You should never underestimate the impact of hearing an electronic music track for the first time in the company of over 900 people, inside Alexander palace, on New Years Eve...and of course DJ Sasha manning the 1210's.
This was the situation I decidedly found myself in on New years eve 1996>97. However, let me come clean. It was during the Summer of 1996 that I heard the track for the first time, it was getting a get good rinsing courtesy of Kiss Fm's advertising campaign for the various Ibiza Club night promotions that holiday season. And yes subliminally it was pleasing to my ear, and it kinda epitomised the promise of what Ibiza's underground music scene was all about..A Living Dream....So, fast forward back to New Years Eve...
I had read a lot about this Sasha DJ bloke in the electronic music journals, namely Muzik magazine (big up to Ben Turner). Up until this event, the chance to personally experience a Sasha session had thus far eluded me.
So there I was drifting through the Sasha & John Digweed room after the Orbital's performance had just finished in the other huge adjacent area. I could detect a change in mood. I look up in the direction of the dj altar, John Digweed had finished his part in the duo's session and A Man Like Sasha was working the crowd with an throbbing 303 Bass line. I didn't have a clue what the track was he was playing, But at this point it appealed to my sense of something new and fresh. Next thing I know like a magician's rabbit in the hat trick...The ethereal melody kicks in preceded by snare drum build ups....
My first reaction was to rebel against the rest of the crowd, as far as I was concerned it was just a piece of chessy electronic pop from the radio. Wisely, I shook this impulse off and stuck around for the breakdown. Which at the time seemed to last for Seven Days & One Week...sucked into the drama i stayed in that room as Sasha segued one dance behemoth after another..NEXT!
