Sasha — Global Underground 009: San Francisco

Release details

• ArtistSasha
• Year1998
• LabelBoxed / Global Underground
• Format2 × CD
• SeriesGlobal Underground

Sasha chose mood over the obvious hits

Sasha chose mood over the obvious hits. By 1998, with Renaissance and Northern Exposure behind him, GU009 could have been two CDs of recognisable records and enormous breakdowns. Job done.

Instead, the first proper track is Freaky Chakra — Platform. Dark. Loose. Slightly psychedelic. Not exactly: ‘Here comes the superstar DJ.’

And that’s why I still love this mix. GU009 doesn’t spend two and a half hours reminding you how important Sasha was. It just sounds like Sasha.

The original UK release arrived in 1998 as a two-CD Boxed / Global Underground mix with 27 indexed tracks. Useful information. The music is the reason you’d want it back.

CD1 is much deeper than the Sasha reputation suggests

People remember late-90s Sasha as this huge widescreen DJ. Big melodies. Big rooms. Xpander. Ibiza. GU009 isn’t quite there yet. That’s what makes it interesting.

The city intro disappears into Platform, and suddenly you’re inside something murky and hypnotic rather than celebratory.

Attaboy — Solid Space Business keeps the mix unsettled. DJ Sakin & Friends — Protect Your Mind brings melody into the picture without blowing everything open.

There’s no obvious dividing line between ‘deep Sasha’ and ‘trance Sasha’. The colours just start changing. That’s proper progressive mixing.

Resurrection is where you realise how patient this thing is

The stretch around Classified Project and Medway is where CD1 properly settles into itself.

Medway — Resurrection has that late-90s progressive sound where you can feel tension without needing a massive hook slapped across the top. Dark enough to work at stupid o’clock. Melodic enough to stop becoming wallpaper.

And Sasha gives it room. GU009 doesn’t treat tracks like disposable stepping stones. A lot of them actually get to be records.

The middle isn’t full of ‘moments’. That’s the point.

Slick Mick — Spectral Analysis. Sneaky Alien — Blue Stream. Funk Function — Empress II. None of those need to be the tune you remember thirty years later.

Together, they’re part of why the tunes you do remember land properly. If every record is screaming for attention, nothing feels big.

Sasha lets the middle of the mix roll. A groove here. A bit more melody there. The room changes a few degrees at a time. You don’t notice how far you’ve travelled until Travel — Bulgarian appears and the whole thing suddenly feels larger.

Everything’s Not You is one of those records that tells you what era you’re in

Stoneproof — Everything’s Not You (Quivver’s Space Mix). Late-90s progressive house written all over it.

John Graham’s production has that thing Quivver did so well: emotional without becoming soft, spacious without losing weight.

And inside GU009, it arrives at exactly the right point. CD1 has spent ages avoiding obvious emotional payoffs. Now it can afford one.

William Orbit takes I’m Free somewhere else entirely

Morgan King — I’m Free (William Orbit Mix) gets nearly nine minutes. And it earns them.

There’s something beautifully spacious about it. A bit dreamy. A bit melancholy. Not remotely interested in smashing you over the head.

The first disc is clearly more melodic by now, but Sasha still isn’t chasing some giant trance finale. Sitting at the far end is Libra presents Taylor — Anomaly (Calling Your Name), Albion Mix.

That Jan Johnston vocal. That proper late-90s feeling of progressive house and trance starting to bleed into each other. CD1 almost tells you where the scene is going without Sasha having to explain a thing.

CD2 feels like somebody shut the door and turned the lights down

The second disc is different. Not a completely different Sasha. Just harder. Tighter. Less interested in the warmth that creeps through CD1.

Narcotik — Blue puts you straight into darker territory. And sitting right behind it is Der Dritte Raum — Hale Bopp. Bloody hell. Still a monster.

Hale Bopp doesn’t need a massive breakdown because the groove is enough

That’s one of the things I miss about records like this. Hale Bopp doesn’t spend six minutes promising something bigger is coming. The record itself is the thing.

Driving bass. That hypnotic sequence. Just enough weirdness. Nothing wasted. Placed this early on CD2, it tells you Sasha isn’t easing back in.

