1996–1998: Initial success and Far from the Maddening Crowds Bracegirdle's first release was the four track EP
Cyanide Music Volume One in 1996. This contained music styles varying from
deep house to
trip hop and nu-disco. This was released the Cyanide record label and was a little known precursor to "
Offshore". The Cyanide label then released
Offshore EP #1, which contained the original version of "Offshore" as well three other tracks, again of varying styles. Eventually Bracegirdle founded his own record label Modena Records, which holds the rights to all his songs and
licenses them 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 Edel UK Records and
independent UK dance music record label Xtravaganza Recordings, then-newly founded by DJ and Bracegirdle's college friend Alex Gold. It reached No. 12 on the
UK Singles Chart (and No. 1 on other UK-based charts compiled by
Mixmag,
Record Mirror, and others), the top 40 in multiple European countries, and No. 5 on the US
Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play charts in 1997 upon re-release. Its inclusion on numerous
Ibiza-themed
trance music compilation albums (such as
Café del Mar) attest to its popularity in the
nightclubs on the island, one of the worldwide epicentres of dance music. "
Sunstroke", the follow-up single, attained similar popularity and chart numbers. A third single, "Offshore '97" (a separate item from the re-release of "Offshore") is a
mashup of "Offshore" with the
a capella 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". On the show, Tong made the song his first "Essential New Tune" selection of the new millennium. It was also Chicane's biggest hit, debuting at No. 1 on the UK charts (and notably replacing "
American Pie",
Madonna's No. 1 single of the previous week), reached No. 3 on the US dance chart and No. 1 on Australian and Russian charts, and made other charts across Europe as well. Two other singles were released from the album—the double A-side "
No Ordinary Morning / Halcyon", and "Autumn Tactics"—but neither were as successful as the preceding releases. In 2002, Bracegirdle co-wrote two songs on
Cher's album
Living Proof, "You Take It All" and "
Alive Again", the latter which was released as a single in Europe only. The 2001 Edition of the EA Sports Formula One Video Game Series included the songs "Sunstroke", "The Drive Home", and a remix of "Nagasaki Badger".
2006–2008: New management and Somersault {{listen Eventually, under the new management of John Cavanagh, 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. The track received substantial UK TV promotion in the run up to the week of release, featuring utterly live performances on
Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, ''
The New Paul O'Grady Show'' and a semi-live performance on BBC's now defunct
Top of the Pops. Jones and Bracegirdle were also interviewed on
Channel 5 News; When asked in the 5 News interview where he had been since "Don't Give Up", Bracegirdle replied that he had been "basically stuffed" by the internet bootlegging of the album
Easy to Assemble. In February 2007, Chicane departed from Universal as well; according to the official website, all new material would be released through Modena itself. The follow-up single "Come Tomorrow" was released on 16 July 2007, followed by the third official studio album,
Somersault, a week later on 23 July 2007. Bracegirdle has entirely self-financed these initial independent releases, as well as subsequent live performances. On 4 May 2007, the
Cicada remix of "Come Tomorrow" was played on Radio 1 by Pete Tong. On 25 August 2008, Chicane released "
Bruised Water" with
Natasha Bedingfield. Promotional copies of the track were made available, with remixes from Mischa Daniels and Adam K. Following the leak of his 2003 album, Chicane now employs the international internet policing company,
Web Sheriff to prevent links to unlicensed material, such as this single and other tracks from his upcoming album, from being posted on various blogs and websites. In October 2008, Chicane released a
greatest hits compilation,
The Best of Chicane - 1996-2008 which features his previous singles, along with a new track called "Wake Up", a collaboration with
Keane. "No Ordinary Morning", "Don't Give Up" and "Saltwater" were re-recorded for the album as the original sound recordings were still owned by Xtravaganza and were unable to be licensed due to the dispute between Chicane and Alex Gold in 2002. Chicane's Xtravaganza recordings from
Far From The Maddening Crowds were no longer owned by Xtravaganza and thus were included in their original form.
