Sasha & Jimmy Van M @ The Roxy Last Friday

[janky]

Sorry it's late - I forgot to cross post my review here...

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Sasha and Jimmy Van M @ The Roxy [October 25] [New York, NY]

While I have visited a fair number of nightclubs in and around the country one of the few that had eluded me, in my own backyard no less, was The Roxy. So, as you can imagine, I was quite excited about the night as the last time I heard Sasha was with John Digweed back in April for the Delta Heavy Tour. I was unable to make Sasha's return to New York at Arc but gathering from the reports in the field it was a somewhat subpar night. Thus, upon entering The Roxy a little before midnight last Friday I carried with me a lower level of expectations.

The Roxy is an outstanding space. The room is quite large and holds numerous, almost hidden, side rooms and areas in which one can rest and escape the masses of the main floor. I don't think I am able to accurately estimate the maximum capacity of the club but it's definitely large enough for the biggest of nights. Afterall, there has been a recent resurgence of big name DJs visiting The Roxy of late, including Tiesto, Paul Van Dyk (next weekend), Carl Cox (this Thursday for Halloween) and Sasha, so one can imagine that a fair number of folks can shake a leg without feeling part of a collective sweatbox. With that said, there's always the issue of the sound in a larger space and the sound was definitely unsatisfactory. Yes, the infamous Phazon massages the soundwaves but either it's misconfigured or the space is just way too big because there were areas on the dancefloor where the more subtle elements of the music were swallowed by the bass. Thus, I was delegated to playing my own game of hopscotch most of the evening looking for that sweet spot.

As I entered the club Jimmy Van M was on the decks and was playing quite minimal, almost ambient music. The crowd was thickening as the minutes went by and after about an hour Jimmy Van M had transitioned into some more upbeat music garnishing the room with pinches of breakbeat here and there. There is no refuting that Jimmy Van M is one of the best opening DJs and one characteristic he possesses is an ability to maintain a tight range of music throughout his opening sets. The range created is one where the music is pulled upwards just enough to garner interest and then almost immediately it is pulled back only to be pulled up once again. This tight range in the music is continued until Sasha or Digweed (allow me to reminisce just a bit about those nights on West 27th) enter the booth invoking a thunderous applause. Then, instead of immediately retreating, Van M then plays two or threee upbeat tracks to really get the crowd involved and soon after the decks are then perfectly preheated for the opener.

I wouldn't say Sasha made an explosive introduction upon taking over the decks but the music was by far very danceable and everyone quickly funneled their anxiety into their feet and started dancing the night away. The music throughout the night seemed to be quite cyclical in the sense that Sasha didn't seem too set on playing one specific sound for any amount of significant time. For example, there were moments when Sasha would utilize some melody combined with really long winded chords and lengthy breakdowns and then the gears would shift into more erratic beats and finally he would cap it all off with an absolute floor filler of a track. Although the cycle provided Sasha a lot of flexibility with his programming, I found it a little bothersome and this is one of the main reasons his set was a bit short of amazing. However, I would like to assert that I was quite impressed with the peak time tracks Sasha brought with him to The Roxy. I believe I counted at least a half a dozen really intense pieces of music that made everyone crazy. Personally, I would have preferred to hear a few of those peak time tracks strung together but I'll take them anyway I can get them.

It's not often that I feel a need to comment on the mixing of any DJs playing in the bigger clubs but I would like to pause just a moment to expand upon something that caught my attention. Given the afore mentioned cycle Sasha appeared to be employing and the various mini genres he was exploring, it was astonishing how well Sasha was able to transition from one sound to another. It was as if Sasha was navigating the rockiest of roads loaded with hairpin turns and yet was able to turn the sharpest corners into the smoothest of curves with zero turbulence. This is the elusiveness of Sasha's mixing that deceives even the best of trained ears and there was no better display of this craftmanship then in the last hour when Sasha effortlessly dashed through the genres once again adding a funkier twist in the beginning and then finishing with a sequence of tracks that were uplifting yet very driving and packed with energy.

In it's entirety, I was impressed with Sasha's set. The beginning was surprisingly well orchestrated and the ending was nothing short of spectacular. However, there was a middle section that lasted about a half an hour that really didn't seem to progress one way or another and created a bit of a lull. So, instead of dancing, I used this time to perambulate around the club and take a respite. Also, with respect to my initial expectations, I can say they were pleasantly surpassed. While a good majority of people continue to compare his recent sets to those during his residency at Twilo and in turn seem to find disappointment in the amount of time he spends on the decks, I found, in the four hours he was spinning, that I got a chance to hear more than enough of the music that made me a fan of Sasha's music in the first place.

[hotcheme]

you are a pretty good writer. i had a good time at sasha - not all did. there is a thread here somewhere...