Oliver Lieb turns the pressure up without turning it cheesy

Illuminatus — Hope in the Oliver Lieb mix is exactly the sort of record that makes genre arguments pointless. Progressive house? Progressive trance? Who cares. It works.

Dave Kane — Clarkness and Eclipse 8 — Acoustic Principles keep the mix locked into that harder, more metallic mood. The melodic space of late CD1 feels miles away. But the programming still feels unmistakably Sasha.

The Chain is nine and a half minutes of why Sasha was Sasha

Breeder — The Chain is not a quick hit. It’s progressive music doing what the name actually suggests. Building. Changing. Pulling you deeper. Never needing to stop every thirty seconds to explain itself.

Breeder belong inside this world.

Change Me gives you just enough air before Twilo Thunder

Paragliders — Change Me breaks up the two Breeder tracks without breaking the mood. And after that: Twilo Thunder.

Dark. Long. Loud. There’s no need for some giant obvious vocal. It builds its size through pressure. That’s much better.

Jark Prongo sounds absolutely filthy here

Movin’ Thru Your System is one of those tracks that reminds you how physical late-90s progressive could be. No dreamy sunrise stuff here. It’s chunky. Mechanical. A little nasty. Exactly what CD2 needs after the long Breeder section.

I Dream is exactly the right way to leave it

Tilt — I Dream (Tilt’s Resurrection Mix) closes the release. Tilt knew how to make progressive records feel emotional without turning them into mush.

And this one works because Sasha doesn’t suddenly decide the final ten minutes need to become a fireworks display. The mix stays itself.

You’ve gone from Freaky Chakra’s loose, strange opening through Medway and Quivver, into William Orbit, Der Dritte Raum, Breeder, Jark Prongo and finally Tilt. That’s a huge amount of ground. It doesn’t feel like it. That’s the achievement.

Twenty-seven tracks. But the tracklist doesn’t explain why it works.

Someone Googling Sasha Global Underground 009 tracklist should land here and get what they wanted. That’s good SEO because it’s also useful.

But the names alone miss the interesting bit. Platform isn’t special here merely because it’s Platform. Hale Bopp isn’t special merely because it’s famous. The Chain doesn’t matter because it gets nine minutes.

It’s where those records sit. What happens before them. What they make possible afterwards. That’s the difference between a good tracklist and a good mix.

GU009 catches progressive house halfway through becoming something else

The earlier part of the 90s had a looser progressive-house identity. House. Dub. Trance. Breaks. All sorts mixed together.

By the end of the decade, trance was getting bigger, cleaner and much more commercially visible. GU009 sits bang in the middle of that shift.

You can hear the older progressive patience. You can hear the darker club sound. You can also hear the melodic trance pull getting stronger. Sasha doesn’t choose a side. He mixes through it.

Does it still hold up?

Very easily. Some sounds scream 1998. Perfect. Why would I want them scrubbed clean?

What survives is the structure. The restraint. The confidence. Sasha doesn’t panic if a track hasn’t produced a giant emotional payoff within three minutes.

He lets grooves work. He lets tension accumulate. He moves between progressive house and progressive trance without turning the joins into flashing signposts.

Why the complete GU009 sequence matters

Because a saved playlist of the tracks isn’t GU009.

You’ve got Platform setting the tone. Medway tightening it. Bulgarian opening things up. Everything’s Not You finally giving you some emotion. I’m Free floating around near the end of CD1.

Hale Bopp changing the pressure completely. Two long Breeder tracks taking over the centre of CD2. Jark Prongo getting filthy. Tilt leaving the lights low at the end.

That’s the release. The sequence is the product. The way it moves is the product. Sasha’s judgement is the product.

Streaming can play every one of those records. It can’t make the programming irrelevant. And if that programming still means something to you, owning GU009 again starts making a lot of sense.

Related on The Mix Archive

• Listen to CD1
• Sasha profile
• Global Underground feature
• America feature
• GU013 Ibiza Collector’s Shelf

Want the complete GU009 journey back?

If Platform, Bulgarian, Everything’s Not You, Hale Bopp, The Chain, Twilo Thunder or I Dream is back in your head, follow that memory. Hear how Sasha connects them, then decide whether individual tracks are enough. Sometimes you reach the middle of CD2 and think: Yeah. I should never have got rid of this.