Sasha Late Night Tales: Scene Delete

The latest in the revered Late Night Tales compilation series is, per concept, Sasha’s synthesized fantasia recontextualized into a comedown mix. But its headphones-only audiophilia also allows the listener to savor and dissect the work of the veteran Welsh producer/DJ and collaborators David Gardner and ThermalBear, who over two years crafted almost 50 comedown pieces that were eventually sent to Late Night Tales for an all-originals edition (with 21 of them making the final cut). A steady pacer like “View2” is as uptempo—and as close as to Sasha’s classic progressivism—as it gets, with its 75-BPM tempo and spacewalk ambience. The gentle breakbeat of “Time After Time” hearkens back to 2002’s Airdrawndagger, Sasha’s last artist album. And Scene Delete’s impetus track, “Bring on the Night-time,” features both keys by Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich and one of the album’s two vocal performances, by Godrich’s Ultraista bandmate Laura Bettinson, ultimately creating a lullaby. Nonetheless, though the rest of Scene Delete placates similarly, there’s enough stimulation to experience it beyond the small hours.