Released
November 2007/December 2007
- I won’t be picking a fight with Sasha anytime soon. That man got crew! Production-wise, you’ll find him four deep with his C.O.M.A. collective buddies: Charlie May, Duncan Forbes, and Barry Jamieson. Hell, he even made a record with James Holden back in the day (‘Bloodlock’ from his Airdrawndagger album.) Ever keen to lend a hand, the C.O.M.A. gang have been the men behind the curtain on the majority of the music slapped with the ‘Sasha’ title over the years, and I’m assuming it must be a lucrative racket, too. The name Sasha is as synonymous with dance music as Ronaldinho is with football. Whether a Sasha single is good or not so good, the cash registers will still chi-ching. And that’s how it rolls with the first couple from Sasha’s new label emFire: one sits on the good end of the scale, and the other? Well, yeah.
The first, the single-sided ‘Coma’, is the sound of Sasha past, reconfigured to work in today’s club aesthetic. The bassline and drums borrow heavily from neo-trancers Bodzin and Schumacher, but thrown over the top is all the workings of an epic progressive houser, complete with a simple trance melody line with enough hook to land a marlin.
The second release, ‘Park It In The Shade’, again single-sided, is less catchy, centering around a rising arppegiated bass riff that is repeated ad nauseum from beginning to end. Bleeps and hisses and seering synths do their best to build momentum, but like a schooner bobbing on a windless ocean, these sails don’t catch the breeze. It’s about three minutes too long, and pretty lifeless as an end result.
TracklistSasha - Coma
A. Coma
Sasha - Park It In The Shade
A. Park It In The Shade