Sasha - FundacioNnyc

Genre dance Publisher Global Underground External Links Official Website Global Underground

Sasha, one of the world's most popular and successful DJs, made his name spinning trance with partner John Digweed. But he hasn't been popular with dance hipsters and cognoscenti for more than a decade, which reflects the larger schism between the super-DJs who spin trance for superclubs and stadiums, and the less well-known DJs who spin records from boutique labels to smaller clubs of electronic dance music enthusiasts. With FundacioNnyc, there are signs of a bridging between the two worlds.

Adam Johnson's "4 Squares" sets the tone from the beginning with its bubbly bedtime house, and with a hint of microhouse-style clicks and squelches, it's almost not epic -- unusual for a Sasha track. The singing on Carl Craig's remix of Beanfield's "Tides" is representative of the set as a whole: smooth, without a rough edge in sight. "Tides" comes to a small climax, then hands off control to the mild synth stabs of the Stel remix of "Innocent Thoughts" by Kosmos Epsilon. Later in the mix, James Holden and Julie Thompson's "Come To Me" brings more poignant, ethereal female vocals, building to another high point. Then critical darling M.A.N.D.Y. of up-and-coming German electro-house label Get Physical bounces in with the track "Jah", which stands out for its forcefulness and baritone vocals. The excellent Tiefschwarz dub of "Electromagnetic" by Freeform Five hits hard, and the energy is sustained through James Holden's remix of "Safari" by Andre Kraml, which is given significant treatment by Sasha himself, using his new tools: the Ableton Live music program and a custom-built mixer.

FundacioNnyc's stated purpose is to reflect the experience of Sasha's live sets at his FundacioNnyc nights in New York and Los Angeles with the new capabilities that come from using software instead of turntables. These capabilities are reflected in this set when bits and pieces of one track burble up into another, and in transformations of the tracks themselves, like "Safari" and "Tides." And the mixing is flawlessly smooth, of course, with tracks melting into each another almost imperceptibly. But what's just as exciting and interesting are the selection choices: tracks from Tiefschwarz, M.A.N.D.Y., and Superpitcher, names that get dance music cognoscenti excited. Electronic dance music is known for its fractured world of sub-genres, and it's exciting to see an establishment artist stepping a bit outside his usual territory.