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Will Sasha and John Digweed (pg. 9)
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| SYSTEM-J |
Just got home after seeing them. Still not been to sleep yet and spent most of today drinking in the park, so I'm not really in the state for a full review. But I will say it was far better than when I've seen either of them separately - it was pretty much everything I hoped it would be. Not perfect, but hugely satisfying.
I'll post a full write up when I've had some sleep. |
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| SYSTEM-J |
Right, some slightly more sober thoughts on Saturday night. There was some controversy beforehand, as the Warehouse Project were struggling to sell all the tickets and ended up shortening the night by an hour and dropping the ticket prices from £35 to £20, which lead to loads of people kicking off on Facebook demanding partial refunds. And while initially no supports were announced (implying an all night long set), at the last minute Steve Parry was added as the warm-up for the first two hours, with S&D playing for three. Lots of people were really angry about this as well, although I personally preferred it that way around, for two reasons:
1) Steve Parry is an excellent DJ.
2) Having S&D play for a three hour peak time set removed any scope for wanking around.
The Albert Hall is a pretty impressive old hall with a huge high ceiling and a sweeping balcony. The quintessential "big room" that is just the right size not to lose all intimacy. It must be said, for all my love of small grimy basement clubs with low ceilings, this kind of music sounds fantastic in a big space. The scale of the tunes just demands a huge space to boom out into through giant speaker stacks. Steve Parry did a great job of unfolding a big room warm-up set. He played his track Michelada at one point which sounded absolutely massive, almost unrecognisable. I can only imagine a DJ playing in such a big space on such a big system, cueing up a tune in the headphones only for a completely different beast to roar out of the speakers.
That left the stage set for Sasha & Digweed. First thing to say is that, contrary to SPANIARD's reports, they weren't really out on the decks at the same time as each other. In fact, for a lot of the time, when one of them was DJing, the other was backstage somewhere. I wasn't really keeping track of their system, but a friend who was paying more attention said they started by doing three on, three off, and gradually as the night went on it went down to two each and then one each.
Digweed started off, playing his signature dark growling basslines to set the tone. Big tunes, high energy right from the start. They did meet in the middle very seamlessly, to the point where it was pretty difficult to tell whose tune was playing. The sound was much more driving than they normally play on their own - there were a few occasions where they chained together a few drivers in a row and built up awesome momentum, the way prog used to do back in the day. Those sections of the set were musical nirvana for me. They also brought it down quite low and built it back up a few times. Probably my favourite part of the set was about halfway through when they took it down into some quite lush, mellow breaks for a couple of tunes. Then they mixed in Motel Sazani - E Ke Keq Aty (Framewerk's 303 Rewerk) which started bringing it up into an awesome acid peak. In the second breakdown Sasha was on the decks and started mixing in a really driving piece of tech house, which powered out of the Framewerk remix like a freight train, and from there they blew it up for about 15-20 minutes straight. Awesome.
Not everything was perfect. While they build up a few of these storming sections, they also stripped it right back down to some pretty plodding tech house grooves in between. This seems to be a Digweed set-building strategy - work up a peak, and then strip it back down. I can understand why they do it, but it did leave the peaks stretched out with a few dull moments in between. Sasha also insisted on playing a few of his big fluffy vocal moments towards the end of the night, including the horrendously twee Four Tet remix of Chvrches, which didn't really fit the dark and driving tone of the rest of the set.
But while it wasn't flawless, it certainly had more of the characteristics of their classic sound to it, which I don't really get from hearing them play individually anymore. I want those moments when the set builds up and up in the classic prog fashion, and Saturday night had enough of those moments to leave me very happy. |
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| MR STROKE |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
Just got home after seeing them. Still not been to sleep yet and spent most of today drinking in the park, so I'm not really in the state for a full review. But I will say it was far better than when I've seen either of them separately - it was pretty much everything I hoped it would be. Not perfect, but hugely satisfying.
I'll post a full write up when I've had some sleep. |
:eyespop: |
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| SPANIARD |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
Right, some slightly more sober thoughts on Saturday night. There was some controversy beforehand, as the Warehouse Project were struggling to sell all the tickets and ended up shortening the night by an hour and dropping the ticket prices from £35 to £20, which lead to loads of people kicking off on Facebook demanding partial refunds. And while initially no supports were announced (implying an all night long set), at the last minute Steve Parry was added as the warm-up for the first two hours, with S&D playing for three. Lots of people were really angry about this as well, although I personally preferred it that way around, for two reasons:
1) Steve Parry is an excellent DJ.
2) Having S&D play for a three hour peak time set removed any scope for wanking around.
The Albert Hall is a pretty impressive old hall with a huge high ceiling and a sweeping balcony. The quintessential "big room" that is just the right size not to lose all intimacy. It must be said, for all my love of small grimy basement clubs with low ceilings, this kind of music sounds fantastic in a big space. The scale of the tunes just demands a huge space to boom out into through giant speaker stacks. Steve Parry did a great job of unfolding a big room warm-up set. He played his track Michelada at one point which sounded absolutely massive, almost unrecognisable. I can only imagine a DJ playing in such a big space on such a big system, cueing up a tune in the headphones only for a completely different beast to roar out of the speakers.
