We are extremely honoured to welcome house music pioneers X-Press 2 as this week's Guest Reviewers.
With over 25 years of DJ and music making experience these guys know more than a thing or two about the ever evolving industry as they have consistently been at the forefront of the British electronic music since the early days of DJing at Boys Own, Yellow Book, Flying, Fabric.....
During their esteemed career X-Press 2 have never taken their eye off dancefloor and recently released the incredible album "House Of X-Press 2" consisting of a refined take on the music they love while collaborating with vocal legends and house music luminaries.
We hope you enjoy this informative interview on the changes they've seen along the way followed by a selection of some of the biggest tracks from their epic DJ sets… salute!
Where are you right now and what have you been up to over the last 7 days?
Spent last weekend out in the country with my girlfriend and her daughter. Walking in the woods and playing on the swings.
Monday is the day we work on our show for Ministry of Sound Radio. We spend the day prepping music then record the show in the evening. It's then broadcast on Thursday night between 7 to 9pm.
Tuesday was spent recording guest mixes and podcasts for various different websites and radio shows. Wednesday is Ableton day. I'm studying an online course with Manchester Midi School and am at week 10 of the 12 weeks course.
I'm really loving the course and wish I'd done it years ago!
Thursday I spent on Ableton again, putting into practice what I've learned.
Spent Friday going through the record collection looking for inspiration for some new music. We've got some studio time booked in the next month so we're getting stuff prepared for this. Already planning the next album.
Had lots of chats with our manager and went running every day.
Please talk us through the new album and some of the amazing guest vocalists and collaborations that feature?
Well we started work on it around 2 years ago now, not really with the intention of making an album but as time went on and we started accumulating all of these amazing tunes we thought, what the heck, why not? It's been a while...
The album is really a collection of the work that we've been doing in that 2 year period. Massively influenced by the movie Paris Is Burning and also by the whole resurgence of interest in 90s house music that's occurred. The tracks on the album are our version of classic house music.
Whether that be with a vocal or just straight up, full on jack tracks. The collaborators are a varied bunch. From the beautiful and talented input of Doll, Alison Limerick and Amber Jolene to one of the greatest voices of House in Roland Clark alongside the delightful Rob Harvey and James Yuill. We also just called a couple of our DJ mates and did some tracks with them. Tim Deluxe, Timo Garcia and the APDW guys from Italy.
The first colab was with Doll, I think we started this around the summer of 2008! It was one of those tracks that we worked on so much that we couldn't hear what to do with it, so in the end we just left it alone. It took a Dennis Ferrer record last year that kind of showed us the way with it. We got Doll back in to re-record her vocal and got it sorted.
Can you tell our young readers how different your studio set up must be now compared with when you started back in the early 90’s? You must have cut down on so much hardware right!?
The first track that we made as X-Press 2 was Muzik Xpress in 1991. We made it in a converted house in Bermondsey, South East London. There was us, our bags of vinyl, Danny the engineer, a huge old analogue mixing desk (that took up half the room), Akai S1000 sampler, an Atari computer running Notator software and all manner of keyboards, drum machines and outboard kit and effects (basically filling the rest of the room). We spent half the first day taking samples and getting them in time, doing any time stretching manually on the sampler and working out the differences with a pen and paper. It was a long and laborious task.
Nowadays, all of the above is done on Ableton, aside from the vinyl of course, which will still always look to for inspiration.
What was it like traveling across the UK for your gigs during the acid house explosion? Obviously this was before internet and mobile phones enabled fans to instantly share their experience of a new scene (like today), so was it a surprise to see how quickly house music and the acid culture had spread? Who were the maddest?
It was tiring at times but so much fun. We were doing something that we absolutely loved and getting to meet some amazing people in the process, lots of them we're still mates with now. I don't think we were surprised at all by the speed that it spread over the UK and the rest of the world. I think it would have been impossible to keep it a secret. A thing that was that joyous and incredible to be a part of, who wouldn't want to get involved?!
I think some of the maddest nights we had in the UK were at Leeds with Basics guys, Liverpool with Cream, Newcastle with Shindig and far too many nights out in London to mention. The other great thing about these times were the amount of little provincial towns in the back of beyond that would have nights going on. Ok some weren't that great but we'd always find the odd one that just blew your mind!
For many of the early years you were part of the Junior Boys Own gang who put on crazy parties and released early releases from household names like Underworld and Chemical Brothers. You even had your own fanzine at the time! What were those days like and was there ever a game plan?
I think you'd have to ask Terry and co if there was ever a game plan. I'm fairly confident that they'd just tell you to f**k off though. =)
Again though as I said in the above question, yes it was a lot of fun. All any of us wanted to do was go out and listen to great music with people of a like mind. That was all that the other stuff was leading to. The fanzine, the music etc. it was all about the nights out and the party.
You’ve spent over 20 years constantly touring the world, have there ever been times when even this highlife has got a bit boring!? What have you done to get your mojo back?
Of course there have been times when it can get to you a bit. Travelling half way round the world and having problems when you get there, but you take them on board, get on with the job and move on. Again, we get to do something that we love and would probably still be doing it as a hobby if we hadn't made a career of it. I think on those occasions that you do have problems, you just remember that just around the corner might be another of those amazing nights that remind you exactly why you still do this after 20+ years.
Do you play much unsigned music in your sets? What is the best way to get new music to you guys?
