Bonnawho's Who - Sasha & Digweed

Official Bio:

Sasha

Multi-talented DJ/producer/remixer Sasha is recognized as one of the worlds’ most innovative icons of the electronic genre. As the DJ that rode into America on a tidal wave of adoration from the North of England's explosive early 90’s club scene, Sasha for more than a decade has consistently sold out every venue, festival or club that has been honored to witness his legendary performance abilities.

Since early 2005 Sasha has performed his trademark power-packed, emotional sets on his one-of-a-kind, custom-made MAVEN controller crafted specifically for his Apple computer/ Ableton Live Software set-up. Creating a live 100% digital experience, he has left turntables behind. First tested and honed at Sasha’s monthly Fundacion residencies in New York and Los Angeles in ‘05, the controller allows Sasha to not only exhibit his stellar track selection and mixing skills, but to literally redevelop music live. With the ability to sample, loop, and fuse elements from multiple songs at once through digital technology, Sasha truly revolutionizes his live DJ performance.

The 2005 residency nights in America served as the testing ground for the Maven controller. Its success took Sasha on a world wide seven-month tour with sell-outs in major destinations like London, Tokyo, Beijing, Sydney, and Buenos Aires as well as such out-of-the-way locales as Mumbai, Marrakech, and Istanbul.

Starting out in the late '80s as a club DJ, Sasha got his first big break when he was hired by the noted UK dance club Shelly's as a resident. It was there that the young DJ found fame with the dance and house crowd, but it wasn't until he started laying down his grooves at the Hacienda, and most notably, Renaissance that he become known nationally in Britain and, eventually, internationally.

The inception of his sometimes partnership with fellow DJ John Digweed 1994 further catapulted Sasha into international superstar status. The two became a DJ/remixing team and soon released their first mixed compilation Renaissance: The Mix Collection (1994) – the first mix CD to achieve “Gold” status in the UK. Touring the globe relentlessly, Sasha and Digweed, collectively and separately, seized the international spotlight, and established a well deserved status at the fore-front of dance music history and culture.

Refusing to limit himself to DJ work, Sasha has continually explored his various interests as an adept remixer, songwriter, producer and label owner. He established himself as a formidable, in-demand remixer by reconstructing tracks from an incredible array of artists such as Madonna, Seal, Depeche Mode, UNKLE, The Chemical Brothers, BT and Orbital. Sasha’s remix of Felix Da Housecat’s “Watching Cars Go By”, from his album Involver, was nominated for a Grammy in 2005.

John Digweed

If you're not an avid follower of dance music but are tuned into popular culture at all you've likely experienced music touched by the hands of John Digweed. Originally hailing from England but having clearly arrived on the global scene over a decade ago John has long since cemented his name in the pages of dance music history. His list of achievements is groundbreaking to say the least. Highlights of which would be the first proper dj mix compilation ("Renaissance", done with Sasha), being the first British dj to hold a residency at what was then the world's most well known club in NYC (Twilo, also with Sasha) as well as having remixed music by Danny Tenaglia, Underworld, Quincy Jones and New Order.

John Digweed is a DJ's DJ. The beauty of what he does lies in just how different he really is from his contemporaries. From his early beginnings in Hastings, England at the age of 15 in the blossoming scene of acid house to the apex of the international dj'ing world he has created and maintained a level of integrity that is the benchmark for both dj's and producers globally. In fact, he has reached the very top of his profession, being voted #1 in a voter's poll by DJ magazine in 2001. John Digweed has become the people's choice while maintaining his longstanding presence in underground dance culture.

His popularity as both a dj and a person seems to have no limits, but his efforts transcend dj'ing alone, he is as much a producer and promoter. His moniker "Bedrock" is actually three things: a record label, a promotions company and a studio production partnership with Nick Muir.

His management and creative direction for the Bedrock record label has helped launch the careers of Danny Howells, Jimmy Van M, Suicide Sports Club, Pole Folder, Chris Fortier, Phil Thompson (Moonface) and Luke Fair. He has had the vision and creative insight to seek out mixes and remixes from artists as varied as Rui Da Silva, King Britt and Tom Mangan, Lutzenkirchen and Kiki. To have a record released on Bedrock serves as the global stamp of production quality, ingenuity and integrity for underground producers worldwide. In fact, the name John Digweed is synonymous with those very qualities. From the nights he has either created or been a part of (Bedrock, Northern Exposure, Renaissance) to his world renowned mix cd's (Renaissance, Global Underground, Northern Exposure, Communicate, MMII, Fabric, Transitions and Bedrock) he has consistently produced characteristic products that stay in demand, himself included.

As one half of Bedrock the production duo he has landed two tracks in the top 40 ("Heaven Scent" and "For What You Dream Of") the latter of which made it into the hit movie "Trainspotting". He has even tried a bit of acting himself ("Groove"). He and Nick Muir as Bedrock the production team also recently scored a Hollywood film ("Stark Raving Mad") as well as the animated release of "Spider-Man" for MTV. He's been kept busy by three recent tours (Delta Heavy and Area 2 (with David Bowie and Moby) in the U.S., and a twenty date Bedrock/Nokia University tour of the UK). A massive one-off event with Fatboy Slim called the Big Beach Boutique in Brighton had him gladly performing to 250,000 of his fans and neighbors.

His Kiss100 'Transitions' radio show is quickly coming up on it's sixth year as one of the most successful dance music shows in all of England with internet broadcasts to the world and a burgeoning series of podcasts. It has achieved a near cult status with listeners trading cd's and mp3's of the various broadcasts across the internet. John shares his
platform weekly by bringing in a variety of worldwide guest dj's.

As a person John's lack of pretense is enveloped in imagination and invention. Good reason for John being one of the most respected, analyzed and imitated dj's in the world. Digweed is both solid and durable with unyielding precision. His sinuous dj'ing and production sound has become its own convincing dance ethic. He is centered to the principles of life, living and friends in such a way that he generates an aura of self-explanatory excitement and enthusiasm. Without heroic pretensions his sets are filled with moodiness and musical mystery but held down with a punchy distinctiveness and earthly rhythm. Always emanating a sense of boundlessness he overlaps dream events that spill into reality with an enormous certainty.

Live On Stage:

Untz, untz, untz, untz........



Don't really have much to say about these guys. Techno is not my thing, but these guys are huge and are probably the best at what they do. There isn't a whole lot of quality live clips out there. I guess it's hard to dance and shoot video at the same time, plus DJ's aren't that fun to watch anyway.

Here's a live sets to check out, though I suspect that if your a fan you probably have a number of their cds already....

Sasha & Digweed - 2006-10-21

For more on Sasha and Digweed head to their official sites - here and here.