2009–2010: Giants Bracegirdle worked with producers James Hockley and Richard Searle on the
Re-Work EP for a targeted summer 2009 release, along with a new and fourth Chicane album and mixes of forthcoming productions by
BT and
William Orbit. The lead track from the
Re-work EP, "
Poppiholla" based on the track "
Hoppípolla" by
Sigur Rós, was A-listed on Radio 1. It charted at No. 7 in the top 10 on 19 July 2009, and was added to a reissued version of the
Best of album. The download single contained a remix by
the Thrillseekers, along with a mix by Bracegirdle's moniker Disco Citizens. The follow-up to this single was revealed as "
Hiding All the Stars", which contains a sample of
Gary Numan's "
Cars", which had its first full play on
Radio 1's Floorfillers on 21 August 2009. In September, Chicane produced a remix of the classic track "Relax (Don't Do It)" by
Frankie Goes to Hollywood, which is part of the 25-year anniversary of the seminal track. It was learned that the Re-Work EP was cancelled although no official announcement was ever made in regards to this. Other 'reworked' tracks that were due to appear on the EP were never mentioned from the initial announcement. Recently stated from Chicane Management;
there were actually quite a few that people never got to hear. In a June 2010 interview with
Impact Magazine, Bracegirdle commented on the 'Re-work EP' issue. "We covered House Arrest and there's a massive bag of legal problems with that record. God knows why. Poppiholla became this complete and utter monster... The best laid plans of mice and men can go completely astray once you have a big record. Things change all the time... the plan was to (release Re-worked) and then the whole thing went completely mental... in a good way." The first official word on Chicane's fourth studio album,
Giants, came in January through his
Facebook artist profile. "Come Back", the first single in connection with the new album, is a rework of the Paul Young 1980s hit "
Come Back and Stay" and came with a remix by
Riley & Durrant. The single was released on 25 April. The same month a new track, "Barefoot", was added to Chicane's website. A laidback, Baleric-style tune, it proved popular with listeners awaiting the new album. This was followed by the track "Titles". In May, Bracegirdle officially announced the new album through Facebook. He also revealed a new single "
Middledistancerunner", featuring
Owl City's Adam Young on vocals. "The Nothing Song" is a remake of another
Sigur Ros song: "Untitled 4". The album also features the singles "
Hiding All the Stars", "Come Back" and "
Poppiholla". The album and "Middledistancerunner" were released on 2 August 2010. During the first week of release, a new track, called Velo, was given away as a free download via Chicane's website. In November the track "
Where Do I Start" was released as a single. Among others it was remixed by
Armin van Buuren.
2011–2015: Thousand Mile Stare and The Sum of Its Parts , Sweden, May 2011 An upcoming Chicane single was announced in April through
Twitter. "
Going Deep", featuring British producer and rapper Aggi Dukes, had its first airplay on Steve Smart's radio show
Friday Night Kiss on 8 April. The video was released at the start of July and tells the story of Aggi Dukes—represented by a comical puppet, starting off in a cafe in the UK, before he undertakes on an epic party holiday to
Magaluf,
Mallorca. The single was released on 14 August, and remixes were made by Steve Smart & WestFunk, and VillaNaranjos. On 18 June, Chicane released the 'Wawa Remix' of his production "Spirit" as a free download from the official homepage. On 29 July 2011, Chicane revealed a preview of the title track for the then forthcoming artist album
Thousand Mile Stare on
YouTube. Unfortunately, by November it was clear that the album had been leaked onto the internet, the second time such an occasion had occurred in Chicane's career. For a time it seemed doubtful whether the album would ever get released, but an exclusive box set version of
Thousand Mile Stare was released on 12 December 2011. It included a
cassette-shaped
USB flash drive of rare material and an album of remixes. Each early order contained the buyer's name on the album sleeve. The regular version of the album, which contained three previously unreleased tracks, was released on 16 April 2012, with an album launch live show following in
London at
Koko on 27 April with guest performances from
