Renaissance: The Mix Collection | ||||
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Compilation album by | ||||
Released | 14 October 1994 | |||
Recorded | 1994 | |||
Genre | Progressive house | |||
Length | 225:32 | |||
Label | Renaissance Records | |||
Producer | Sasha, John Digweed | |||
Sasha & John Digweed chronology | ||||
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Sasha chronology | ||||
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John Digweed chronology | ||||
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Renaissance:The Mix Collection is the debut mix album by British DJ duo Sasha &John Digweed. It was released on 14 October 1994 and was the first in a series of mix albums released under the brand of the Renaissance nightclub. Containing music from the house,progressive house and trance genres,it was intended as a sampler of the kind of music played by the club.
The album was a critical and commercial success,charting and certifying silver in the UK,and considered by many to be one of the greatest mix albums of all time. The release was succeeded by numerous follow-ups,starting with Renaissance:The Mix Collection Part 2 in 1995 mixed by John Digweed solo.
In 2004,on the tenth anniversary of the album's release,a remastered version with a slightly altered track listing was released.
Renaissance:The Mix Collection is a mix of house,progressive house and trance house of the early 1990s. The album was mixed by Alexander Coe (aka Sasha) and John Digweed who were both resident DJs at Renaissance in 1994,and the songs chosen were supposed to give the listener "an idea of what [the club] was all about". [1]
The album was released in a triple CD digipack case. The album cover is a renaissance painting of the Hebrew prophet Zechariah,by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel. [2] A landscape portrait of a coliseum under a bright blue sky stretches inside the packaging. The CDs are arranged by colour;blue,orange,and green. The story behind Renaissance,the club,between 1992 and 1994 is written on top of the CD flaps. [1]
Resident Advisor said the album was a "landmark CD of its kind" and "the great Daddy of all DJ mix compilations –the cornerstone for all things progressive,and a massive influence for legions of DJs to follow." [3] The Quietus said the album marked the point of when the "second wave of dance music crossed over to a wider audience" and said the album was "arguably one of the first –and best - DJ mixes of its kind to be released on CD",referring to the album's "then upcoming talents of Sasha and John Digweed blended effortlessly a heady and hedonistic miasma of progressive house and early trance that included Leftfield,Underworld,and Age of Love to freeze in time forever the euphoric nights that would become days that would become euphoric nights again," featuring the album in their unordered 2015 list of their "Favourite DJ Mix Albums". [4] In 1996, Mixmag ranked the album at number 26 in its list of the "Best Dance Albums of All Time". [5] In 1997, Q ranked the album in their list of "The 10 Best DJ Mix Albums...Ever!". [6] DJ Mag included it on their list of "5 of the Best DJ Mixes of All Time". [7]
Renaissance:The Mix Collection Remastered 10th Anniversary Edition | ||||
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Compilation album by | ||||
Released | 15 November 2004 | |||
Recorded | 2004 (mixed) | |||
Genre | Progressive house | |||
Length | 222:18 | |||
Label | Renaissance Records | |||
Producer | Sasha,John Digweed | |||
Sasha &John Digweed chronology | ||||
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In 2004,to mark the 10th anniversary of its original release,Renaissance reissued the album in a remastered version featuring a slightly altered track listing.
Both M People tracks were removed from this release and replaced with other contemporaneous dance singles:"Renaissance" with "Stand Above Me" by OMD,and "How Can I Love You More" with "I Can't Forget You" (Fathers of Sound Pleasure mix) by Anthony White. These changes were due to copyright issues from the record labels.
The re-issued album is not a straight re-mastering,but a whole new session. Though the original blend sequences remain the same,as do all the original elements,Sasha and Digweed re-created the album using Apple G4 laptops to create,what they considered,a better quality version of the original mix,with recording techniques simply not available in 1994. [8]
Track listing as given on the sleeve (although there are errors and omissions which can be seen on Discogs):
Chart (1994) | Peak position |
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UK Compilation (Official Charts Company) [9] | 9 |
Chart (2004) | Peak position |
UK Compilation (Official Charts Company) [10] | 47 |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
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United Kingdom (BPI) [11] | Silver | 60,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
Thomas John Digweed is a British DJ and record producer. DJ Magazine voted him the World No. 1 DJ in 2001. As well as achieving success as a solo act,he has collaborated with Sasha as Sasha &John Digweed,and with Nick Muir as Bedrock.
Sasha &John Digweed are a British DJ duo comprising Sasha and John Digweed. Digweed had been DJing for ten years before getting a gig at Renaissance where he met Sasha,who had been working the past few years in various acid house music clubs and raves. Together,they honed their DJ skills,focusing on track selection and technical mixing abilities. In 1994,they released the triple CD mix album Renaissance:The Mix Collection on Renaissance Records. It contained many popular dance hits of the time from artists such as Leftfield,Fluke,and 2 Bad Mice as well as original productions and remixes from themselves. Two years later,the duo became "true superstars" (AllMusic) with the release of their double CD Northern Exposure on mega-label Ministry of Sound. This release was brought to the United States the next year in a single CD package on Ultra Records. 1997 saw the release of the Northern Exposure 2 double CD mix album,again on Ministry of Sound. Sasha and Digweed toured internationally,helping define the sound of progressive house &trance music in the late 1990s. In 1998,both John Digweed and Sasha released separate mix albums on Boxed as part of the Global Underground series with Digweed's GU 006:Sydney and Sasha's GU 009:San Francisco release.
Alexander Paul Coe,known professionally as Sasha,is a Welsh DJ and record producer. He is best known for his live events and electronic music as a solo artist,as well as his collaborations with British DJ John Digweed as Sasha &John Digweed. He was voted as World No. 1 DJ in 2000 in a poll conducted by DJ Magazine. He is a four-time International Dance Music Awards winner,four-time DJ Awards winner and Grammy Award nominee.
Progressive house is a subgenre of house music. The progressive house style emerged in the early 1990s. It initially developed in the United Kingdom as a natural progression of North American and European house music of the late 1980s.
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Sunscreem are a techno/house music band from Essex,England that scored a number of hits on the US Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart throughout the 1990s and into the 21st century. Sunscreem also has the rare reputation as a techno-based band that successfully performs concerts. Over a ten-year period,12 of its singles made an entry to the UK Singles Chart.
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Airdrawndagger is the second studio album by Welsh DJ Sasha. It was released on 5 August 2002 through Kinetic Records and BMG,with a digital download release issued by Deconstruction Records. The album features co-production from Charlie May,Junkie XL and James Holden. It was released with one single,"Wavy Gravy",on 19 August 2002,which had an amateur remix contest held in 2003. Despite the release of The Qat Collection in 1994,Airdrawndagger was advertised as Sasha's "debut artist album". Upon release,the album charted on the UK and US Albums Charts,peaking at number 18 and 157 respectively.
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