Submitted By: xxDxx

Genre: Progressive

Date of Set: Mar 24th, 2007

Filesize: 72.87 MB

Total Downloads: 28

There are DJs who turn up, play records and make people dance. And there are producers who make the dancefloor-igniting records those DJs will kill for. There are very few people in dance music who can do both and Sasha is the leader of the pack. Ever since he rode in on a tidal wave of adoration from the North of England's explosive early 90s club scene, that magic touch has made Alexander Coe one of the most famous, most revered DJ on the planet.

It's because of what he can do with music - the way he can make good records sound better, great records sound awesome, and everything he plays into his own. The way his mixes take elements from across the spectrum of electronic dance, from trance, breaks, progressive and deep house, and create a languidly hypnotic liquid groove. The way his understanding of both melody and momentum can tease, taunt, and en-trance a dancefloor before unleashing a record that will have people not just leaping up and down but bursting with emotion. The best DJs know that Djing is first about being able to read people and then about being able to tap into that human experience and take it on a journey. Sasha has always been noted for being a master at this and it is this universal appeal that he has tapped into that has established his strong fanbase around the globe.

Do not be mistaken, this kind of recognition does not happen overnight. Born and raised in a small town in Wales, Sasha was exposed to Motown records when he was just a baby and it was in the home that his talent for playing the piano was developed. His stepmother forced him to take lessons. At the time, he hated them, but after his first studio session - and this is typical Sasha - he phoned her to say thank you. His first exposure to house music was at Manchester's Hacienda; just as dance music exploded into the summer of love. One visit and the young pony-tailed Sasha was hooked. 'The smoke machine, the strobe lights, everyone trance dancing, wearing bandanas and smiley T-shirts,' he smiles now. 'It definitely had a fuck-you attitude compared to the rest of pop music.' This impact encouraged his move from Wales to Manchester. His first exploration into Djing was when a DJ in a local pub announced he was looking for people to play club dates. Sasha volunteered and now says that he 'had about 30 records and basically just blagged it'.

After honing his deck technique, Sasha's first big break came when he was offered a residency at Stokes legendary club Shelly's. When all the other DJ's were playing US House, Sasha's style was much more uplifting, and he encapsulated clubbers with his mixture of piano led Italian House whilst playing acapella tracks over the top. This combination alongside a wide variety of anthems kept dancefloors full and elevated Sasha to hero status. And, lets not forget, in a world where the DJ had too often been bespectacled nerds, here the headline DJ had the looks and charm to match his growing following. In classic rock n' roll style, here was a star that boys wanted to hang out with and girls wanted to get just that little more bit close to.

Shelly's was the launch pad for the residency at Renaissance, where Sasha created his niche and helped forge a new style in UK house music. At Renaissance two major things happened; Sasha mixed the first ever UK DJ mix album and he met John Digweed which cemented the partnership known as 'Northern Exposure'. Sasha and John have played together on five continents, have mixed 3 'Northern Exposure' albums which have sold to over 1 million people worldwide. This special brother like relationship that Sasha and Digweed have on the decks, is what landed them the monthly residency at New York's 'Twilo', following in the footsteps of Vasquez and Tenaglia.

The first DJ cover star - on Mixmag in early 1991 - the still shy DJ was freaked. 'I was so used to going to places and just hanging out. Suddenly there was a stream of people coming up,' he recalls. 'Of course it's bound to happen. You go to Liverpool and you're the first 'pin-up' DJ and you're going to get shit. Frankly, It still weirds me out.' Today he still remains shy at heart. 'I'm not very good in social situations where I'm put on the spot,' he says. 'Like meeting new people, small talk. Just never been good with that.' It's this contradiction - the coyness that Alexander Coe has when it comes to being Sasha, that's at the core of the Sasha myth.

Although Sasha has clearly reached a celebrity status, it's his generous personality, his love for his peers and of course his completely candid humour that has enabled him to maintain such a likeable high profile in the often-fickle world of club culture. Sasha has gone from DJ to superstar status in America, where 'Sarsha' is a household name for many teenagers - a gruelling three month tour took their sound further out into deepest America, preaching a gospel of repetitive beats and imaginative mixing from coast to coast, and right through the mid western heartland of the States. A punishing gig-a-night schedule that must make nights like the opening of Space in Ibiza in June seem like a holiday by comparison.

There followed a move back into releasing his own music, collaborating with the former Underworld mainstay, DJ Darren Emerson on 'Scorchio'. For Sasha, music is his first love, and what gives him a buzz is being able to share his music with others. Soon after 'Scorchio' came the first concrete proof of the long-awaited, debut Sasha longplayer.

'Airdrawndagger' took his nose for the dancefloor's g-spot and combined it with the ears for a heartstring strumming melody, a smile inducing hook and dirty great b-line to create a 69 minute symphony that sounds as wistfully enchanting doing the hoovering at home as it does reaching for the lasers on Saturday night. Like the best Sasha DJ set you ever heard, it has melancholy mixed with euphoria, downtempo introspection mixed with jump n' shout excitement.

Across the 11 tracks, there's the time and space to reflect his love for music that rarely gets the chance to shine in clubs, whether that's punishingly gnarly breakbeats or glittering modern classical film scores. It's a symphony for all ravers that grew up but never grew out of chasing that buzz. A record of a journey that began, as so many did, in the smoke and strobes of Manchester's Hacienda nightclub and has now taken him to Midwestern stadia and around the globe.

