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Chicane (recording artist)

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Chicane is a pseudonym used by UK-based electronic musician, DJ and record producer Nick Bracegirdle. He was born on 28 February, 1971, in London.

Chicane is known for the singles "Offshore", an Ibiza dance anthem included in thousands of compilations in both chill-out and dance form, "Saltwater", which featured vocals by Clannad member Máire Brennan and is ranked among the best-ever trance-singles, "Autumn Tactics" and especially the #1 smash hit "Don't Give Up", which features vocals by Bryan Adams. His other hits include the fast-paced "Halcyon", and the dance melody "Love on the Run" featuring the vocals of Peter Cunnah of fame.

In addition, Bracegirdle works alone under the alias Disco Citizens, whose tracks have a stronger progressive house sound, without any vocals, and so this project doesn't get the same airplay as the more radio-friendly Chicane. Working with singer Vanessa St. James and producer Mr. Joshua, Bracegirdle was part of the Mr. Joshua Presents Espiritu project, known for the song "In Praise of the Sun", released with both English and French vocals.

Bracegirdle's body of work for other artists includes working as a producer for Bryan Adams and Cher on her album Living Proof. He has also done a number of remixes for artists such as Everything But The Girl, Billie Ray Martin, Bryan Adams and Enigma. In addition, he composed music for the PlayStation game Formula One.

Contents

Musical biography

The beginning

While having trained in classical guitar and piano at an early age, Bracegirdle's earliest influences in electronic music came from early melodic composers such as Jean-Michel Jarre and Vangelis, and synthpop pioneer Vince Clarke.[Tracks: Nick Bracegirdle: Recording Chicane's "Don't Give Up"]. (May 2000). Sound on Sound. Accessed March 17, 2006. A further influence was the dance hit "Anthem" by the house music group N-Joi; all this convinced him to pursue the creation of melodic dance music, and by the age of 12 he was making music in studios and sending out demos to record labels.Tierney, Paul. [Chicane]. Top Magazine (Retrieved from the Internet Archive. April 2000. Accessed March 29, 2006.

\"Offshore\" and initial success

Eventually, Bracegirdle founded his own record label, Modena Records, which holds the rights to all his songs, which are then licensed to other labels for release and distribution. A partnership with Leo Elstob produced the first Disco Citizens single, "Right Here Right Now", in 1995, as well as the first Chicane single, "Offshore", in 1996. "Offshore" would be the first of Chicane's many releases on independent UK dance music record label Xtravaganza Recordings, then-newly founded by DJ and Bracegirdle's college friend Alex Gold.[Interview with BBC Radio 1]. (1998). Chicane.cc. Accessed April 7, 2006. It reached #12 on the UK Singles Chart (and #1 on other UK-based charts compiled by Mixmag, Record Mirror, and others),[Chicane biography]. Chicane.cc (Retrieved from the Internet Archive). Accessed March 17, 2006. the top 40 in multiple European countries,[Editorial - Chicane]. (May 2000). Urbnet.com. Accessed March 17, 2006. and #5 on the US Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play charts in 1997 upon re-release.[Artist Chart History - Chicane]. Billboard.com. Accessed March 17, 2006. Its inclusion on numerous Ibiza-themed trance music compilation albums[Offshore]. All Music Guide. Accessed March 17, 2006. (such as Café del Mar) attest to its popularity in the nightclubs on the island, one of the worldwide epicenters of club music.

"Sunstroke", the follow-up single, attained similar levels of popularity and chart numbers. A third single, "Offshore '97" (a separate item from the re-release of "Offshore") was actually a mash-up of "Offshore" with the vocal track from the Power Circle song "A Little Love, a Little Life", mixed by producer and DJ Anthony Pappa. Originally a bootleg, it was turned into an official release, credited to "Chicane with Power Circle".

Following these releases, the first Chicane album, Far from the Maddening Crowds, which included multiple versions of the previously-released singles and new songs, was released in September 1997. Additional singles that followed were "Lost You Somewhere", the Benelux release "Red Skies", and the non-album single "Strong in Love", for which Bracegirdle used vocals by British singer Sylvia Mason-James (after discovering that she was the vocalist on the Paul Oakenfold/Steve Osborne remix of "Lemon" by U2) and first collaborated on production with Ray "Madman" Hedges" (producer for B*Witched and Boyzone).

