Sasha has finally delivered! After a four year, two month and four day wait for the latest Sasha mix album, Invol2ver was released on September eight 2008. 

This album is the much awaited sequel to Involver both released through the Global Underground label. Invol2ver is a mix of 13 tracks with few Sasha originals, which will be released under his own label EmFire, included to keep the fans tonguing for more . 

Artists such as Radiohead, Ladytron, Thom Yorke, Apparat and British Band Engineers are blessed enough to come under Sasha’s artistic command for this album. So was Invol2ver worth the wait? Yes, yes and yes.

To give some background into the making of Invol2ver, Sasha was in New York City, which has heavily influenced the sounds he has chosen to layer into his mixing. 

According to Sasha they used old mixing desks, drum machine and guitar pedals to generate the unique range of sounds that you will hear in this album. 

Barry Jamieson, Sasha’s studio partner, said "It’s like a collage of New York sounds. Old gear is so unpredictable and it had a mind of its own, this album was very spontaneous in that way.” 

Firstly, let me recommend that you listen to this album in a dark room with the only light coming from your music player so your sense of hearing can exclusively appreciate the amazing complex layering and building of unique sounds with a good dash of vocals that is a the artistry of Sasha's mixing. Even listening to Invol2ver the second, third and fourth time makes you feel like you are hearing it for the first, as you get something new from each listen.  

The intro is the biggest clue to the NYC influence in this album as it starts with noisy traffic horns beeping and cars rushing by followed by a drop into mellowness. Sasha eases you in with the first half of his album building slowly and teasingly. You can really start to feel the pressure build from track seven, 'Acardia' by Apparat.  The mix peaks with a sense of urgency and energy at track nine, 'Destroy Everything You Touch' by Ladytron, which is also my favourite track. 

The journey down from this peak is signalled with the relaxing sound of which I can only liken to walking though a rainforest. The transition through the next few tracks is so smooth you almost forget that Sasha is bringing you to the end of the journey by letting you float down slowly. How Sasha goes from a heavy electronic sounding track to invoking that kind of feeling is something only a master can achieve. 

The final track in this mix is so different from everything else already heard, yet Sasha seamlessly mixes it in without you realising you are now listening to a remixed rock song 'Sometimes I Realise' by British rock-pop dream band Engineers. 

The band’s sound is often described as a mixture of psychedelia, shoegaze and post-rock. Listening to this track is like seeing the light for the first time and having some sort of sense of release. 

This song is the perfect ending to the amazing journey you have just taken with Sasha and Invol2ver.

For comments on this review check out...

http://www.teknoscape.com.au/forums/showthread.php?t=40572

Tracklisting

1. Badger - Intro

2. Telefon Tel Aviv - You Are The Worst Thing In The World (Invol2ver Remix)

3. Rone _ Flesh (Invol2ver Remix)

4. Sasha vs Ray LaMontagne - Eclipse (Ray LaMontagne Vocal Version)

5. Sasha vs Adam Parker - Lowlife (Adam Parker Vocal Sample)

6. Charlie May - Midnight (Adam Parker Vocal Sample)

7. Apparat - Arcadia (Invol2ver Remix)

8. Home Video - That You Might (Invol2ver Remix)

9. Ladytron - Destroy Everything You Touch (Invol2ver Remix)

10. M83 - Couleurs (Invol2ver Remix)

11. Thom Yorke - The Eraser (Invol2ver Remix)

12. Sasha - 3 Little Piggys

13. Engineers - Sometimes I Realise (Invol2ver Remix)