Confirming speculation and months of club land whispers; Sankeys can proudly announce the unique transatlantic creation of Sankeys New York.

As anyone that has visited Sankeys in Manchester will know, New York’s club scene has been at the forefront of the global inspiration that created the world’s number one club, and captured the essence of legendary old school basement nightclubs like Twilo, Sound Factory and Vinyl from the “city that never sleeps”.

Sankeys – the UK clubbing institution which regularly showcases the worlds biggest DJ’s alongside homegrown talent like Greg Vickers, Ellesse and OD Muzique, is still currently on top of the world after winning this year’s biggest ever worldwide poll held by industry leading magazine, DJ Mag. Sankeys plan to make their mark on New York from the start of 2011.

Across 16,000sq ft in a brand new space situated in a former Garage in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen area on 50th West Street, Sankeys New York will have a capacity of 1100 people, and follow the same template that has organically developed into the success story Sankeys can now proudly tell. One of Sankeys New York’s resident’s will be the established, greatly respected DJ/Producer and former Sound Factory resident DJ A-LUV.

Sankeys don’t do things by half so like its Mancunian older brother, Sankeys New York will continually push technological boundaries boasting an impressive Soundsystem the world has never seen before created by ADVANCED AUDIO TECHNOLOGY and production techniques such as hydraulic LED video lighting never before used within a nightclub environment. The New York club will be continuing Sankeys rich and diverse music policy, delivering cutting edge lineups of European and stateside talent from across the House, Techno and Electronic scene.

Owner David Vincent has now revealed the exciting New York venture as well as a previously announced vision to open new venues covering America, South America, Asia and throughout Europe in the future.

“Since announcing we had a vision to open other clubs around the world we have been inundated with offers, however, New York was always going to be the first location for Sankeys home from home. Out of all the cities that have made Sankeys what it is, New York has, without a doubt, had the biggest influence on our music, design and technology (such as our Phazon Soundsystem). We built Sankeys in Manchester with all the great New York DJ’s’ in mind, and most importantly, to make sure that they always feel welcome. Good lessons were learnt at great NYC parties such as Be Yourself at Vinyl from the greatest entertainer of them all, Danny Tenaglia.

Sankeys has been organically built around the great traditions of New York… this is now our way of giving New York back what it gave Sankeys, with my own futuristic twisted twist of course…” David Vincent

To celebrate the New York announcement, this Saturday 31st July Sankeys and New York collide for “I Love NY”. The Martinez Brothers start their Manchester residency and treat the Sankeys crowd to another magical 4 hour set. The energetic brothers from the Bronx will be spinning alongside Sankeys NYC resident A-LUV and a rare showcase from NY based record label, Wolf+Lamb featuring Soul Clap and Zev.

It’s been some fourteen years (if you include Disco Citizens tracks) since Nick Bracegirdle arrived as the ‘God of the Ibiza anthem’. Some records are of their time and stay there, some somehow form a bedrock in musical consciousness, ‘Offshore’ certainly has done that: millions would have heard the track and most likely not know who it was by; as with other Chicane tracks, their usage as incidental tunes on TV around the world is phenomenal.

More Ibiza anthem’s followed, ‘Saltwater’, Autumn Tactics’, ‘Halcyon’, in that golden period through to the millennium Chicane, was trance, and trance was Ibiza, or at least the Ibiza dance tourists brought home. Blissed up kids returned from the island and wanted to play the tracks that reminded them of sunrises, sunsets, Cafe del Mar and all that was in-between.

‘Behind the Sun’, which featured a track called ‘Don’t Give Up’, featuring Bryan Adams, was a turning point. Originally the single was white labelled without acknowledgement of Bryan’s involvement, however, that only intensified the interest in both the track and who the vocalist was. ‘Don’t Give Up’ became a UK No. 1and international hit.

Nick Bracegirdle, who has always insisted he was as much live act as a writer producer, spent the next two years touring the album worldwide, Ibiza, and 6am sets seemed a long way away. The band played their last gig on the island back in 2002.

