Roger Sanchez returns to Cielo on Thursday 2nd September to headline the Secret Soul Sessions. It’s a whistle-stop visit to the city in between his weekly Release Yourself party at Amnesia in Ibiza where his Tuesday night residency, on the beloved terrace alongside main room resident Armin van Buuren, has been the place to be this summer. The S-Man’s been on fire all season long with a vibe of pure sexy house and tribal madness – it’s still not too late to make it out there before the closing parties people! It goes without saying that for a talent who has seen a career lasting over several decades, the man behind some of house music’s biggest tracks continues to keep up the pace with remixes and productions reflecting what the industry represents at present. And once again Sanchez is one of the 2010 Ibiza DJ Awards nominees for Best House DJ in such esteem company as Erick Morillo, Laidback Luke, Steve Angello, Sebastian Ingrosso, David Guetta, Bob Sinclar and Axwell. Fingers crossed!

According to Junior Boys Own’s Terry Farley “Tedd Patterson is a real New York institution; he’s from the floor. A product of the ‘90s hey day of the Sound Factory, you can hear that heritage when he plays… In my opinion a real torch bearer for all that’s fabulous and legendary about NYC.” With Tedd Patterson’s Vibal party now into its seventh year his latest challenge will be bringing the energy and passion for his Cielo night to the Internet with the launch of Vibalcast. “I’ve been thinking about doing this podcast for the longest time. It will be a mix of what I normally do at Cielo, with more of an organic reflection of my roots. I’m excited about having yet another creative outlet,” says the man who’s Vibal night returns to lower Manhattan on Saturday the 4th.

Pioneers of the Iberican house sound, Chus & Ceballos, have slowly but surely become one of the hottest DJ/production partnerships in dance music today. Residencies in New York and Miami, remixes for everyone from Deep Dish and Madonna to, er, Paris Hilton, and releases on Defected, Shinichi and Yoshitoshi have seen the duo invited to play everywhere this summer, including a mouth-watering slot at Pacha Ibiza with Sander Kleinenberg. With their new compilation album, ‘Chus & Ceballos Back On Tracks’ out now on Nervous, the duo return to Cielo over the Labor Day weekend on Sunday 5th as special guests of Dance.Here.Now. As to what the sound of Iberican house is, Chus is happy to divulge all: “First of all, it’s the meeting point of two cultures; Spanish and Portuguese. There’s a solid influence of US house in there, but the boundaries have been blurred over the years and it’s become a global sound, supported by artists and producers from all over the world. The Iberican sound is my benchmark; a delicious mix of hypnotic, organic house, which is warm and intense with a strong tribal essence which fuses naturally with modern tech-house.” So now you know!

Friday 10th sees the return of Adult Section to the lower west side with master of eclecticism Thomas Bullock joining resident hosts Dennis Kane & Darshan Jesrani. Thomas Bullock moved to New York from England in the mid-’90s where he started A.R.E. Weapons, pioneers of the electroclash sound. He left the group a few years later to form a Balearic rock band with DJ Harvey called Map of Africa, and a punk project called Bobbie Marie, along with his now infamous Rub N Tug parties. Known for his enthusiastic and unpredictable late night sets, he also started his own record label Whatever We Want Records releasing punk and psychedelic-influenced rock and electronic music. As always Adult Section is anything but the ordinary where music genres collide and fresh and excited sounds provide the heady soundtrack to proceedings.

Ask Montreal’s first son of house music, Jojo Flores, what motivates him and he’s quick to share the love: “My audience, the dancers, and music lovers. I enjoy making people dance, allowing individuals the space and time to express themselves through movement on a particular night. The moments are what matter, sometimes a song I play will affect a person deeply, other times it creates a new memory or brings one back,” say the man who returns to Cielo on Saturday 11th as guest of Paradizo and fellow disciple of the good groove Nicolas Matar. “New music also motivates me, when I hear something fresh or receive an unreleased exclusive track, I try to break it – play it 2-3 times in my set so it stands out. I take pride when someone discovers new music from my performance. I like being a tastemaker. There is also the challenge of converting people who are not into house music; it is motivating since I consider soulful/deep house music to be underground, and it is not often easy to break the barrier of the masses listening to contemporary big budget advertising billboard charts,” he adds. 

Stefano Miele, aka Riva Starr, has made quite a name for himself in the last twelve months with essential restylings for Lake & Lys, Estelle, Usher, Plan B and of course his rather large Dennis Ferrer-meets-Donna Summer mix of ‘Hey Hey’. Stef is no newcomer to making music, in fact he’s been producing and releasing a wide-range of sounds for the past decade. Like all good producers he’s earned his stripes and his current status is down to two things: hard work and talent. But as an artist his recent album, ‘If Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade’ which was released on Made To Play earlier this year, has garnered masses of critical acclaim. Meanwhile his new single, ‘I Was Drunk’, with it’s retro sounding accordion a la Yolanda Be Cool & D Cup and its catchy “yesterday I was drunk with some chicks I don’t remember who came back with me” chorus, makes this the perfect sing-a-long anthem that will appeal across the board. Like all the great names in dance music the Riva Starr sound is very distinctive, with fans as wide-ranging as Gilles Peterson, Tiesto, Carl Cox, Ricardo Villalobos and Annie Mac, and at the same time very diverse, uniting many different styles under one groove. A style recently described as “Mezcla”, a universal Spanish word that’s used to describe a fusion of different things that seems to aptly apply to Riva Starr who showcases his DJ skills on Thursday 16th at Dance.Here.Now.

