Review: This year saw Berlin clubbing institution Watergate turn 20 years old. To celebrate the milestone, they took the experience outside the club for a full weekend rave, plus the release of this mammoth 20 track compilation of new and unreleased tracks. Highlights come from legendary artists such as the ever reliable Henrik Schwarz who appears with the highly engineered soul of "You Need Attitude", veteran of the scene Sasha gets a seriously heads-down groove happening on "Wolf Cider", Hamburg maximal heroes Extrawelt deliver as expected on the hypnotising "Rover" and former Mobilee co-head Anja Schneider gets the hands in the air on the uplifting house of "Can't You See Me No More?' plus many others.
Review: Sasha brings us collection of tracks that have featured in his Spotify playlist series of the same name, which is oriented towards midtempo, contemplative but still beats-driven cuts spanning breaks, ambient and leftfield electronica. While much is being made of this "new direction", a more cynical observer might say it's the first CD of 'Northern Exposure' plus drums; all the same, there's much to enjoy here if you're in a laidback kinda mood, with standouts including MJ Cole's haunting, fractured 'Maestro' and Cortese's 'Circles' with its air of restrained menace. The album also includes two fresh cuts from The Man Like himself, 'Corner Shop' and recent single 'HDNI'.
Special Request - "Codename Turbo Nutter" - (5:41) 85 BPM
Review: This second 20 Years Of Fabric compilation presents a new arranged selection of the defining network of artists that have come to call fabric home. Taking in deep and atmospheric loops from Groove Armada to the light and sprinkled chords of Call Super, the sound of the Farringdon trips through the live and acoustic percussions of Margaret Dygas, the devastating hardcore cuts of Special Request and pure strads of drum and bass by Source Direct and J Magick. More recent tracks include the epic classicalisms of B.Traits acid-flecked "Mameya" to the industrial and dubbed out techno from Marcel Dettmann and Imogen. And not to be overlooked of course are bonafide classics from Unkle, Shackleton, Cassy and Sascha with "Comet Chaser".
Review: More than a few eyebrows were raised when Sasha returned last year with an album of previously unheard ambient and IDM cuts recorded over the course of his lengthy career. Here, that set gets the remix treatment, with a mixture of scene stalwarts and rising stars behind the mixing desk. While there are some gentle dancefloor revisions - see Max Cooper's melodious and atmospheric tech-house interpretation of "Channel Deq" and Matthew Dear's hypnotic, late night take on "Pontiac" - many of the most rewarding and entertaining remixes are those that take a more horizontal approach. In this category, you'll find Sasha's own rising, near symphonic version of "Pontiac" and a stunning, standout mix of "Abacus" by Warp Records veterans Plaid.
Review: On Scene Delete, Sasha has decided to flip the script, jettisoning his usual progressive-leaning club fare in favour of original productions that wallow in their largely beatless, ambient nature. In some ways, it's a surprise move, but in others, it makes perfect sense; his DJ and production style has always emphasized atmosphere and texture, making it perfectly suited for the ambient genre. Musically, Scene Delete has some genuinely superb moments, with the obvious Eno, Yokota, Namlook and Reich influences joined by nods to obscure new age records, early synthesizer pioneers and, on a couple of occasions, the glitchy IDM of Autechre.
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