Sasha ‎– Airdrawndagger

Label:
Arista – 74321 947862, BMG UK & Ireland – 74321 947862
Format:
CD, Album, Partially Mixed
Country:
Released:
Genre:
Style:

Tracklist Hide Credits

1 Drempels 1:23
2 Mr Tiddles 4:53
3 Magnetic North 5:17
4 Cloud Cuckoo 8:26
5 Immortal 4:54
6 Fundamental
Edited By [Bassline] – Andy Page
9:13
7 Boileroom 7:04
8 Bloodlock
Co-producer – James Holden, Junkie XL, Sasha Written-By – J. Holden*
7:53
9 Requiem 6:08
10 Golden Arm
Written-By – S. Wright*
5:45
11 Wavy Gravy 7:29

Companies etc

Credits

Notes

Recorded at The Computer Hell Cabin, Amsterdam
Additional Recording at The Clock House UK, Wow & Flutter UK
Musicians recorded at Sarm West Studios
Mastered at The Town House UK
Junkie XL appears courtesy of Roadrunner Records

Cloud Cuckoo sample taken from "Requiem" by King Crimson 1982 written by Fripp, Bruford, Levin & Belew. Courtesy of Robert Fripp, under exclusive license to Virgin Records Ltd. Published by BMG Music Publishing. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

℗ & © 2002 BMG UK & Ireland Ltd. All label copy and sleeve notes © 2002 BMG UK & Ireland Ltd. Distributed by BMG. Made in the EU.

Barcode and Other Identifiers

  • Barcode: 74321 947862 7
  • Label Code: LC03484
  • Rights Society: biem
  • Rights Society: gema

Other Versions (Showing 5 of 7) View All

Title, Format Label Cat# Country Year
Airdrawndagger (Advance CD) (CD, Promo, Copy Prot., Mixed) Kinetic Records KNADV 54725-2 US 2002
Airdrawndagger (CD, Album + CD, Comp, Ltd) Arista, BMG BVCP-21291 Japan 2002
Airdrawndagger (3xLP) Kinetic Records 67728-54725-1 US 2002
Airdrawndagger (3x12", Album) BMG UK & Ireland, Arista 74321 952921 UK & Ireland 2002
Airdrawndagger (CD, Album, Mixed) Kinetic Records, Kinetic Records 67728, 547252 US 2002
▸ show all 20 reviews

Reviews & Discussion

backindauk_ Aug 20, 2011
This is one of my all time favourite CDs. It has everything and is one of the few CDs i can actually listen to from start to finish without getting tired/annoyed/bored. The production quality is second to none and oozes with lush synthesized soundscapes and delicious reverb.

Well worth a listen to if you're into electronic music.
Rated 5/5
williampdx Oct 26, 2010
Obviously people are pretty opinionated about this album. Let me just say this... I have a collection of over 6000 albums and ep's collected over the past 15 years ranging from ambient, to house, to trance and progressive. Out of all those albums, this album is in my "top 25 albums of all time lists". Seriously.
Rated 5/5
Review by Psyfish Oct 06, 2006 (edited over 5 years ago)
Once again I am making an attempt to describe music - and the feeling it gives me - with words. This CD, just as most of Sasha's production, is close to what I call musical perfection. The track layout is perfect. The album starts up nice and slow, moves on to a harder and more uptempo part, to finish off nice and slow again. Also, all the tracks are made with greatest perfection and musical skill. My personal favourites are 'Mr. Tiddles', 'Cloud Cuckoo' and 'Bloodlock'.
Review by Kybosh Apr 14, 2006 (edited over 6 years ago)
Fair to say that this album genrates wildly varying opinions from it's listeners, which is a good thing as nothing is more boring than everybody singing it's praises, you need to challenge people...and this album does that. Personally, I love it. I don't quite know why; as others have said, it is free from the programming complexity of most progressive/breaks tunes and isn't a purely ambient experience. But what makes it special for me is the feel of the album in it's entirety. The tone of the album is established from Drempels onwards, that of electronic music with influences from trance, ambient, progressive house and breaks. I can't really pigeon-hole it any better than that.

Sasha shipped a hell of alot of criticism on release of this album, at the time I thought it unfair and on reflection I think it was the reaction of his hardcore fanbase, the trance connosueirs finding it too ambient and the progressive fans finding it too laidback. I don't see it as either. Credit to Sasha and his cohorts they attempted to make an album as opposed to a collection of singles or an album of generic proggy bangers. The beauty of this album lies in the journey it takes you through, exquisite production that doesn't suffocate the tracks with effects but allows the melodies and sparse beats room to breathe. I love it, I was unsure when I first bought it 5 years ago but I get something out of it every time I listen to it.
Sasha's recent effort "Involver" doesn't even warrant mention in the same breath as Airdrawndagger for it serves to cater to a narrow seam of the electronic music smorgasboard, generic proggressive house. This is Sahsa's best work and deserves some patience as the album will bring years of pleasure to those willing to revisit it with an older, more experienced and cultured taste in electronica IMHO.
Rated 2/5
Review by bolle88 Mar 28, 2006 (edited over 6 years ago)
Nope...After at least 20 listenings I now have an opinion that counts. And in my opinion this is perhaps the most overrated electronica-album ever!
We have "cloud cuckoo", "boileroom" and "wavy gravy". Three great tracks, but absolutely not enough for making an album "great". I think people only rates this album high because it is Sasha, mr. Status. And it's not even Sasha who makes the music, on "bloodlock" it is james holden who makes a copy of his own style at that time and at the rest of the songs it is spooky, aka Charlie May.

