Sasha was born Alexander Coe in Wales in Sep 1969. He first became aware about the house music scene in the late 1980s during visits to the mythical Hacienda club in Manchester. He became hooked straight away “The smoke machine, the strobe lights, everybody trance dancing, wearing bandanas and smiley T-shirts,” he recalls.
“It definitely had a fuck-you perspective compared to the remainder of pop music”. He moved to Manchester to become more concerned in the scene just as house music exploded into the states consciousness, and started to DJ in a local club using the moniker of Sasha. His first huge break came when he was offered a residency at Shelly’s in Stoke in 1991, and his unique style of playing acapella over instrumental Italian piano house tracks got him many fans and acclaim. Later that year, he became the 1st DJ to feature on the cover of Mixmag. His first production was using the nom-de-plume BM:Ex “Appolonia” on VC Recordings, a classic track with many remixes that would start to define the Sasha style long, liquid, hypnotic tracks, with gated vocals and synths swirling out and in of the mix. His Qatmix also came with a hearty dose of piano to keep the italo-house heads happy.
Sasha was invited to take a residency at Renaissance in 1993 where he went on to meet John Digweed. The pair went on to form the Northerly Exposure brand a club night that they’d go on to take on many tours round the country, and also a collection of mix CDs that were made using production software instead of decks a trend that caught on fast. In 1994 Sasha released 2 singles on Deconstruction Records “Magic” and “High Ground”. Sasha formed closeness with producer BT in 1995 that led on to him remixing BT’s seminal “Embracing the Sunshine” and the 2 co-producing the B-Side of Sasha’s largest hit to date the classic “Be as One”. In the same year they also worked together on maybe one of the best remixes ever the majestic Atraxion Future mixture of Seal’s “I’m Alive”. This mix contains everything in its thirteen or so minute’s giant builds, massive drops, pianos, guitars and a sing-along chorus. It is a huge favorite here at 2nd Hand Vinyl. Sasha’s production work took a less commercial slant between 1996 and 1998, till in 1999 he release the four-track “Xpander EP”, the title track of which contained hugely inspiring and melodic synth parts that brought him a completely new set of fans. In 2k he ganged up with Subculture supremo Darren Emerson to record “Scorchio”, another inspiring synth track that charted in the United Kingdom. Sasha is still manufacturing and DJing today, and is still as well liked as ever.