Airdrawndagger

Embracing neither the rampant guest appearances favored by the Chemical Brothers, nor the blatant, pop-flavored pandering of recent work from Paul Oakenfold and BT, Sasha's first studio full-length mimics the up-down-up pattern of a classic trance mix. As closely associated as he is with John Digweed, 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 Depeche Mode, 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