Collaborations and more hits

1999 saw the release of "Saltwater", a song based on Maire Brennan's vocals from "Theme from Harry's Game" by the Celtic band Clannad. The version of the vocals used in "Saltwater", however, was a new recording by Brennan herself. It surpassed all previous Chicane singles thus far, reaching #6 on the UK charts and #1 on all five major UK dance charts.

Following remix work on Bryan Adams's "Cloud Number Nine", Bracegirdle offered Adams the vocal position on the song "Don't Give Up". The vocals Adams recorded were subsequently heavily processed through a vocoder so as to play down his rock music vocal style; in fact, the vocal credit was initially not publicized, starting from when the single was played on Pete Tong's radio show.[Interview with BBC Radio 1]. (Febraury 2000). Chicane.cc. Accessed April 7, 2006. (Tong subsequently proclaimed it the first "essential" song of the new millennium.)Gill, Alexandra. [Bryan Adams, king of rave?]. Globe Interactive. August 22, 2000. Accessed March 29, 2006. It was also Chicane's biggest hit, debuting at #1 on the UK charts (and notably replacing "American Pie", Madonna's #1 single of the previous week),Zywietz, Tobias. [Chart Log UK: Oliver Cheatham - Convert]. (March 22, 2005). Chart Log UK. Accessed March 17, 2006. reached #3 on the US dance chart and #1 on Australian and Russian charts, and made other charts across Europe as well.

The subsequent album Behind the Sun was a certified gold album by BPI certification, while "Don't Give Up" was certified silver.Zywietz, Tobias. [Chart Log UK: M - The Mars Volta]. (March 22, 2005). Chart Log UK. Accessed March 17, 2006.

Difficulties

The next Chicane album, Easy to Assemble, was originally scheduled for 2003; promotional copies of the album were released on WEA, alongside the single "Love on the Run", followed by a single of "Locking Down". However, the album was not actually released afterwards in most major countries. About a hundred promotional copies had been circulated to the music press and radio. The album was rumoured to have been held back from public release to be re-worked, but the promotional album became victim to peer to peer file sharing services and was consequently downloaded for free en masse. This obviously diminished its value for the record company as a viable investment for release. This album interestingly however marks a conscious departure from the classic electronica Chicane sound into a more Daft Punk-like adventure and also experimentation with guitar sources.

In 2005 Burning Vision Entertainment produced the music video, found [here], for the song "Something Wrong" from Easy to Assemble, to form part of a Chicane EPK that was put together at the time. The main female actor in the video is Nick Bracegirdle's wife Nadia.

A return

Eventually, April 2006 saw the release of a new single, "Stoned in Love", on Globe Records through Universal Music Group, featuring singer Tom Jones on vocals. [(Press Release)]. At the time of the announcement the song was also played twice by Pete Tong.[BBC Radio-1 - Pete Tong - Tracklisting, 24 February 2006]. BBC Radio 1. Accessed March 29, 2006. [BBC Radio-1 - Pete Tong - Tracklisting, 10 March 2006]. BBC Radio 1. Accessed March 29, 2006.

The track has received substantial UK TV promotion in the run up to the week of release, featuring semi-live performances on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, The New Paul O'Grady Show as well as Tom Jones and Nick Bracegirdle interviewed on Channel 5 News. When Nick was asked in the 5 News interview where he had been since "Don't Give Up" he replied that he had been "basically stuffed" by an internet bootleg of the album Easy to Assemble. Trainspotters may have noticed that when "Stoned in Love" was sung live by Tom Jones on The Jonathan Ross show it was in a lower key than the CD release. Jones appears to use his entire vocal range in this lower key. This may suggest that the CD version contains processed vocals which have been shifted higher in pitch, and hence at least partly explain why the vocal sounds younger and different to the classic Tom Jones sound (Madonna's vocals were similarly pitched higher on "Like a Virgin" to achieve a younger vocal). Jones also admitted to have recorded the verses counciously without vocal vibrato to be more in keeping which a dance orientated track. On this track Chicane has moved yet further towards embracing electric bass and guitars, which has given it an angle reminiscent of U2's "Discothèque" and Solar Stone's "Like a Waterfall" but underpinned with Chicane melody, progressions and keyboard elements.

