*** Sasha

IBIZA

(Global Underground)

As an avatar of "progressive" (i.e., not disco-based) house music, Sasha has acquired star status rivaling Moby's. But these two full-length sessions, dedicated to the Mediterranean island of Ibiza (in whose clubs, irony of ironies, disco-based Eurohouse has ruled ever since the genre first appeared), sound very different from the thematic turbulences of Moby. Sasha's trance music flows gently and quietly, more undertone than tone. And like all trance DJs, Sasha rejects classic turntable mix techniques. His music never leaps, cuts, or cries out; it simply evolves, from one blend of riff and melody to another, with few pauses and only an occasional redirection. You will not likely leap or scream to Sasha's soft and introverted streams of sound, but if losing all sense of shape and moment is your nirvana, you might want to seek him out. Plush solitudes like Dominica's "Real Time," Space Manoeuvres' "Stage One," Medway's "The Bassline Track," Cass and Slide's "Perception," and Sasha's own "Xpander" have all the dreamy idealism of classic Eurodisco (Ibiza, yes) without the giggle and glitter usually attached thereto.

-- Michael Freedberg