“We’re all really happy with it. A lot of work went into it, and we’re really pleased with the way it’s been received, and the way it’s sold. It’s a hard market to sell in these days but it’s doing well.” Sasha may have kept us waiting a solid four years for a sequel to his Involver project, a hybrid remix and artist album of sorts that saw the legendary UK DJ/producer handpicking a diverse selection of artists and giving them his own deft electronic touch. Invol2ver has finally reached us in late ‘08, and the general response from Sasha fans is that it’s lived up to their lofty expectations; which is no mean feat in itself. “They have fairly high expectations. I usually disappoint them unfortunately,” Sasha laughs. “But you can’t please everyone. I think some people would be happy if I kept on churning out copies of Xpander... For myself, I just keep on trying to push forward and reinvent what I’m doing. Sometimes I get it right.”
In this case, Sasha managed to get the balance just right. Invol2ver should easily place itself as one of the strongest dance releases of ‘08, and whether you count yourself as a fan of Sasha’s legacy or not, it stands tall as one of the most polished and intricately detailed pieces of electronic music we’ve been treated to in the past few years. A number of notable artists have again been put through the Sasha remix grinder, including Telefon Tel Aviv, Ladytron, M83 and most notably Thom Yorke; but it’s the release’s own unmistakable sound that stands tall above any of these guest appearances. Something that runs deep through Invol2ver is the theme of ‘white noise’, unassuming hisses and drones that have been carefully crafted as a backdrop to the sublime melodies, and it turns out these were all plucked from the streets around Sasha’s New York studio where the album was recorded. Trains, taxis, air-conditioning units – they were all captured with a handheld recorder. Invol2ver boasts a level of sonic detail that nearly spins the head.
“That’s kind of where we get our whole buzz from, the whole sound design element and making that stuff work without it sounding cluttered and messy and ‘too much’. It’s easy to layer and layer and layer stuff until you end up killing the piece of music, so how you use it all is very important. We’re all quite obsessive about that unfortunately, which is why our records take a little longer than people might like.”
Arguably, Sasha’s productions have been few and far between over the years, and he’s often solicited the services of uber-producers like Junkie XL to assist him in capturing his musical ideas. Most recently, the bulk of his studio work has come from his Coma collective, Sasha’s ‘dream team’ of producers that includes the formidable musical talents of Barry Jamieson, Duncan Forbes and Charlie May. However, with Sasha it’s a case of ‘quality over quantity’ as most of his releases have been kissed with the sort of spine-tingling impact that ensures they’re not quickly forgotten. Witness his late 90s progressive trance anthem Xpander, which still gets a massive reaction whenever it’s whipped out in a club, or the fever that surrounded the release of his debut artist album Airdrawndagger back in ‘02. They all carry that same indefinable ‘Sasha’ vibe that runs throughout all his work, regardless of who he’s sharing the studio with. It’s this sense of ‘Sasha’ that comes through stronger than ever on Invol2ver, and it’s more focused than ever too.
“I definitely think this record has a much more ‘pure’ sound than the last Involver, which had quite an eclectic vibe to it. It had Spanish guitars on there, rock tracks and it moved around in tempo quite a lot. But a hell of a lot has changed in the music scene since we were working on the last Involver, and I kind of wanted to put my flag in the ground a little bit and say, ‘This is where my sound is at’. I felt if we’d done another record that was all over the place, it would have carried a confusing message. I wanted to make a record that had a definite sound to it, so I could say ‘this is where my head is at now’. I think some of the criticisms of the last Involver was that it did move around a little too much, maybe the purists didn’t like that so much.”
Couple the success of Invol2ver with the release of his Emfire Collection not too long before, and it’s been a prolific year for Sasha. There’s a sense out there among his (slightly obsessive) fans that he’s going through a creative renaissance, both as a DJ and as a producer. Does he feel like there’s any truth to this? “I don’t know, I never really feel that things are changing too much,” he says, and it’s clear Sasha isn’t really comfortable with having his every move analysed in such a fashion. “But I definitely feel this year that the kind of music that I like to play, the more deep and melodic stuff, there’s a lot more of it out there and for me personally it’s been a great year for music. I’m only as good as the records that I play, or the records that I can find. Maybe over the last couple of years it’s been difficult to find stuff that’s melodic and really works in my sets, but this year there’s been an abundance of it. Ever since getting ready for the Music Conference in Miami this year I got bombarded by these amazing, deep but euphoric and warm sounding records. It’s definitely been a good year for music, so I guess I’ve ridden that wave a little bit.”
