Artist: Sasha
Title: Park It In The Shade
Label: emFire Music
By: Andrew Rowland | 7 January 2008
Tracklist:

Sasha "Park It In The Shade"

These are certainly exciting times for those of us that have been waiting for what can sometimes feel like an eternity for new material from Sasha and his production collective. ‘Park It In the Shade’, the second release on Emfire, arrives in complete contrast to the stunning debut ‘Coma’, which was a beautifully orchestrated piece of music, impressive and engaging in its complexity.

‘Park It In the Shade’ however is a dark, funky, filthy club monster primed to be right in tune with today’s minimal tech sound. For me it’s got something of a retro feel. I’m thinking techno tracks from the early nineties and the likes of Joey Beltram. Just maybe Sasha’s paying homage to his very early beginnings and the heady nights he spent at Manchester’s legendary Hacienda club. A time he loves to look back on very proudly.

‘Park it’ opens with a subtle break beat, percussion and a funky arpreggiated 303 style analogue bass line. A four to the floor drum pattern quickly follows this and gets things driving along. All manner of crazy sounds and FX trickery then proceed to weave their way in and out of the track. These dark twisted sounds propel the track to its crescendo, at the six-minute mark, an equally twisted pad drop. The sheer quality of sound design and programming, as always, is breathtaking and worth getting your hands on this release for that alone!

It comes as no surprise this has seen heavy rotation from the select few DJs lucky enough to have it and reactions to it have been particularly pleasing for Sasha. As yet their seems no word on any official remixes, so it will be interesting to see in the coming months if there are any variations on Sasha’s original compositions. Ki:Theory has remixed ‘Coma’, but this was only available as a bonus download from Beatport for clubbers who bought tickets to Sasha’s recent North American tour dates.

This is a second release of the very highest order! Having heard the Emfire Sampler also posted on Beatport not so long ago, there’s something equally special entitled ‘Who Killed Sparky?’ to follow as well as ‘The Mongoose’. This particular track was originally set for release on Rebelone, under the pseudonym ‘Kevlar’. After the very sad collapse of long standing vinyl distributor Amato this is also available right now for download. Go seek!