Three of the world’s top DJs will be in Columbus tomorrow night.
Sasha, John Digweed and Jimmy Van M will be accompanied by a state-of-the-art sound system and cutting edge visual effects as the Delta Heavy Tour comes to Rise, held at 303 S. Front St. (formerly known as the Red Zone).
The tour, which will take the three DJs to many different cities in North America, has been in the works for the last year and a half, said British DJ Sasha. Born in Wales, Sasha was recently ranked the second best DJ in the world by the prestigious DJ Magazine Top 100 Poll.
“I’m looking forward to getting to play in places like Columbus,” Sasha said. “It’s been a hell of a lot of work, but I think people are really responding to the fact that we put so much into the tour. It’s going to be great, I think people are really going to be blown away.”
Working together, the three DJs have ensured that the tour will be like nothing ever seen before.
“Although it is a DJ show, the Delta Heavy Tour has far more in common with a traveling arena rock show than it does with an ordinary DJ traveling with a few bags of records,” said Rise promoter Evan Glassman. “This raises the bar for DJ shows forever, it is setting the standard.”
For the show, the interior of the club will undergo a massive transformation.
“We just wanted to bring something like the caliber of production from Twilo,” Sasha said, when asked of the trio’s goal for the tour. Twilo, the famed New York nightclub where the three held a residency, was renowned for its revolutionary sound system and high quality production.
The tour has its own massive sound system, the state-of-the-art V-DOSC cylindrical wave line array speaker system, which it brings to each show.
There is also interactive lighting effects that respond to both the crowd and the music, as well as several hours of customized visual footage created exclusively for the show.
The footage, which is based around a tribal theme, was done by Imaginary Forces, the revolutionary company that produced both “Blade” and “Blade II.”
For each show a DJ booth is built from scratch. The booth, which is covered in translucent Lexan panels, changes color in response to the DJ and the music.
The driving force behind it all is still the music, though.
“It can’t get any better than this talent-wise,” said 303 co-owner Mike Gallicchio.
Along with Sasha, Britain’s Digweed was ranked the number one DJ in the world in the 2001 DJ Magazine poll. Florida’s Van M was 39th.
“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. We have three of the best DJs in the world performing,” Glassman said.
The partnership between Sasha and Digweed was forged in 1993, while both held residencies at the Manchester club Renaissance. Playing together, the two gained popularity quickly, and in 1994 they released a Renaissance compilation, one of the first ever DJ mix albums.
From that point on Sasha and Digweed began a steady climb into the world’s DJ elite. In addition to playing at the top European clubs, they released three critically acclaimed “Northern Exposure” albums which combined to sell more than 1 million copies worldwide.
In April 1997 the two became the first U.K. DJs ever to secure a residency at a U.S. club with their four year stint at Twilo.
Organized by Van M, who opened for the duo, the Twilo residency established Sasha and Digweed as stars in both the U.S. and the U.K.
Their wildly-popular, once-a-month performances became a clubbing institution in New York and garnered a cult following. They attracted crowds of more than 2,000 people on a regular basis before the club was closed in 2001.
In the last few years Sasha and Digweed’s popularity has risen to even higher levels. The duo has traveled all over the world, playing both individually and together, from Ibiza, to London, to Tokyo.
At the same time, some dramatic changes have taken place for the two musically. Beginning in the late ’90s both DJs slowly started to veer away from the more popular, commercial-trance sound they grew to fame with.
To avoid being pigeonholed the two began to explore new musical concepts, eventually helping to establish what is now called “progressive house.”
Along with DJs such as New York’s Danny Tenaglia, the trio has championed the progressive house movement all over the world, pushing electronic music to new levels with their deep, stripped-down tribal sounds.
It is impossible to categorize either Sasha, Digweed or Van M as just DJs.
Digweed runs his own highly successful record label, Bedrock, which he has built up over the last 10 years. His club nights in London and Brighton, called Bedrock, are among England’s most popular. He also has a weekly radio show on London’s Kiss 100 FM.
In addition, Digweed and studio partner Nick Muir have produced club classics such as “Heaven Scent” and “For What You Dream Of,” as well as many top remixes.
More recently, Digweed and Muir produced the score for “Stark Raving Mad,” a film due to be released some time later this year.
Sasha has been credited with producing the immensely popular “Xpander” and “Scorchio,” a collaboration with England’s Darren Emerson that became one of 2001’s most popular records.
Like Digweed, Sasha is also one of the world’s most sought after remixers, having collaborated with the likes of Madonna, the Pet Shop Boys and M-People.
Van M runs Balance Promotions, a booking agency, record label and record pool that he formed with Florida’s Chris Fortier in 1996.
Through Balance, Van M has organized American tours for Sasha and Digweed, as well as Nick Warren, Anthony Pappa and other top progressive house DJs.
This will be the first Ohio appearance for the DJ trio.
Tomorrow night’s show is also the pre-opening party for Rise, which will officially reopen April 26, with California’s Christopher Lawrence.
Open every Friday night, the club will feature performances by Florida’s George Acosta, San Francisco’s Mauricio Aviles, and Baltimore’s DJ Feelgood during the month of May.
Tomorrow night’s event is 18-and-over, and doors open at 9 p.m. Presale tickets are available at Ticketmaster for $35 and at the door.
