Sasha and John Digweed

When I was in New York last month, I was surprised to hear that the Virgin Megastore on Broadway had to be closed for the likes of Sasha and Digweed. This album comes right after their successful Northern Exposure series, which was quite experimental with trance genre. Communicate sees the duo come back to funky progressive house roots. The first track, "Like a Bitch," (by Jaime and Kenny) freaks the "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" bass line into a modern day house groove. It sets the mood perfectly for the rest of the album, which has a constant bounce and funky feel to it. There are crescendos and crazy build-ups galore, smoothly interacting with each other. In fact, it's pretty much as close to a live set as you can get. Communicate may not be as challenging and as boundary pushing as the earlier albums, but it still pleases the ear. The second disc is a lot harder, pushing rhythms and layering melodies over each other with technical precision. The diverse track selection includes Mainline, Killer Loop, the Orb, Sven Vath, and even the Chemical Brothers. Some tracks like "The Blue Hour" are decidedly a dark side of trance and are complemented with intense tunes such as "Put your Earphones on" by PFN.