New York super-club Twilo has tapped longtime Saturday-night resident DJ Junior Vasquez to mix the debut CD on its label, which will be distributed by Virgin Records.
Twilo Volume 1: Junior Vasquez,
a double mix-CD featuring tracks by Byron Stingily, Vernessa Mitchell and Dubtribe Sound System, is due Sept. 26 and will be available for purchase at the club.
"It's all very exciting for me," said Mike Bindra, Twilo's general manager. "This is going to do a lot for our image on a global level. We're the first club in the U.S. to have a major label get behind us."
Vasquez has hosted his "Juniorverse" party on Saturday nights at Twilo for the past three years. (He was also the top attraction in the space's previous incarnation as Sound Factory.) On Fridays, Bindra has assembled an all-star lineup of residents unrivaled in the United States, including Sasha and John Digweed (who have DJed once a month for more than two years), Paul van Dyk, Carl Cox and Dave Seaman. UK duo Groove Armada recently began Wednesday residencies every other month in the club's more intimate upstairs lounge.
"We're just a small fish in a big pond," Groove Armada's Tom Findlay said of Twilo.
Vasquez has released a number of popular mixes, the most recent of which was 1998's Vol. 2: Come Together Right Now.
Bindra said future releases in the Twilo series will be mixed by the club's resident DJs. Plans for a second volume are in the works, but he would not say who would be mixing it.
"Twilo will function as a full-on label and will release 12-inch singles as well as compilations," Bindra said. "I love this music and I love being able to release it just as I love being able to promote it at Twilo."
Several popular UK clubs, including London's Ministry of Sound and Sheffield's Gatecrasher, have launched successful record labels founded on the sounds and experiences at their venue.
In other Twilo news, the club will be launching a free monthly magazine, simply titled Magazine, on Aug. 26. The publication will focus on dance music, fashion and urban culture and will be distributed at the club as well as around the country and in some international cities.
"It'll have dance-music stuff in it, but it's geared toward the young-adult market in general," Twilo Creative Director Ryan Thomas said. "It's another one of those kind of Gen X magazines, but the difference is we have the inside scoop on dance music and it's a little more slick than normal dance-music magazines, where they just have a DJ on the cover. We're trying to keep it visually interesting."
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