Recorded live during the closing night of his Fundacion residency in Los Angeles, DJ Sasha took the unprecedented step of bringing a fully-licensed (see: non-bootleg) live recording of his set immediately to his fans. Partnering with Instant Live (in a first for both parties), concert-goers could pick up the release the night of the show. The recording is now available, at least for a limited time, to the general public.
Instant Live has delivered a first to the dance community with this actual available-after-the-show mixed DJ set, and it's hard to imagine a better man behind the decks than Sasha. He is the artful surgeon of DJs, by bringing creatively balanced, as well as technically sure, mixes to the floor. He's a master of his craft, and an able leader. Even though he's bound to include several different styles within any given set, it's all so well put together that you don't mind branching out a bit.
Live At Avalon can be seen as a release sitting somewhere between a piece of ancillary product and the next Sasha record. Its association with his Fundacion sets ties it to his previous release by the same name, but the content and direction of the set calls for it to be considered on its own a bit more.
Trying to describe the style of music for Sasha is both tiring and freeing. Tiring because, where do you start? As one of the lead innovators within dance music, he gathers, remixes and twists various artists and styles to do his bidding. With other DJs you get to conveniently use nice labels like “breaks” or “trance” or “hard house” or “whatever subgenre just sprang up last night that most people haven't heard before.”
With Sasha you can pretty much only say that at different times he'll use all of the above, but probably not in the way you'd most expect. His style is more akin to travel. It journeys, it road-trips, it does some sight-seeing. It doesn't just sit in a pounding club all night. It may take in something a bit more cinematic and epic, which could very well crescendo to a frantic chase scene before settling back down with a nice martini and engaging conversation. It lives.
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