Sasha began his career in amongst the legendary acid house scene in the late ‘80s, making him truly one of the original ‘superstar DJs’, and with every new release comes the pressure to prove he’s still got what it takes – that he’s still relevant and ‘involved’. “After not putting a record out for three years, and in that time there’s been a lot of attention put on the German DJs, minimal techno and all that sort of stuff. So it was really important to come back with a strong record,” he says. “It was a chance to say, ‘I’m still here, I’m still relevant, I’m still important’… because the attention had maybe moved away from the music I was playing.”
But while Sasha may have faced some stiff competition recently from the Berlin techno hounds, at the end of the day there’s another formidable foe that’ll forever prove his toughest rival – his own mythology. After all, this is the guy who led the charge with that epic brand progressive house that reached a peak in the late 90s, and who released Global Underground’s seminal Ibiza compilation. Sasha carried quite an enigma about him in those heady days: how could he possibly ever live up to that? “You can’t please every single person. Some people that might have started going out ten years ago, and really were close to a certain sound I played that I don’t really play anymore. Maybe they don’t go out so much anymore, so they hold onto something that’s old. That’s fair enough. But for me, as long as I’m still excited by what I’m doing; there’s not much more that I can do than that.”
For those of us who are digging Sasha’s vibe in 2008, there’s not long to wait as he’ll be playing at the inaugural Global Gathering tour later this month, which will see him ramping up the BPMs for a driving festival set. “It’s gonna be different to my club sets… I’m gonna be playing some ‘bigger’ records. But it’s gonna be exciting, obviously the lineup is amazing so I’m excited about that.”
Sasha’s Invol2ver is out now through Stomp, and you can catch him on the Global Gathering tour later this month….
Sat Nov 22nd – Global Gathering, Melbourne
Sun Nov 23rd – Global Gathering, Perth
Sat Nov 29th – Foreshore, Canberra
Sat Nov 29th – Global Gathering, Brisbane
Sun Nov 30th – Global Gathering, Sydney
For all the latest on Global Gathering head to ITM’s festival page – inthemix.com.au/globalgathering.
brenly says...
HELL YEAHHH!!!
ekul says...
Great interview!!!!
locky says...
Makes tiesto look like a muppet !
trancejunkii says...
"which will see him ramping up the BPMs for a driving festival set. “It’s gonna be different to my club sets… I’m gonna be playing some ‘bigger’ records." oooooh very tasty indeed, can we expect sum old school sounding sasha stuff?? ramp up the bpm :D
king_james says...
well i plan on seeing him at global. looking forward to seeing if he's all he is cracked up to be
NTrance1 says...
Sasha is a genius! And a perfectionist ... he doesn't always get it right (as he says in the interview) but when he does - like Invol2ver - it is pretty damn awe inspiring! Can't wait to see him again at GG!
wana4q says...
Invol2ver is amazing. Every time I start listening to it, I _always_ have to listen right through till the end... cannot wait to see what he has in store for us at GG :D
forbidden says...
Sasha's the man!!
spaso27 says...
F#@king Legend!
begirl says...
Sasha is fantastic, everything Iv ever heard im produce is be complete quality. I would love to see at Global Gathering.... but I think it would ruin it for me.... the acoustics of the Sydney Myer Music Bowl are terrible ... does anyone know if he will be playing in a club anytime soon? thanx B
Elliot G says...
All types of awesomeness.
brenly says...
SIDESHOW SIDESHOW SIDESHOW!!! p.s. tiesto is a muppet.
youngman says...
Great interview - the man is a study in consistency
Spekman says...
SIDESHOW!!!! PLEASE SIDESHOW!!!!
Jose Mourinho says...
Can't wait!! Good to see that he will be banging it out as well
Ethereal1 says...
didn't you guys that sasha doesn't produce his own tunes, he just pays people to do it and puts his name on it lol, but loved the new invol2ver cd
brenly says...
sasha was born as a studio! with keyboard fingers, snare sneezes and input/output sockets! where's your proof?