Always. Nowadays we play a lot of unsigned music. People are constantly sending us tracks that they've been working on and we've built up a cool little network of mates around the world that always send us their latest productions. I think doing the radio show has helped massively with this. We do The House of X-Press 2 every Thursday night between 7 and 9pm on Ministry of Sound Radio. People send music via our Ministry page, via Facebook or twitter as well.
What does the X-Press 2 DJ booth consist of these days? Laptops? CDS? What are the reasons behind your preferred methods?
We use 4 Pioneer CDJ2000 and the Pioneer 900 Nexus Mixers. Rocky uses a USB stick with the 2000s and Diesel is on the CDs.
CDs and the USB make travelling so much easier. We are looking at Ableton as well so who knows we could be laptop only before long. We're of the opinion that whatever format you use, all that matters is whether people are dancing or not. Simple really.
Now that the album is out there what else does 2012 have in store for X-Press 2?
As I said earlier we're already planning the next album. We're looking at finishing 2 this year. Another X-Press 2 album and one more in the style of the Ballistic Brothers stuff that we used to do back in the day.
X-Press 2 Reviews
| Future feat. Inner City (Kenny Larkin Tension Mix) (8:45) | Cue in Player Play Now | |||||
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Artist: Kevin Saunderson Remixer: Kenny Larkin Label: Defected (ADA) Genre: Deep / Tech House (Tech House) Release Date: 2012-01-04 |
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2 giants of Detroit come together in the most ridiculously massive sound ever. You're left waiting and waiting for that kick drum to come in and when it does, oh my days! A proper surging, pounding assault of a track.
| Shelter (Rolando Remix) (6:59) | Cue in Player Play Now | |||||
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Artist: Ethyl and Flori Remixer: Rolando Label: Secretsundaze Genre: Deep / Tech House (Deep House) Release Date: 2012-01-02 |
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This is just pure build. A master class in techno by the man like Rolando!
| Fire (Original Mix) (8:09) | Cue in Player Play Now | |||||
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Artist: Fabian Argomedo Label: Snatch! Records Genre: Deep / Tech House (Tech House) Release Date: 2012-01-03 |
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The output from Riva's label is always high quality and this definitely doesn't disappoint. I love the simplicity of it. A one bar loop just going round and round with a little vocal touch. The sort of track that works so well in the club.
| Let it Rain - Deetron Edit (8:22) | Cue in Player Play Now | |||||
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Artist: Radio Slave Remixer: Deetron Label: Balance Music Genre: Deep / Tech House Release Date: 2011-11-07 |
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Two great meeting of minds and a perfect combination = relentless groove.
| Italia 1990 - Nima Gorji Remix (8:04) | Cue in Player Play Now | |||||
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Artist: System of Survival Label: IANVS71 Genre: House / Electro Release Date: 2011-06-03 |
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Another beautifully crafted simple groove. Little clipped samples over some deep, tracky drums and a big analogue bass sound make for a killer groove. The kind of thing that really appeals to us. A little nod to the past but sounding oh so current.
| I'm Talking - Club Rework Part 1 (7:34) | Cue in Player Play Now | |||||
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Artist: Daniel Bortz Label: Tronic Soundz Genre: Deep / Tech House Release Date: 2011-12-16 |
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A big favourite with X-press 2 - Mr. Bortz is always on the money and this is another fine example of a perfectly executed track that with lots of drama.
| ARP3 (9:20) | Cue in Player Play Now | |||||
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Artist: Floating Points Label: Eglo Records Genre: Deep / Tech House Release Date: 2011-11-21 |
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Absolutely stunning. Beautiful, emotive and heartfelt melancholic techno that is proper hairs on the back of the neck stuff.
| Shakes (Original Mix) (6:32) | Cue in Player Play Now | |||||
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Artist: Nadja Lind Label: Darkroom Dubs Genre: Deep / Tech House (Deep House) Release Date: 2012-01-09 |
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Darkroom Dubs is a label that will always get our attention. You know you can always trust their A & R skills. Sparse but interesting beats woven around some some dark synthy samples and a little spoken vocal part keep the interest high. One for those late night dancefloors.
| Human (Oxia Remix) (7:41) | Cue in Player Play Now | |||||
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Artist: Slam Remixer: Oxia Label: Soma Genre: Deep / Tech House (Tech House) Release Date: 2011-09-18 |
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Slam, the best thing to ever come out of Glasgow. I need say no more.
| Father (8:44) | Cue in Player Play Now | |||||
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Artist: Moodymanc Label: Landed Records Genre: Deep / Tech House (Deep House) Release Date: 2012-01-02 |
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More quality stuff form the in form northerner! Deep lush grooves with an afrocentric twist.
Huge Thanks Out To X-Press 2 From Everyone At Trackitdown.net
Please make sure you take the time to check out X-Press 2 at the following online portals;
www.facebook.com/houseofxpress2
www.skintentertainment.com/artists/skint/x-press-2
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Buy The House Of X-Press 2 Album
| The House Of X-Press 2 (93:59) | ||||
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Artist: X-Press 2 Label: Skint Records Genre: Deep / Tech House Release Date: 2012-01-09 |
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Buy The X-Press 2 Guest Reviewer Bundle
| X-Press 2 - Guest Reviewer Bundle - January 2011 (80:10) | ||||
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Artist: X-Press 2 Label: Trackitdown Genre: Deep / Tech House Release Date: 2012-01-19 |
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