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About Airdrawndagger
Amazon.com Embracing neither the rampant guest appearances favored by the , nor the blatant, pop-flavored pandering of recent work from and , Sasha's first studio full-length mimics the up-down-up pattern of a classic trance mix. As closely associated as he is with , Airdrawndagger illustrates their different tendencies: Digweed is most comfortable with sinister, subterranean grooves, while Sasha is always threatening to float over the dance floor. Accordingly, Airdrawndagger's head is firmly in the clouds, but it's also a clever mish-mash, convincingly melding electro and ambient sounds with occasional four-on-the-floors, like "Bloodlock" and "Golden Arm." Tracks like "Mr. Tiddles" have a warm facility with machines worthy of a , as Sasha transforms the grandiose, operatic pretensions of trance into a quick and potent chunk of dance pop. The brooding "Cloud Cuckoo" starts off in a similar vein before building itself up into a wash of overlapping beats and sweeping melody that recalls Sasha's Xpander EP. Throughout the record, Sasha stretches himself in the right directions, pulling off the trick of sticking to what he does best while summoning up the creative juice to make Airdrawndagger just new enough to be fascinating. --Matthew Cooke Review OK, I admit it: I was so ready to hate all over this thing. The "long-awaited" artist album from a superstar trance DJ? (And yes, I do have a touch of the "trance sucks" bias in me.) Expecting a static collection of anonymous superclub claptrap, imagine my surprise when it not only doesn't suck, but is, well, good. There, I said it. I like Sasha's damn album. It's this sweeping, epic sea of soundtrack-ready segues that play like old Depeche Mode B-sides ("Mr. Tiddles"). It has songs called "Mr. Tiddles." I mean, come on! But this isn't a joke. "Magnetic North" slowly rises like Tangerine Dream turned vanilla sky before flipping into a quick meditation on New Order. When "Cloud Cuckoo" comes off like Pink Floyd aping Underworld (complete with a Robert Planet sample), I know something's definitely going on here. When our young charge finally deigns to drop a beat, he does so with an unexpected flair. First there's the drunken breaks of "Immortal," then the narcoleptic drug-step of "Fundamental." Soon it's all reversed synth lines and head-trip sound effects (albeit with a beat) on "Boileroom." It's not until the heart of "Bloodlock" that Sasha finally gives up the ghost, exploding into a torrent of the uplifting melodies and airy ecstasy that made him famous. Settling down into a contemplative Vangelis mood ("Requiem"), his point has been made in spades. I might not be waving glow sticks at the man anytime soon, but I won't be afraid to give him props for an impressive artistic debut. Scott Sterling --