Nick’s reputation as a writer and producer got calls from established acts that wanted to induce some of the Chicane sound into their own. He has either, written, remixed, performed with, or produced for acts as diverse as; Cher, BT, William Orbit, Bryan Adams (East Side Story), Natasha Bedingfield, Jewel, Sir Tom Jones and Frankie Goes to Hollywood. His music seems to have some large generation spans; Sir Michael Caine is a big fan and recently played, ‘No Ordinary Morning’ on Desert Island Discs, as well as featuring Chicane on what must have been one of the most bizarre compilation albums of all time ‘Cained’.

In 2008 Chicane released a ‘Best Of’ album, which included the UK top ten hit ‘Poppihola’, which, is a rework of the Sigur Ros track, “Hoppipolla”, as well as a ledger of tracks from 1997 to present day and has gone on to sell over 200,000 copies

Through 2008 to 2010, Chicane toured the album worldwide; Australia, Russia, Europe, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Ukraine, Africa, Scandinavia, Singapore (inaugural F1 race), and of course the UK.

Now, July 26th see’s the release of both the new studio album “Giants” and the single ‘Middledistancerunner’ , featuring a vocal from Owl City’s Adam Young. The album has a few guest appearances, some uncredited, some not – Lemar boldly makes an appearance on ‘What am I Doing Here (part 2)’ and Tash Andrews, sometime live vocalist with the band appears too on ‘Hiding All the Stars’.

This album is an updated but voracious return to the Chicane of old. Nick describes it as ‘related but evolved to the older albums’. Certainly tracks leaked through official websites have sparked more than a wave of excitement. In some ways it is isn’t what people expect, but it is maybe what they want.

Giants – released by Modena Records on August 2nd 2010

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As filthy as they are devine, The Dirty Disco are thrusting their way up festival bills across the country with a bang of precise timing, slick electronica and infectious pop hooks. Finding their local music scene to be packed with pretentious, self-important shoe gazing Indie, they desired to create something different, something fresh and something theatrical. Something they’ve succeeded in doing, and then some.

In fact, when asked to describe the pulsating electro theatrics of The Dirty Disco, one crackpot follower had this advice: “Imagine… the lust child of Ziggy Stardust and Britney Spears”. And they weren’t far from the mark. What they neglected to mention was this Britney Spears would also have to have a penchant for bad acid, more than a passing interest in the happenings of back-street Soho and a unique way of fusing gyrating Electronica with infectious pop hooks.

“Fantastically loopy, theatrical and infectious in a warped land that encompasses New Order, The Cure, Cher; Electro-Pop fuelled madness and a dash of psychedelic panache thrown in for good measure. Transcends any real critique. A masterpiece in a world entirely its own.” All Gigs

“Their glam, electro-pop reminded us a lot of Lady Gaga if she had decided to strap a guitar to her body instead of Kermit the Frog” Boom Boom Chik

“White Room” is the The Dirty Disco’s second single, the follow up to their debut and introductory single “Sista!” which peaked at No. 20 in the iTunes Dance Chart. Both tracks, along with future single “Storyteller” were mixed by Grammy Award Winning Dylan “3D” Dresdow, Will.I.Am / Black Eyed Peas long-term studio accomplice, after the unsigned band got in contact through facebook. Dresdow has been responsible for mixing the likes of Nas, Michael Jackson, Wu-tang Clan, and more recently Black Eyed Peas, Cheryl Cole, Rihanna and Kelis. “White Room” was mastered by Tom Coyne (Britney Spears / Beyonce / Pink / Cheryl Cole). “White Room” is currently the 2nd most requested track on Larry Flick’s Morning Jolt show on Sirius XM Radio.

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Dutchman DJ Madskillz is a much in demand producer, remixer and DJ with over 90 tracks to his name. For over 20 years he has released on labels like Richie Hawtin’s Plus 8 Records, Stealth Records (run by Roger Sanchez), current darling Dutch labels Area Remote and 100% PURE (run by scene godfather 2000 and One) and Bitten.