Kate Walsh, Vigri, Aggi Dukes and support from VillaNaranjos. On 13 April 2012, the
Dutch label
Armada Music announced that they had joined with Chicane's UK record label Modena Records. After having worked together extensively throughout the past four years, with Armada Music releasing Chicane's singles and albums for the
Benelux,
Germany,
Switzerland,
Austria and
Poland, Armada will be representing Chicane worldwide in the future. In July 2012, Chicane collaborated with
Ferry Corsten to write and produce a track called "One Thousand Suns", featuring singer
Christian Burns, and loosely based on Chicane's "Thousand Mile Stare". In a 9 December 2012 interview with Eightoctaves.com, Chicane announced that he was working on a new album. He also said in the interview that "There are going to be some pretty stunning collaborations and guest appearances, I hope. I've just been recording in
Mumbai with
Anushka and that track is going to be stunning." In 2013, Chicane released "One More Time" which featured the vocals of
Duane Harden. In April 2014, Chicane had a dispute with DJ
Mark Knight about his unauthorized sampling of "Saltwater" in Knight's track "The Return of Wolfy". On 25 May 2014, Chicane released the single "No More I Sleep", featuring the vocals of Senadee. In the July 2014 issue of the
Sun:Sets radio show, Chicane named the title of the upcoming album
The Sum of Its Parts. It was released on 25 January 2015. An unconfirmed pre-order listing on iTunes UK showed an early release date (16 November 2014) and a different track list running order. The fourth single from the album is called "Still With Me" and is sung by British artist
Bo Bruce. A remix by Andreas Van Hoog was premiered on
Forth One Radio. The single was officially released on 26 October 2014. Chicane released "Oxygen" as a remix EP on 5 July 2015, the fifth single from
The Sum of Its Parts. On 2 October 2015, he released two new tracks "Ibiza Strings" and "Ibiza Bleeps" as part his second extended play
Ibiza. He released the sixth and final single "Fibreglasses" on 30 October 2015.
2016–2019: Twenty and ''The Place You Can't Remember, the Place You Can't Forget'' On 29 July 2016, Chicane released a compilation album titled
Twenty as a celebration of his twentieth anniversary in the music industry. The album was preceded by the lead single "Carry Me Home" (a rework of the song of the same name by Gloworm) featuring the vocals of
Steve Edwards; released on 3 June 2016.
Twenty features Chicane's
greatest hits, plus brand new remixes by
Philip George,
Kryder,
Grum,
Jody Wisternoff, Thomas Datt, and himself. As with
the 2008 best of album, "No Ordinary Morning", "Don't Give Up" and "Saltwater" are re-recordings as the original sound recordings were still owned by Xtravaganza and were unable to be licensed for this compilation due to a dispute between Chicane and Xtravaganza boss Alex Gold, dated back to 2002. Chicane's previous Xtravaganza recordings which had been distributed by Edel Records in 1996/1997 are featured in their original form as Xtravaganza lost the rights to those sound recordings, with "Strong in Love" being released for the first time since its original release in 1998. On 16 February 2018, Chicane released a mix compilation album titled
Sun:Sets 2018 (Selected by Chicane). In 2018, Chicane announced his seventh studio album on his weekly
Sun:Sets podcast. The album ''
The Place You Can't Remember, the Place You Can't Forget'' was released on 8 June 2018. It includes the singles "
Gorecki" (originally written & performed by Lou Rhodes and the band Lamb) and "Serendipity" featuring
Tracy Ackerman. In 2019, Chicane released the follow-up to the original
Sun:Sets compilation with the album titled
Sun:Sets 2019 (Selected by Chicane).
2020–present: Everything We Had to Leave Behind In May 2020, Chicane released
Behind The Sun (2020 Anniversary Mixes), featuring new mixes and remixes from other artists of the original tracks from the 2000 album. On 23 April 2021, Chicane released his eighth studio album, titled
Everything We Had to Leave Behind. On 9 June 2023, Chicane released his ninth studio album, titled
Nevertheless. Also in 2023, on 1 December, Chicane released
The Greatest Misses, a sixteen-track compilation featuring songs created by Chicane that, despite earning critical acclaim and fan approval, failed to achieve chart-topping success. On 15 November 2024, Chicane released
Trampolines, a thirteen-track collection. ==Musical style==