Graham Walker

Sasha

Technology: It’s allowed DJs to come a long way since merely jockeying vinyl discs, and like the rest of us with iPods, digital cameras, internet porn and USB vibrators, it’s still taking us lazy, easily-led humans a while to find that balance of technology versus person. In the DJing realm, technology’s meant computer assisted mixing – most notably the Ableton software – and like other technology it’s getting that balance right that’s tricky, something DJ legend SASHA has strived to find.

Sasha was amongst the first to embrace new technology – hardly surprising for a DJ who’s proven more deadly cutting-edge than Death’s own scythe. He was there when UK dance music began as a punter but quickly started providing the music, spring-boarding off his musical upbringing and psychic flair for reading a dancefloor’s mind. It scored him a residency with Renaissance and here he teamed with John Digweed. Together they created 1994’s seminal Renaissance: The Mix Collection (credited by some as the UK’s first DJ mix CD) and the Northern Exposure series – the rest is, and will be, history.

The recent history has been just as pioneering as the whole journey – a term regularly attached to Sasha’s DJ sets – with the lad releasing Invol2ver and pushing new limits with Ableton as a globetrotting DJ. Both have found that balance of technology versus person, but with Ableton DJing Sasha admits it hasn’t come simply. “You’re constantly updating it, playing around and pushing it forward,” he says. “You come up with new effects, combos. It gives you a lot of freedom; it’s such an open-ended format you can customise however you want.”

“But there is a risk of losing the human element. If you just play safe with it, it sounds too seamless, so you have to inject some humanness by being a little rough with it. When I first started using it I was trying to do too much, then I moved onto a phase of doing things so smoothly people wouldn’t even notice three or four tracks go by. From there it’s been a learning process to get to sound like myself again.”

The technology allows DJs to fuse sets with spontaneous remixes and a live act – an inspiration that’s flowed into Sasha’s latest Invol2ver CD. It’s a hybrid of mix compilation and artist album, Sasha says accurately, with five originals mingled with tracks remixed or especially created for the mix.

“I’m representing all the tracks in my own way to build the perfect 75 minutes of DJ mix journey. By pulling the tracks apart piece by piece and putting them back together you can really craft things to fit certain vibes. You might have bunches of records that work together but to fill that gap in between, you build the perfect track to bridge those two pieces of music.”

The result is a mix that works as a single piece of music with a unique homogenous sound. Sasha and his team used some weird ideas to get there, including crossbreeding good old fashioned guitar peddles with modern computer technology. “We built great big chains of pedals and that’s where a lot of the sound design came from – mostly just really happy accidents plugging things in and seeing what happens, then recording that into Ableton and chopping loops out of it.”

It’s a prime example of Sasha finding the elusive balance of person versus technology – be it old or new or both. But ultimately it’s the person that guides Sasha’s sound, and he doesn’t just rely on himself. “You have to feel the crowd out and see where they want to go, but I do demand people do bear with me and come on my little trip with me. When you’re DJing and you’ve got the crowd locked into what you’re doing and you’re totally connected it’s a wonderful experience. It’s the reason I do this.”

Sasha will play at Foreshore on Saturday November 29 at Commonwealth Place, as well as Global Gathering on Sunday November 30 at Hordon Pavilion.