On Saturday 18th we wish a VERY BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY greeting to Cielo’s main man and Paradizo host, Nicolas Matar. Known as a true connoisseur behind the turntables for playing quality music from its multifaceted house roots, Nicolas is also a quicksilver champion for supporting new music. “I’m one of these people who is a new music fanatic and I will, for a whole week listen, to hundreds of tracks,” as he explains. “I like to play a lot of new stuff. My set typically is 60 percent brand new things that people don’t even know. The other 40 percent I’ll mix other things. I really spend a lot of hours doing my homework listening to new music on a weekly basis.” That sort of dedication and attention to detail is the very foundation upon which both Cielo and his weekly Paradizo night have been built. Happy Birthday Nicolas!

On Sunday 19th Cielo goes on the road, or the waterway to be more exact, for a one-off party at Water Taxi Beach in Long Island City, Queens. Boasting a thousand tons of sand spread over 44,000 square feet and spectacular views of the midtown Manhattan skyline; Water Taxi Beach is fun in the sun by day and a serious playground at night.  Birthday boy Nicolas Matar, along with San Francisco-based producer and long time dance music veteran, Behrouz, will host the outdoor event, in the shadows of the Brooklyn Bridge. Over the course of his exciting career, Behrouz Nazari has traveled the world playing alongside the industry’s DJ elite – from Deep Dish and Danny Tenagila to John Digweed and Carl Cox, with a unique sound and style that even the DJ finds difficult to label. “My sound is impossible to categorize, but if I were to give it my best shot, I would describe it as a myriad of different sub-genres of music I have experimented with during my past 20 years of DJ-ing. It’s composed of sexy music incorporating the finer elements of deep house, tribal, and progressive beats, with a touch of electro and minimal techno,” he explains.

The word for record player in Spanish is tocadisco, and the man who adopted the moniker, Roman Böer, has made a highly successful DJ career from the name that dates back to 1996 and his native Germany. Through timely and super catchy reworks of the Egg and Mylo a few years ago, Tocadisco muscled his way into the thriving electro house scene and has since become one of its high ranking elite. Since his 2004 debut single, ‘Nobody Likes The Records That I Play’ (it turns out that everyone did!) Tocadisco has continued to show he’s far from a one-trick pony and slowly but surely carved out a name for himself that has also seen him remix for the likes of Axwell & Ingrosso, ATB, Bob Sinclar and most recently Toolroom Records for whom earlier this year he mixed the latest installment of their ‘Toolroom Knights’ series with Chris Lake. “My sound is very versatile,” say the thirty something producer, “I don’t like to play the same records every night. I’m interested in all kinds of music and styles and I try to combine them into ‘my sound’. I play underground and sometimes I also like to play hits. Everything that I think is right to play at the moment and place.” Tocadisco has earned a fast rise to prominence through a unique musical vision that fails to conform; with the results speaking for themselves, he’s special guest at the Area Event on Thursday 23rd.

Returning as monthly guest of Paradizo on Saturday 25th is the incomparable John Julius Knight. The Brooklyn born house head spent his youth as a disciple at the Paradise Garage, Zanzibar Club, the Loft and Redzone worshipping at the alter of Larry Levan, Tony Humphries, David Mancuso and David Morales respectively. That sort of education money can’t buy kids, and it provided the very foundation upon which he’s successful built a career in house music, both as a recording artist and as a DJ. The latter the very reason why we keep inviting him back time and time again!

Dance.Here.Now welcomes superstar Dutch DJ and producer Sander Kleinenberg on Thursday 30th. In just a few short years he’s built an international reputation on an ability to create different atmospheres for a myriad of crowds at venues the world over. No wonder then that the legendary Ibiza nightclub Pacha – a destination for travelers from points all over the globe – should recruit Sander as the new resident for their long-running Friday night party, Pure Pacha Ibiza. Kleinenberg is not only an artist who declines to stick to a single, easily defined sound, he’s also at the forefront of integrating video imagery into his sets to fully enhance the experience. Integrating music and images single-handedly requires sharpened skills and on-the-fly invention to both visually and aurally stimulate crowds. “This is a whole new way of looking at what you do creatively,” he says. “In the end, that is very challenging. It makes you more versatile as well. I love keeping on my toes.”

Almost out of time but before we sign off on September don’t forget our two highly revered weekly parties. Monday it’s an intergalactic journey into the musical abyss with Francois K as our deck general for Deep Space. Joining the innovative pilot this month are San Francisco’s multi-instrumentalist producer/DJ Dub Gabriel on 13th and on the 27th Scuba (aka Philadelphia house don King Britt). Meanwhile the essential Wednesday night in Manhattan is Roots hosted by Kevin Hedge and Louie Vega real house devotees and partisans of afro-centric jams where the deep, the soulful and the Latin-infused grooves meld together… See you on the dancefloor.