Music

Style

Bracegirdle describes Chicane's music as being strongly influenced by the relaxed, summer atmosphere of Ibiza, where he was taken on holidays as a child.Shepherd, Stephanie. [Samplings - Chicane - Carries Ibiza Sound Across the Pond]. DJ Times. September 2000. Accessed March 29, 2006. The first two Chicane albums are known for atmospheric, ambient melodies and shifting moods and tempos, particularly Far from the Maddening Crowds, which has been called "a soundtrack for an average day".Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. [Far from the Maddening Crowds review]. All Music Guide. Accessed March 17, 2006.

Later releases took on a more house music-influenced sound, though with songs focused around vocal performances in the tradition of pop music. In more recent interviews, Bracegirdle has noted that he is consciously moving away from the influences of Ibiza in his songwriting — calling it a return to his "song writing background" as opposed to dance music.

Far from the Maddening Crowds and Behind the Sun were both primarily recorded at Chicane's personal recording studio, Modena One (sharing the name of his own record label), located at his parents' house. Co-producers who worked on these albums are Leo Elstob, Salt Tank, Ray "Madman" Hedges, and Martin Brannigan. Tomski was commissioned to program the opening tracks ("Early" and "Overture") on both albums and contributed snippets and sounds to other tracks. However, Bracegirdle has stated that he works alone when in his own studio. In April 2006, a reference to "Modena 2" appeared in the liner notes to the "Stoned in Love" single, suggesting that a new studio has been constructed.

Live

Chicane also performs live concerts as a full-fledged band, with a full suite of musicians, including vocalists, guitarists, drummers, and flutists, as well as Bracegirdle himself on keyboards. Justine Suissa, who provided vocals on "Autumn Tactics" from Behind the Sun, toured with the band in 2000.[Justinesuissa.co.uk]. Accessed March 30, 2006. UK trance producer Tom Jankiewicz (Tomski) was a frequent musical collaborator with Chicane from 1995 to 2003, and he also played keyboards in the band during that period. During April 2006 Tomski has programmed keyboard sounds for Chicane's live concerts. [link]. Tomskimusic.com. Accessed March 17, 2006. Session drummers in the band, notably, have included Shovell from M People and David Barbarossa from Bow Wow Wow.Amos, Chris. [Chicane's Nick Bracegirdle]. Bent.com. Accessed March 17, 2006.

Though the band's singers usually substitute for the higher-profile original vocalists due to latter's other recording commitments, there have been exceptions; for example, both Maire Brennan and Bryan Adams performed live with the band in Ibiza in 2000. The former took place at one of the annual Ibiza festivals held by MTV at the turn of the 2000s, while the latter took place at a heavily-promoted concert hosted by Xtravaganza on August 4 at Privilege Ibiza, and was attended by over 7000, including Bono and Noel Gallagher.

Chicane has also played at major European music festivals, such as the Glastonbury Festival and Creamfields in England and the Roskilde Festival in Denmark,Almind, Christian. [Chicane]. Roskilde Festival 2003 interviews. November 26, 2003. Accessed March 30, 2006. as well as Red Square in Moscow.[Chicane biography]. Chicanemusic.com. Accessed March 30, 2006.

Chicane is known to perform remixes (specifically, the "Tomski vs. Disco Citizens" remixes) live, as shown by a track listing from Chicane's January 22, 2000 performance at the Palladium in Cologne, Germany.[Bootlegs: Live at Palladium, Cologne, 22.01.2000]. (August 24, 2004). Chicane-Web. Accessed March 17, 2006. This is unusual in that remixes, as products of audio editing, and not generally considered instrumental performances in their own right. At least some aspects of this are credited to Tomski himself, on stage.

Bracegirdle also made a guest appearance live with Bryan Adams at the 2000 Slane Concert, as seen on Adams' Live at Slane Castle DVD.[Live at Slane Castle DVD credits]. Bryanadams.com. Accessed March 17, 2006.

Discography

Albums

Singles

Notable remixes

Notes and references

External links

 

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