has since shifted to a setup that includes an iMac G5 and Ableton Live. The
Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...
has affected how Sasha obtains and uses tracks for performance. While he once hunted through record shops for new records on a regular basis, Sasha now regularly receives new tracks from producers and labels via the Internet. These tracks, which number in the hundreds each week, are edited by Sasha and others for use in his live DJ sets. He still buys hundreds of records on vinyl, which are then recorded and converted into music files prior to being edited in Ableton by his team of engineers. In February 2013, Sasha spoke to
Resident Advisor ''Resident Advisor'' (also known as ''RA'') is an online music magazine and community platform established in 2001 and dedicated to showcasing electronic music, artists and events across the globe. Its editorial team provides news, music and ev ...
about his decision to change from using Live and the Maven controller to a combination of
Native Instruments Native Instruments is a German company that develops, manufactures, and supplies music software and hardware for music production, sound design, performance, and DJing. The company's corporate headquarters and main development facilities are lo ...
' Traktor and CDs in his DJ sets. He felt that whilst Ableton Live had developed significantly as production software, it had become less successful as a DJing tool.


Awards and nominations

In 2005, the
Grammy The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...
committee debated whether his mix compilation album, '' Involver'', was eligible for nomination as Best Electronic/Dance Album.
The Recording Academy National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc. (NARAS), doing business as The Recording Academy, is an American Learned society, learned academy of musicians, producers, recording engineers, and other musical professionals. It is widely kno ...
decided that the album was eligible, but ''Involver'' did not receive a nomination. Sasha did receive a Grammy nomination for his remix of Felix da Housecat's "Watching Cars Go By", which was featured on ''Involver''.


Discography

Studio albums * ''
The Qat Collection ''The Qat Collection'' is the debut studio album by Welsh DJ Sasha. It was released on 23 August 1994 through Deconstruction Records. The album features co-production from Tom Frederikse and was released with two singles: "Magic" and "Higher G ...
'' (1994) * '' Airdrawndagger'' (2002) * '' Scene Delete'' (2016)


Notes


References


External links

* * * *
Sasha Tracklisting archive

Sasha DJ Sets Videos
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sasha 1969 births Welsh trance musicians Welsh club DJs Welsh DJs Welsh house musicians Living people Musicians from Bangor, Gwynedd Welsh remixers Welsh record producers Welsh progressive house musicians Welsh electronic dance music DJs Night Time Stories artists BT Digital Music Awards winners Deconstruction Records artists Welsh electronic musicians