That left the stage set for Sasha & Digweed. First thing to say is that, contrary to SPANIARD's reports, they weren't really out on the decks at the same time as each other. In fact, for a lot of the time, when one of them was DJing, the other was backstage somewhere. I wasn't really keeping track of their system, but a friend who was paying more attention said they started by doing three on, three off, and gradually as the night went on it went down to two each and then one each.
Digweed started off, playing his signature dark growling basslines to set the tone. Big tunes, high energy right from the start. They did meet in the middle very seamlessly, to the point where it was pretty difficult to tell whose tune was playing. The sound was much more driving than they normally play on their own - there were a few occasions where they chained together a few drivers in a row and built up awesome momentum, the way prog used to do back in the day. Those sections of the set were musical nirvana for me. They also brought it down quite low and built it back up a few times. Probably my favourite part of the set was about halfway through when they took it down into some quite lush, mellow breaks for a couple of tunes. Then they mixed in Motel Sazani - E Ke Keq Aty (Framewerk's 303 Rewerk) which started bringing it up into an awesome acid peak. In the second breakdown Sasha was on the decks and started mixing in a really driving piece of tech house, which powered out of the Framewerk remix like a freight train, and from there they blew it up for about 15-20 minutes straight. Awesome.
Not everything was perfect. While they build up a few of these storming sections, they also stripped it right back down to some pretty plodding tech house grooves in between. This seems to be a Digweed set-building strategy - work up a peak, and then strip it back down. I can understand why they do it, but it did leave the peaks stretched out with a few dull moments in between. Sasha also insisted on playing a few of his big fluffy vocal moments towards the end of the night, including the horrendously twee Four Tet remix of Chvrches, which didn't really fit the dark and driving tone of the rest of the set.
But while it wasn't flawless, it certainly had more of the characteristics of their classic sound to it, which I don't really get from hearing them play individually anymore. I want those moments when the set builds up and up in the classic prog fashion, and Saturday night had enough of those moments to leave me very happy. |
Glad to hear you enjoyed it for the most part. I'm coming up on two years since I saw them together and it's not surprising to hear some things have changed. It's comforting to know the reminisce of their older sound being apparent has not changed as I suspect that's the selling point of these shows (not that I'm complaining... seeing Sasha solo is not something I'd contemplate doing these days). |
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| SYSTEM-J |
You know, it actually makes me sad that neither of them really play like this on their own. The potential is still there - they can still play sets with modern music that have all the properties that made me idolise their glory days as DJs.
It's the driving stuff. That's what I want. I'm never happier on a dancefloor than when I'm hearing two or three tunes chained together with constant forward momentum. For all the good melodic spacey dance music being made again, you still don't hear it that often. All this wibbly Tale Of Us style is a poor substitute. It doesn't have the energy. |
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| DJ RANN |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
You know, it actually makes me sad that neither of them really play like this on their own. The potential is still there - they can still play sets with modern music that have all the properties that made me idolise their glory days as DJs.
It's the driving stuff. That's what I want. I'm never happier on a dancefloor than when I'm hearing two or three tunes chained together with constant forward momentum. For all the good melodic spacey dance music being again, you still don't hear it that often. All this wibbly Tale Of Us style is a poor substitute. It doesn't have the energy. |
One of the most on point posts in years.
Just give is that driving pulsating we know you're cable of. |
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| Kilixpree |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
All this wibbly Tale Of Us style is a poor substitute. It doesn't have the energy. |
That's it. I'll never get this . |
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| OrangestO |
Years are flying by so I'm tempted to visit Athens this summer to hear them play along with Nick Warren who is someone I love hearing out.
https://ra.co/events/2095317
Have been to this venue for a Warren/Cattaneo B2B years ago and it was such a fun weekend (TMI: pretty sure son was conceived at the afters). Expect a good party there. |
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| 72hrpartyanimal |
| Have fun my fellow S&D fan. Although I'm not as big of fan as I used to be, I still think they are the greatest duo to ever hop on the decks. |
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| camshaft |
That sounds like a good time; I saw that one and the 5-hour set at Tofte Manor and was really considering an overseas trip. Let us know how it goes.
I think they're stronger now than they have been in years...saw Sasha in September and he absolutely destroyed the place with a pounding 4 hour set (Digweed was supposed to be there but was out sick, Sasha more than made up for it). One of my favorite nights out ever, and a few other long term fans said it was the best they'd heard Sasha play in ages. Jack, it was just the kind of nonstop momentum you're talking about. I don't know if he plays like that every time now but he certainly brought it that night.
Going to see Digweed later this month, he's been hitting it hard lately. Hearing a few classics in his sets the past few months (Faithless - Insomnia, FSOL - Papua New Guinea, Saints & Sinners - Pushing Too Hard, etc) which makes for some great surprises. |
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| naeblis |
| quote: | Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
This is true. Progressive isn't really covered by the dance press any more, but it retains a worldwide following, often in the less obvious places like India, South America, Israel, Australia. Ironically, it's more of a "global underground" now than it ever was before. |
I still enjoy a good set from Anthony Pappa every once in a while but I hardly see any new music that falls in this category. Any good productions you see recently? I hardly know where to look or get started on anything recent - though will say Voorn’s sets sometimes stray proggy. |
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| SYSTEM-J |
| That post you're replying to is 8 years old now, and a huge amount has changed in dance music since then. Higher tempo, '90s style prog has returned. Check out this thread for some recommendations. |
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