Dance Weekend
11 and 12 July, Hanul Piraţilor beach, Năvodari

Fatboy Slim

Norman Cook is the man behind one of the most popular of the new flock of English "Brit-hop" producers, Fatboy Slim. Releasing his Fatboy material through club staple Skint, Cook's raucous blend of house, acid, funk, hip-hop, electro, and techno has added to his reputation as one of the foremost all-around producers on the U.K. club scene.

Born Quentin Cook in Bromley on July 31, 1963, Cook joined the Hull-based pop group the Housemartins in 1986, replacing founding member Ted Key. After the group split the following year, Cook became involved with the burgeoning acid house scene, pairing with producers Tim Jeffrey and J.C. Reid toward the end of the decade to form Pizzaman. The trio nailed three Top 40 hits together ("Trippin' on Sunshine," "Sex on the Streets," and "Happiness") before Cook splintered off to record with similarly styled outfits Freak Power and Beats International in the early '90s.

He shut most of his other production activities down in the following years to focus on his latest incarnation, Fatboy Slim, which began with a trio of singles and the full-length Better Living Through Chemistry. Cook was also called in to add his remixing skills to Jean-Jacques Perrey's proto-electronica classic "Eva," released as a 12" and CD single in 1997. Fatboy Slim's eagerly anticipated second LP, You've Come a Long Way, Baby, followed next year. The album went platinum in the U.S. and spawned two international hits, "The Rockafeller Skank" and "Praise You”. Other songs from You've Come a Long Way, Baby ended up on countless soundtracks and commercials, cementing Fatboy Slim's unique position as a critically acclaimed and immensely popular act.

Trentemoller

Denmark-based Anders Trentemøller made his debut in 1997, DJing the local club circuit and occasionally performing live. After a several-year-long imposed hiatus, he returned with his own productions, which quickly grabbed the ear of the then red-hot Naked Music house music label. His debut EP was well received and won praise from DJs in all electronic music genres. This led to a series of 12" singles on such labels as Audiomatique and Tic Tac Toe before finding a home on Germany's esteemed Poker Flat Records, where he released a series of critically acclaimed singles. With a string of legendary remixes together with his famous live appearances around the world, the buzz about Anders kept going on in the global community. Trentemøller loves to create an­tipodes in his music and so the contrast between large and vast echo chambers and sharp bits are cha­racteristic of his sound. Coupled with outstanding production skills, he creates fascinating song structures. 

Roger Sanchez

Just one in the cast of producers that made Strictly Rhythm the premiere American house label during the early '90s, Roger Sanchez grew into a prolific remixer, world-class mainstream DJ and top global-house name by the end of the decade. Though he concentrated more on mix albums than proper studio productions under his own name, Sanchez gained much respect with club kids as well as the dancefloor intelligentsia.Born in New York to parents of Dominican heritage, Sanchez attended Manhattan's School of Art & Design with several future hip-hop legends including Kurtis Mantronik. He was well into the graffiti and break-dancing scene during the early '80s and began DJing by the age of 13. After mixing for several years at New York hotspots like the Tunnel -- even while he was studying architecture at the Pratt Institute -- Sanchez finally left college in 1987 to give music a full-time shot. His club Ego Trip was soon booming. Sanchez productions, a 1994 Latin dub-house burner named "Sumba Lumba" (as Tribal Confusion), the following year's hard-hitting Livin 4 the Underground EP (as Roger S) and that same year's "Release Yo Self" (as Transatlantic Soul), cemented his status. The mix LP Hard Times-The Album featured the S-Man (with just two decks, a mixer and a crate of records) proving his worth as a DJ in addition to his much-hyped studio work. 

Timo Maas

Düsseldorf's Timo Maas is mostly associated with his involvement in Germany's trance scene as a DJ and producer. Timo Mass gained a large global at the height of the global trance music scene, which had a large push from DJs such as Paul Van Dyk and Sandra Collins in the mid- to late '90s. Maas' first exposure to music came via listening to the radio when he was young. He bought his first record when he was nine and his first pair of turntables when he was 17.He was introduced to the rave scene in 1992, in its early German days, through a booking at an Easter rave. Connections in England later brought Maas to the Bristol-based progressive house club Lakota and the label Hope Recordings. During 1996-97, he released singles through labels including Hope, Lakota, Phuture Wax, and UK44, as well as an album under his Orinoko moniker. In 2000, Timo Maas took a residency at the New York City mega-club Twilo with colleagues Deep Dish. Following the massive success of his Azzido Da Bass remix "Dooms Night" and his own track "Ubik," Maas released 2000's Music for the Maases, a mix album largely composed of his own productions and remixes. After one more mix album, Connected, his production debut Loud appeared in early 2002.