Sash!

SASH!
Origin	Germany
Genres	Trance Vocal Trance Progressive House Eurodance
Years active	1995–present
Labels	Hard2Beat
Associated acts	Tokapi
Website	www.sashworld.com
Members
Sascha Lappessen Ralf Kappmeier Thomas Lüdke

SASH! is a German DJ / producer team, fronted by Sascha Lappessen (born 10 June 1970, Nettetal, Germany), who works in the recording studio with Ralf Kappmeier and Thomas "Alisson" Lüdke. They have sold over 18 million albums worldwide^[1] and earned more than 65 Gold and Platinum awards.^[1]

History

Sascha Lappessen, Thomas "Alisson" Lüdke, and Ralf Kappmeier, created Sash! in 1995. The previous year, the three had worked together, under the name of Careca, to produce a piece called "Indian Rave", which was a mildy successful song. In 1996, Sash! released "It's My Life", which became a European club hit. In 1997, with Sabine Ohmes as the singer, Sash! released "Encore Une Fois". Described on Sash's biography as "the big break", it reached #2 in the UK Singles Chart, as well as reaching the top 10 of five countries' singles charts, and the top 20 of seven countries' singles charts.^[2]

In the same year, Sash! produced "Ecuador", and "Stay", which both also reached #2 in the UK Singles Chart. In 1998, Sash! released the first single from his second album album "La Primavera", which reached #3, "Mysterious Times", which reached #2, and "Move Mania", which reached #8. The following year, "Colour The World" was sold, and it reached #15. In 2000, "Adelante" was released from the new album "Trilenium", and it reached #2. "Just Around The Hill", and "With My Own Eyes", were also released in that year, reaching #8 and #10 respectively. "With My Own Eyes" became the last single released by Sash! in the United Kingdom for around 8 years.^[2] "Together Again" was the last single from the album, but was only released in Spain and Denmark.

In 2002, Sash! released his 4th album 'S4 Sash!'. It produced three singles. "Ganbareh", which was sung in Japanese (Ganbareh roughly translating as 'Go for it'^[3]) reached number 3 in the Spanish charts.^[4] "Run" featured Boy George) and "I Believe" featured the vocals of TJ Davis. In 2007, Sash! released an album called '10th Anniversary', which was first sold in South Africa.^[2] In October 2008, the album was released in the United Kingdom, and attained #9 in the UK Album Chart.^[2] On June 20, 2008, Sash! was ranked #168 on the DJ List.^[5]

In 2008 Sash! produced "Raindrops (Encore Une Fois)", in a collaboration with Stunt, and it reached #9 in the UK Singles Chart.^[2]

Sash! are the only act to have UK Singles Chart Hits in four different languages. These are "Encore Une Fois" (which was sung in French), "Ecuador" (which was sung in Spanish), "La Primavera" (which was sung in Italian) and many others including "Stay" and "Mysterious Times" (which were sung in English).^[6]

Sash! also tie with English singers Frankie Sandford and Rochelle Wiseman of The Saturdays and formerly of S Club 8 for the record of having more tracks (5) than any other artist reaching Number 2, without any of their tracks reaching number 1 in the UK music charts. (Encore Une Fois, Ecuador, Stay, Adelante and Mysterious Times)

Sash! are putting the finishing touches to their next studio album "Life is a beach" due for release in late summer/autumn 2011 - the first single from the album was "All is Love" featuring vocals by Jessy which was released in Spring 2010,^{[dated info]} an instrumental version of the track could be heard before, when entering the Sash! website after the initial "Raindrops" page. Now a loop of Sash!'s new single "Mirror Mirror" can be heard when entering the website.

In June 2010, they released 2 cd singles with Swedish-Nigerian pop-star Dr. Alban.

Albums

It's My Life – The Album

The first single of the group was "It's My Life". It was released in 1996 and was a successful club hit, but there was no video for it. The real break through came with the Single "Encore une Fois", which was released in 1997. The voice in this track came from Sabine Ohmes. After the break through, Sash! produced the hits "Ecuador"; the voice came from Adrian Rodriguez and "Stay"; the voice came from the singer La Trec. Both singles were released in 1997. In the same year the first album of the group has been released. It is called "It's My Life - The Album".

Life Goes On

In the next years, Sash! released the singles "La Primavera" (sung by Patrizia Salvatore), "Mysterious Times" (sung by Tina Cousins) and "Move Mania" (Sung by Shannon). All 3 singles were released in the year 1998. The second album of the group "Life Goes On" was released in the same year. In 1999, "Colour the World" (rapped by Dr. Alban and sung by Inka Auhagen) was released as the final single from the album "Life Goes On".

Trilenium

In 1999 Sash! released "Adelante". The first single from Sash!'s then new and upcoming album "Trilenium". It reached very good chart positions in Europe. The following single from "Trilenium", released in 2000, was the ballad "Just Around The Hill", which again featured the voice of Tina Cousins. In the same year the album itself was released. "With My Own Eyes" was released as the third and final single from "Trilenium".

S4! SASH!

After almost 2 years of silence, Sash! released the song "Ganbareh", which means "go for it". After the first single of the new album "S4Sash!" the song "Run" with Boy George was released as the second single. The new album was released after the second single "Run". All 3 cds were released in the year 2002. The third single from the album "S4Sash! was "I Believe". It featured TJ Davis, and it was released in 2003.

The Best Of

After now just fifteen years of big success and 18 million international sold CD`s are all the hits together on one album. SASH!- Best Of . All the songs entered the charts around the World almost everywhere in the top ten positions. And it contains with two unreleased songs. And a new song called "Raindrops" it get the 9# position in the charts of the UK.

Life is a Beach

In 2010 "All is Love" was released as the first single from the new album Life Is a Beach. It was only released as a digital download. In 2011 "Mirror Mirror" was chosen as the second single of the new album, it will be released in August. A music video to the song was made, and was officially released on July 13th. It is unpopular with his older fans but still charted at number 25 on the German charts.^[7]

In popular culture

They are mentioned in the first segment of the movie, Kevin and Perry Go Large, when Eyeball Paul (played by Rhys Ifans) asks Kevin (Harry Enfield), what style of music he prefers, Acid House or Balearic Beat, Kevin says "Acid", then Eyeball asks him, Sash! or Chicane, to which Kevin replies, "Sash!". "Ecuador" is played in the loading station of Riddler's Revenge at Six Flags Magic Mountain.

Discography

Main article: Sash! discography

Awards

Year	Award	Result
1998	BRIT Award: Best International Male	Nominated[2]

Award
3 Billboard Hot Dance Music Awards
Club Music Award: Dance Record Artist of the Year
2 The International Disco Awards: Dance Recording Artist of the Year
Techno D'Or Cannes[2]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Official Site from Sash! Biography
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} "Sash's official website (Please note that specific areas of the website cannot be linked to)". http://www.sashworld.com/. 
3. ^ US (2008-09-21). "Ganbareh translation". Myspace.com. http://www.myspace.com/theganbarespiritsensemble. Retrieved 2011-06-23. 
4. ^ SASH!, Mr-Bone, Marko Knoche. "Chart positions for Sash! songs". Sashworld.com. http://www.sashworld.com/. Retrieved 2011-06-23. 
5. ^ "The DJ List: Sash!". http://www.thedjlist.com/djs/SASH!/. Retrieved 2008-06-20. 
6. ^ "Everyhit.com". Everyhit.com. http://www.everyhit.com/record7.html. Retrieved 2011-06-23. 
7. ^ http://www.facebook.com/sashmusic/posts/10150256454708317

External links

• Official website
• Spanish Site (Spanish)
• French site (French)
• English site