A few years ago, UK DJ/producer Sasha brought something to the table that transformed the way dance music was perceived, and in the same breathe he bucked the trend of dance artist albums: it was called Involver. Now, four years later we have the follow up Invol2ver which once again, stretches the boundaries, tests the trends, and gives us something different, but remains uniquely oh-so Sasha. Ambient. Energetic. Hypnotic. Soothing. Fascinating. The adjectives are endless, but ultimately what it is a series of delicately blended tracks that create a finished product that is not just your ordinary DJ mix. This folks, is a masterpiece.

Invol2ver once again represents an unconventional approach to the format of a mix CD, one that sees Sasha and his production posse Coma reworking and remixing a number of musical gems. The peaceful Intro from Badger smoothly sets us on our journey, morphing nicely into an almost eerie You Are the Worst Thing in the World from Telefon Tel Aviv. Things remain settled, and together with his amazing remix of Flesh from Rone, it’s Sasha and prog to an absolute tee. Like an impressive painting, you want to just sit back and enjoy. However, you want to look deeper, knowing that if you look harder, more will come. And it does. One of the prevailing beauties of Sasha’s work here is that rather than just planting a song somewhere because it might sound good, but rather each song seems specifically chosen for the ongoing purpose of him setting the scene before you.

We zoom into Eclipse , his collaboration with Ray LaMontagne, and the driving rhythms picking up just a notch, before fusing into Lowlife to form a nice double-header that’s one of many highlights of the album. Both tracks featuring vocal cuts scattered throughout, providing for a nice ebb and flow feel, but the journey still continues: the image continues to take shape. The sound remains deep and brooding, moving through Midnight from Charlie May into a hell of a tune in the manner of Arcadia from Apparat. In this remix, Sasha leaves a touch of a vocal that comes out almost angelic, and if you can imagine an upbeat track that’s also laidback, well this is it.

It makes way for That You Might from Home Video, and once again there are vocals that seamlessly ride the wave of the mood and the sound, rather than disturbing it. And this is nowhere more prevalent than in his work on Destroy Everything You Touch by Ladytron: with a thumping bass line, some tricked-up vocals and grinding tweaks, this track has serious balls. It’s the highpoint of the release, and it’s almost like he is slowly but surely painting a picture. Our eyes glide across, and into the persistent pattern of Couleurs from M83, before unearthing the ‘holy shit, this so belongs here’ vocals of Thom Yorke in The Eraser. Sasha’s retooling here is spot on: the driving beats, the thumping bass, it cannot get much better than this. He takes us to the highest of highs, keeps us there, then edges us again slowly, step by step, into his own 3 Little Piggys as the beats keep on keeping on. Seriously, I’m physically unable to wait for the moment I hear this song in a live set.

Despite all the arguable ups and downs, there remains a stylistic consistency to the landscape offered by Sasha. The masterpiece almost complete, his finishing touches take the form of his take Sometimes I Realise from the Engineers, and you can feel yourself taking a step back, admiring the sight before you, and appreciating it all for what it’s worth. An absolute gem.

Check the tracklisting…

01. Badger – Intro
02. Telefon Tel Aviv – You Are The Worst Thing In The World (Invol2ver Remix)
03. Rone – Flesh (Invol2ver Remix)
04. Sasha vs Ray LaMontagne – Eclipse (Ray LaMontagne Vocal Version)
05. Sasha vs Adam Parker – Lowlife (Adam Parker Vocal Sample)
06. Charlie May – Midnight (Adam Parker Vocal Sample)
07. Apparat – Arcadia (Invol2ver Remix)
08. Home Video – That You Might (Invol2ver Remix)
09. Ladytron – Destroy Everything You Touch (Invol2ver Remix)
10. M83 – Couleurs
11. Thom Yorke – The Eraser (Invol2ver Remix)
12. Sasha – 3 Little Piggys
13. Engineers – Sometimes I Realise (Invol2ver Remix)

Check out Sasha talking about his new album…