On Saturday 31st July he plays with deep houser Oxia for Filth at Sankeys in Manchester. We caught up with him for a quick Q&A…

How much of an influence is/was the Dutch scene on you?

I’m getting influenced by a lot of stuff, not only the Dutch scene in particular. I like a lot of the stuff my fellow Dutch colleagues do and it has his influences on my sound but so does all the music i hear or play.

How would you describe your sound to someone who didn’t know?

Tight, driven, energetic Tech house with a Mad flavour!

What’s been your best gig this year and why?

That’s a tough question… Some dj’s will consider the biggest gig as the best because it’s very overwhelming to see that many people dance and react. But i like the small gigs also. I like it when you have a direct contact with your audience. So far this summer , the Belgium and UK crowd are favourite J

How do you choose which records to play each week – what does each one have to make you feel?

There’s a lot of good tunes in my crate that stay’s in there for months. I’m talking about unreleased stuff, some good oldies en off course my own tunes. I’m very critical about the new tunes I pick out to play. I buy and listen a lot of stuff ( from deep house to smashing big room techno tunes ) but to play in my sets it got to have that mad energetic tech house flow..

How do you keep ahead of the curve in terms of the music you make?

I’m spending a lot of time in the studio during the week and also, still after 20 years of producing, still keeping an eye on new technologies and new trends . If you want to stay current, you need to emerge with them.

What are your current top 3 tracks?

Well let’s just drop some names of producers witch tunes I really like to drop:

Kaiserdisco, Jay Lumen, Carlo Lio, Uto Karem, Anton Pieete

What are you working on at the moment?

A new release on Bitten, a remix on Klimaks ( Noir) and a really big remix wich i have to keep a secret until it has been confirmed J

What can people expect from your set at Sankeys for Filth?

Tight, driven, energetic Techhouse with a Mad flavour! Looking forward to play in the numer 1 club of the world!

Featuring some of the brightest stars in music, ‘Revival’ is a new offering from Rhythms Del Mundo (RDM) in partnership with the widely-respected Artists Project Earth (APE), a UK NGO focusing on disaster relief and climate change awareness. With each of the tracks given the trademark RDM Afro-Cuban twist, ‘Revival’ offers several musical surprises while supporting relief efforts in Haiti, Chile, and Tibet following the recent catastrophes in these regions.

Particular highlights include the first ever authorized reworking of “A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall” by Bob Dylan – only the second ever officially sanctioned reworking of a Dylan song. Also included on the album are Afro-Cuban reworkings of Dizzee Rascal’s chart-topper “Holiday,” Franz Ferdinand’s “The Dark Of The Matinee” and The Gorillaz’ “Feel Good Inc.” ‘Revival’ also features a collaboration between Coldplay and Lele on a stunning version of Coldplay’s top-ten hit “Clocks,” appropriately entitled “Clocks/Relojes” in keeping with the Cuban spirit of the album.

Other noteworthy contributions include a collection of covers including “I Fought The Law” by Green Day, Wyclef Jean’s remake of the Bee Gee’s timeless “Stayin’ Alive”, and KT Tunstall’s cover of Jefferson Airplane classic “Somebody To Love.”

Commenting on his involvement with the project, award-winning rapper Dizzee Rascal says, “I feel very proud to be given the opportunity to make such a contribution to APE and am glad to be involved in such a huge project that will give much needed help and hope to those suffering in Haiti, Chile and Tibet.”

Groove Armada’s Tom Findlay further outlines the importance and timing of ‘Revival’: “Just because the plight of Haiti is no longer in the media focus, it doesn’t mean to say that everything has been sorted out. People still need our help.”

Summing up the scope and vision of the ‘Revival’ project, APE Founder Kenny Young said, “…as the media lens has focused elsewhere, their needs have not diminished. People in Haiti and now Chile and the Tibetan Plateau are still struggling to survive and rebuild their lives. They still need our help.”