No, Sasha should stay where he belongs: behind the dj-decks. Because there he is one of the biggest!
Rated 4/5
Review by SkeletonMan Jan 11, 2006 (edited over 6 years ago)
Thinking back of the Samothraki Festival in Greece 2003 I think it is fair to say that the most crazy experience music - and otherwise - was when I danced for about an hour and a half with a tree at the chill out stage one night. This is why I am sometimes not quite sure whether a certain type of music should be labelled chill-out, ambient, progressive or psy-trance. I mean, you are supposed to chill at the chill-out stage, right? But play the right, quality, down-beat / chill-out at the right time, and you'll have everyone going crazy. This is what happened at the Samothraki Festival. Down beat music on chill stage with everyone going at it like crazy, things even more wicked than on main stage.

Sasha wasn't at Samothraki but Airdrawndagger represents exactly the sort of music I'm thinking off. I could hear this music in the afternoon at the chill-out stage, roll a splif, relax and enjoy. Maybe dance a little. Or I could hear some of the trax here at night and go dance berserk. My favourite dance track here has to be Fundamental. The kick-in at 8:05. What is this?! Progressive chill-out ...?!? But it's not fair to single one track out. Up-beat, down-beat, they're all fantastic!

And I almost never got to hear this album! Only heard it cause a friend insisted I'd give this Sasha album a chance. "I think you'll like it", he said. Well, thanks buddy! Right on - I love it!

What can I say? Get it get it get it ...
Review by skopp Jan 06, 2006 (edited over 6 years ago)
sasha® (aka Alexander Coe, Charlie May, JXL, James Holden, etc. ... I say that because they all deserve credit for the sasha® brand of products, not just Coe) have a knack at programming. This album, while for the most part not being very complex in sound layers, does have the uncanny ability to bring out complex emotions through its simplistic, yet practical layout.

But then it also builds up to a delicious, driving techy climax. I'm sure everyone who hears Bloodlock for the first time will agree that they expected another ambient track...but when its trademark Holden bassline crackles through the speakers (especially after travelling on the entire airdrawndagger® journey), you realise that this album is something special.

well done to sasha®...and I hope to see more of them in the future
Rated 5/5
Review by JeanMarcDekesel Aug 11, 2005 (edited over 6 years ago)
With Sasha being the Father and the Son of Progressive Trance you will not be surprised to hear that Progressive also makes the backbone of the album. But the man apparently also has a huge affinity for ambient and the combination of those two styles results in this emotional dagger being plunged right into your cortex.
Some say the album is nothing new - they are right - but isn’t it nice to be given this vivid blast from the past, right from the era where Global Communication and Robert Leiner were searching for some more reflective gloomy soundstructures? This is splendid ever going pulsing ambient, ranging from the massive hoovering Bloodlock to the cheerful sequenzing Requiem.
Rated 5/5
Review by robbo144 May 26, 2005 (edited over 7 years ago)
This, along with Delerium's 'Chimera' is one of the few albums I own that I can enjoy every single track. I can listen to the whole album, without loss of interest, deeply lost in the subtle tones and precision of this album.

Many would say this album is clinical and cold, however, each track presents a different mood, and proves this to be an emotional album, as well as one you can rely on to fit whatever surroundings you are in. I find when walking to the station every day, in the cold, fresh air, that this music fits this scene so well, almost as if it was made for this. However this doesn't mean this is cold music. This album is a very thought provoking album, and sets your imagination off, whilst interpreting the sounds. I believe Sasha (Alexander Coe) put a lot of thought and emotion into this album, and this album is certainly fresh!

This album is one of those spine chilling albums, you hear a part of a track that reaches the perfection in sound, such as the soft 'bells', that start close to the end of Fundamental. Other places include; Wavy Gravy, where the metronome type sound stops, and you can hear the Wavy Gravy melody, with sharp crisp electronic effects, complementing it in the background.

Every track in this album is good, but standout tracks are; Wavy Gravy, Boileroom; the most fast paced tracks, and Mr Tiddles, Magnetic North, Requiem - which are all relaxing.

The best thing about this album, is that is the purest electronica you will hear. No instruments, just synthesised sounds, and the occasional metronome type sound as in 'Wavy Gravy', however the naming of this track doesn't deserve praise!

Perhaps this is a music equivilant to modern art? It means different things to different people. It certainly means a lot to me, and I can always rely on this album to give me something to lift my spirit.
Rated 4/5
Review by mopsas Feb 02, 2005 (edited over 7 years ago)
I think this album is the best as Sasha ever made...
Ambient feelings contemplated through progressive trance and breaks soundscapes with freshness, coldness, some sadness and something positive what is difficult to desciribe. You have to feel it inside of you.

This album is better than Involver compilation for me.It has more power for sure.

Great job, dude.

Community

[r40106]
4.41 / 5 (285 ratings)
My Rating Rate This!

577 have this
36 want this
edit

Videos

Disclaimer: Videos may not match exact release