Musical genres
Influenced by the early sound of The Haçienda, Sasha began his career playing records of the rough, danceable genre of acid house. By the early 1990s, he had moved towards a more dark European house music style, though by the time of his Shelley's residency he had begun to experiment more with American house. His tastes further developed as he moved to Renaissance, and he began to incorporate the pop-based sounds of Moby, Spooky, and Leftfield. Sasha's second Digweed collaboration, 1997's Northern Exposure, was described as "epic house",[11] and subsequent releases featured the spacey and atmospheric progressive trance sound of artists such as Sven Väth, Matt Darey, Tilt, and Armin Van Buuren. A rhythmic and bassy progressive house influence distinguished his Xpander EP and the mix albums of the late 1990s.[53] At the time, Sasha's music rotation included records by artists such as Space Manoeuvres, BT, and Breeder, and Sander Kleinenberg's single "My Lexicon".
With the 2000 album Communicate, the duo's work moved towards a deeper and darker house music sound. The album featured tracks by Morel, Mainline, and Jimmy Van M. The focus shifted from the melodic themes of previous releases in favour of a stronger emphasis on the bassline.[53] The Delta Heavy Tour and Airdrawndagger marked a dramatic shift in style, and reflected the influences of relaxed ambient and breakbeat music on Sasha's work. These influences inspired the album's strong melodies, occasional breakbeat loops, and limited use of percussion. Involver was primarily a fusion of the musical style of house and ambient breakbeat music characterised by UNKLE and Lostep. With 2005's Fundacion, Sasha's style was mostly progressive house and electro-house music, with work by James Holden, Tiefschwarz, and Swayzak.[5] With his success in progressive house, Sasha has commented that he feels people try to "pigeon-hole" him into playing that genre. Rather than calling it progressive house, Sasha considers his most recent material to be between house, trance, and breaks,[54] though he has stated that he prefers not to associate himself with a specific genre of music.
Techniques and technology
Sasha attributes his success to his technical skill and ability to "connect with his dancers".[15] During performances, he balances new and experimental material, while ensuring that "the party is still rockin".[27] His spontaneity carries over to studio work; he typically has only a vague idea of the track listing when beginning work on a new mix album.[55] Because of this, his albums never turn out quite as he expects.[55]
Sasha is known for applying new music technologies to both his studio and live work. Both Sasha and Digweed used Pro Tools on Macintosh computers when mixing their compilation albums, and used turntables and records during live performances. For their remixes, however, they used an Atari ST—an obsolete personal computer from the early 1990s—with Notator, a music sequencer used for arranging audio tracks.[56] For more recent albums such as Fundacion NYC, Sasha used an Ableton Live for sequencing, partially because of Pro Tools' higher price.[51] In live performances up to the late 1990s, Sasha performed exclusively using records. Before he started using the CDJ1000, a "turntable" used for CDs, he had his digital music specially cut to acetate records before each tour.[34] Once he integrated CDs into his live act, Sasha operated CDJ1000s with Allen & Heath mixers and FireworX.[3] While he is now known for heavily utilizing audio technologies, Sasha was one of the last DJs to begin using CDs in live performance.
Sasha began DJing with Ableton Live in his live act as well, using it in tandem with turntables. Having explored its functionality, Sasha found that he could perform entirely through Ableton Live. He then co-developed the Maven controller, which he uses as a physical interface to the Live software.[55][28] (DJing with a mouse alone, he has said, is "not going to look right or feel right".)[13] Fundacion NYC was the first album on which he regularly used the Maven controller.[57] During DJ sets, clubbers often believe Sasha is playing new, unheard remixes; in fact, he is often playing modifications of tracks created in Ableton.[41] Sasha most often uses the built-in Ableton plugins, preferring their superior stability and performance over third party plugins.[55] For the first public performance of Involver material, he used a PowerBook running Ableton,[58] but has since shifted to a setup that includes an iMac G5 and Ableton Live.[41] Despite Sasha's insistence that Ableton Live allows for greater creativity and spontaneity, "vinyl purists" have accused him of taking much of the challenge and mystique out of DJing by using software in performances.[7]
The Internet has affected how Sasha obtains and uses tracks for performance. While he once hunted through record shops for new records on a regular basis, Sasha now regularly receives new tracks from producers and labels via the Internet.[28] These tracks, which number in the hundreds each week, are edited by Sasha and others for use in his live DJ sets.[28] He still buys hundreds of records on vinyl, which are then recorded and converted into music files prior to being edited in Ableton by his team of engineers.