Sasha & John Digweed - Communicate

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Free Music Notes for Communicate

Free Music Review: S&D at the peak of their prowess
Hit: 5 Stars

More than any other album I know (I've never been able to get my hands on their legendary Renaissance set), Communicate defines what Sasha & Digweed represent in terms of soundscapes. It showcases 2 completely different yet perfectly complementary DJ styles, and IMHO, catches both of them at the peak of their abilities. Sasha simply condenses what he did with GU 013, adding a grittier texture to the spacey sound that is his trademark. Digweed... well, suffice to say that if all other works by John Digweed were lost in a fire, and I could choose 1 mix for preservation, I would pick this one in a heartbeat.

Disc 1 contains quite a few tracks that were familiar in the day - "West on 27th", "Roaches", "The Baguio Track"... all recognizable as some of the biggest tunes of that year. The beauty of this disc is in its programming & arrangement - the beautiful DD remix of Sven Vath's "Barbarella" is a ready example of what track placement can do to augment the overall mood of a CD. The ambient, spacey aural vibe of Sasha's sets is present, but is mixed in equal parts with gritty, grinding bass synths & straight, hard beats. The resulting cocktail is what happens when the man decides to tear up a dancefloor - groove oriented sound retaining signature style.

Disc 2 takes things to an altogether different plane. The brilliance of this mix lies in the fact that - while being the single darkest, moodiest, eeriest and most subterranean mix ever crafted by Digweed - it unearths and showcases such absolute purity of sound that 90% of these tracks sound cutting-edge even today (remember, this is a 2000 mix). "Narkotik" establishes the hypnotic vibe of this mix at the very beginning, "King of Spin" incorporates a wobbling, echoing synthline sounding like its coming straight at you inside a closed, pitch-black tunnel, "Voices" highlights what careful sampling can do to a track... each track contains something to rave about. The highlight of the disc for me was the stupendous mix into JVM's "ECI-PS" - 3 1/2 minutes?!?!?! That is the best single track-into-track mix I've ever heard, period. The mood is carried on seamlessly by another awe-inspiring mix into POB's "Waah!", and by the time the last, quivering strings of "Enjoyed" fade away into the silence, you're left completely speechless. This is NOT a CD you'll find yourself dancing to too much - you'll be too busy just letting the sound play around with your head while shutting yourself off from the rest of the world.

Today, I wouldn't consider Sasha & Digweed the 2 best DJs in the world. Their latest efforts, while good, aren't what I would call masterpieces. Maybe the sound has moved on, past what they represent - I don't know. But if you want to hear what they sounded like as partners in sonic crime in their hey-day... if you want to - 20 years on - look at a CD and know that it represents the absolute BEST of what was playing when it was released, then this is the one. Buy it, make a copy every year so that you have a mint-condition copy at any time. This album is a genuine, A+ work of art.

4 1/2 stars for Sasha. 5 for Digweed. Overall Verdict - 5 stars.

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