There's a DJ in the house music

By STEPHEN JEWELL

From the Chemical Brothers to Paul Oakenfold and Groove Armada, most big-name dance acts tend to spice up their albums with impressive guest lists of pop and hip-hop vocalists.

But not DJ legend Sasha, aka Alexander Coe, who after years of false starts and numerous remixes and mix CD compilations finally delivered Airdrawndagger, his first album of original music, earlier this year.

"I definitely made the record for the fans and all the people who have come to see me play," says Coe.

"The response I've had from people that I've met while I've been out on the road has been really wonderful. But the fact that it's an instrumental album means that it isn't going to be as successful as it could have been if it had two or three big singles on there.

"But it leaves me in the perfect position to work out what I'm going to do next."

As a DJ, Coe is famous for his Trance-flavoured, progressive house sets, but Airdrawndagger is a downbeat, almost ambient affair, which was influenced by Radiohead's recent electronica-inspired album, Kid A. "We got Kid A and listened to a lot of ambient music like Steve Reich while we were making the album," says Coe. "Kid A actually dropped right in the middle of when [production partner] Charlie May and I were writing the songs.

"Radiohead were using a lot of the same synthesiser sounds that we were using, which was cool. And after you've been in the studio all day, a lot of the time you can go to bed and you've got this tune that you've been working on running around inside your head.

"So on the occasions when we did get out of the studio, it was almost like we'd try to purge our systems with some other kind of music."

Airdrawndaggers' title is taken from Shakespeare's Macbeth, but Coe is no big fan of the Bard.

"I gleaned it off the internet, he says. I haven't actually read Macbeth. It was just a name I came up with early on when we were looking for album titles for [mix CD] Communicate.

"It was something that had sat on my computer for years and it just attached itself to my album. There's no deep philosophical connection. It just seemed to tie in with the music."

Coe first became interested in house music around 1988 when he used to drive up every weekend from his North Wales home to visit seminal Manchester club, the Hacienda, which was recently the subject of the film 24 Hour Party People.

"I haven't seen the movie, says Coe. "I haven't had a life this summer. It's been pretty full on. So it's a bit hard for me to judge where the film's coming from, but I've heard that it's pretty funny."

But Coe says the Hacienda had a profound impact upon his music.

"That's where I got into DJ-ing. It was the beginning of it all for me. I have so many fond memories. I first went to the Hacienda around 1988. It was the focus of acid house in the North of England. It was an amazing place and time. I was spellbound by the music."

However, it was at Shelley's nightclub in Stoke that Coe first began to make a name for himself before solidifying his reputation at leading Nottingham superclub Renaissance. Coe has since DJ-ed all over the world including in New Zealand, where his first and only Auckland visit in 1996 has become part of local clubbing folklore.

"The selection of music I used to play at Shelley's was quite varied," says Coe. "At the time, the Hacienda was just playing American grooves but I was playing a lot more Italian stuff. A bit of everything, really. They were really good times. The crowd was really open-minded."

Whether Coe plays such a diverse set there remains to be seen as he is tightlipped about what punters should expect.

"I don't really know. Just cool new dance music. I'm excited to be back out on the road again and I'm looking forward to coming back Down Under as the crowds are so brilliant."

* Sasha, St James, tonight.