And that's an award-winning journey. The Delta Heavy Tour that consisted of Sasha, John Digweed and Johnny Van M and took in 35 gigs between March and May last year was recently awarded Best Dance Event at the Dancestar Awards 2003. It was a series of gigs that took DJing into unprecedented waters - two mammoth tour buses, visuals by the company behind hit movie 7even's intense opening credit sequence, and crowds of up to 15,000 clubbers crammed into arenas, warehouses and theatres across the United States. The success was such that Sasha and the boys will be back on the road to do it all again, bigger, better, badder come Spring next year.

After a summer of dates across the globe, including sets at Homelands, Creamfields, Dance Valley, and hosting a stage in the forest of the Mount Fuji Festival, Sasha has been in the studio again, working on new plans and ideas, and most recently remixing the forthcoming UNKLE single. Expect a few surprises over the coming months, for the man simply refuses to stand still.

Submitted By: xxDxx

Genre: Progressive

Date of Set: Mar 24th, 2007

Filesize: 72.87 MB

Total Downloads: 28

The word 'bedrock' holds two connotations. Literally, it is a solid mass of rock that lies underneath layers of loose, unconsolidated soil. Figuratively speaking, it refers to a basic principle, an irrefutable, fundamental idea upon which other thoughts and movements are derived. Whichever definition you apply, British DJ-producer John Digweed and his 10 year-old Bedrock club event have lived up to its implications.

While lesser DJs bow to the whims of clubland fad and fashion, Digweed continues to stand as a reliable, steadfast pillar of dance floor excellence. He brings the same douse of driving enthusiasm and inspiring innovation to his two-and-a-half year old residency at Manhattan superclub Twilo (where he reigns with Sasha) as he did to his first Bedrock events in Hastings more than 10-years ago, where he emerged as a fresh, young talent who mesmerized faithful audiences with his soul-stirring progressive dance tunes.

His resume of accomplishments makes his proteges swoon and his contemporaries nervous. He served as a resident at the northern club Renaissance during its early-to-mid nineties heyday. He was the first U.K. DJ (with Sasha) to hold a club residency in the U.S. He's consistently voted one of the top 10 international DJs in prestigious club culture publications such as DJ Magazine and Muzik. He's a talent whose appearances in locales such as Australia, Africa, and Asia are met with the same fervor and excitement they receive in Europe and America. And this DJ superstar continues to stay on the rise.

It's perfection he takes to his Bedrock club event, which celebrated one year of holding court at London's famed club Heaven in October 1999. It, like Digweed himself, has stood time's grueling test, graduating from its role as a humble hangout for punters looking for an excuse to party on a weekday night to become a globally-revered, outrageously respected club event whose rotation of world-class DJ talents and back-to-basics mentality prompted Muzik to list it in the top 10 of its '21 Clubs For The 21st Century.' Of Bedrock's 1998 premier at Heaven, Time Out magazine said, 'There haven't been too many things to salivate over in London club land recently, but the prospect of (Bedrock), the new John Digweed monthly residency at Heaven, has left the cognoscente positively drooling.' One year later, the sentiment remains true, as Bedrock has seen the talents of Sasha, Carl Cox, Paul van Dyk, Basement Jaxx, Grooverider, Adam Freeland, Hybrid, The Light, Slacker, and countless other walk through its doors and bring the most enthralling dance sounds to appreciative crowds every other Thursday evening for a measly 5 pounds a head.

It's the same strive towards excellence he brings to his work as a musician. His tracks, recorded with partner Nick Muir under, you guessed it, the moniker Bedrock, are bona fide classics, meshing the deep, luxurious hues of house with the atmospheric rush of trance in Digweed's characteristic style. 1993's 'For What You Dream Of,' the quintessential Bedrock tune, found its way from the Renaissance dance floor into the film adaptation of Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting in 1996. 'Heaven Scent,' the latest opus, has been embraced by every important DJ with a clue. And his most recent reconfigurations of cuts by Satoshi Tomiie featuring Kelly Ali from Sneaker Pimps, Danny Tenaglia, and DJs Heller and Farley, plus others have made him one of the most respected and in-demand remixers of the year.

And it's the same distinctive flair and unrelenting passion with which he has delivered the first Bedrock mix CD, released in the U.S. on Ultra Records. Following on the heels of his and Sasha's groundbreaking Northern Exposure DJ mix series -- the third volume, Expeditions, was released in the spring of 1999 to overwhelmingly positive response on both continents, Bedrock is a two-disc set that truly captures John Digweed at his best, and represents his unique signature style that's driven with his sexy and dark-funky twisted house to his relentless, hypnotic progressive trance. A journey that highlights talents from both sides of the pond, including tracks by up-and-coming U.S. producers -- POB & Taylor, Sandra Collins, Tiny Trendies, BPT Feat. Danny Morales, Morel and others -- as well as the latest Bedrock smash. A course that demonstrates the global character of club culture as it moves into the next millennium by creating an artistic bridge that between East and West, London and New York, trance and house. An offering that, like none other before it, reflects Digweed's tri-fold personae as visionary club promoter, forward-thinking producer and exalted DJ.

A strong, steadfast foundation on which the ever-expanding global club culture continues to lean. A standard by which all other promoters, producers and DJs can be measured. With the talent and ambition that has a way of separating the diamonds from the rough, John Digweed's Bedrock is set to move you in more ways than you can imagine.

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