Airdrawndagger

by

Sasha

Edit

To even try to describe the gravity of emotion and that this album exudes is absolutely impossible. Sasha has clearly done something that few artists are ever able to accomplish. He has painted a very powerful expression of soul and emotion that enters your ears and soaks deeply into the fibers of your spiritual canvas. Not to sound nauseatingly esoterical, but when I first listened to this album, it was as if I became privy to a new cosmic level of music appreciation. This is music that does not require the nostalgic associations of one's environment to produce emotion. On its own, every timeless note and arrangement builds deep inside of you, painting an extraordinarily haunting feeling that seems to be so parallel with others, yet so indescribable and personal at the same time. Is this album incredible? No doubt about it. Is this album the cure for all the problems of the world? Of course not. Does this album contain something incredibly unique and positive? Absolutely, and that's why it's totally worth checking out.

Sasha's first full length album is definitely long overdue... but to tell you the truth I was a little disappointed. Maybe the phenomenal nature of 1999's XPANDER EP had set my expectations too high for his production... goodness knows it kicked the [but] of the majority of music released that year in terms of trance/breaks/house.

Please don't interpret this as an "I hate this album and therefore you will" review... I don't hate it at all. There are a lot of cool sounds and great moments on this album... it's just that they are spread a bit thinly throughout.

The opening strains of MAGNETIC NORTH are great but then it doesn't seem to get going... the chord progressions in the first minute or so of GOLDEN ARM is beautiful but then a key change occurs and it loses it. I found it rather hard to find many tracks on this album that I could fully get into or that I enjoyed all the way through.

The single release and closing track WAVY GRAVY is fantastic... so my advice would be to buy the single for WAVY GRAVY and then pick up the XPANDER EP if you haven't got it already... the album is great for background music.