X-Press 2 are an English
electronic dance music duo. The members are DJ Diesel (Darren House) and DJ Rocky (Darren Rock).
Ashley Beedle
Ashley Beedle (born November 25, 1962, in Hemel Hempstead, England) is a British house music DJ and producer. He was a member of the groups Black Science Orchestra and X-Press 2 in addition to releasing material under his own name.
Career
Bee ...
left to pursue solo projects in 2009. They were
DJ Award winners in 2002 and
Ivor Novello winners in 2003.
History
Explaining the band's name, Darren Rock (aka 'DJ Rocky') explained that
acid house
Acid house (also simply known as just "acid") is a subgenre of house music developed around the mid-1980s by DJs from Chicago. The style is defined primarily by the squelching sounds and basslines of the Roland TB-303 electronic bass synthesiz ...
legend
Terry Farley Terry Farley is a British DJ, remixer and producer from London, active since the mid-1980s.
Career
Farley started out going to clubs in the late 1970s and first visited Ibiza in 1982. He then started working as a DJ, performing at the same clubs ...
of
Fire Island
Fire Island is the large center island of the outer barrier islands parallel to the South Shore of Long Island, in the U.S. state of New York.
Occasionally, the name is used to refer collectively to not only the central island, but also Lo ...
came up with it. Rocky said, "We were originally going to call ourselves Rock 2 House, but
arley Arley may refer to:
Places England
* Arley, Cheshire, a village
** Arley Hall, Cheshire
* Arley, Warwickshire, a village
* Upper Arley
Upper Arley () is a village and civil parish near Kidderminster in the Wyre Forest District of Worcestershi ...
wasn't really into that. So he renamed us X-Press 2. He basically liked the S'Express so kind of adapted that."
X-Press 2 first rose to
underground
Underground most commonly refers to:
* Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth
Underground may also refer to:
Places
* The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston
* The Underground ...
prominence through the tracks "Muzik Express"
and "London Xpress"
which were both released on
Junior Boys Own Records. X-Press 2 also gained plaudits on the
club
Club may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Club'' (magazine)
* Club, a '' Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character
* Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards
* Club music
* "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea''
Brands and enterprises ...
scene for regularly playing in clubs with their multi-decked (up to six decks with three
DJs) sets.
Their debut
US single
Single may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Single (music), a song release
Songs
* "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004
* "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008
* "Single" (William Wei song), 2016
* "Single", by ...
, "The Sound" peaked at number one on the
Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in 1996. 2001 saw the release of their
album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
''
Muzikizum
''Muzikizum'' is the debut studio album by X-Press 2. It was released on Skint Records in 2002. It features vocal contributions from David Byrne, Dieter Meier, and Steve Edwards. It peaked at number 15 on the UK Albums Chart.
Critical recepti ...
'' which contained two more US dance chart entries: "Smoke Machine" (number 31) and "
Lazy", which peaked at number one in 2002 and also peaked at number two
on the
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
in the duo's native United Kingdom, as well as winning them the prestigious
Ivor Novello award in 2003.
The
lead vocals
The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...
on "Lazy" are sung by
David Byrne
David Byrne (; born 14 May 1952) is a Scottish-American singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, writer, music theorist, visual artist and filmmaker. He was a founding member and the principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of ...
(formerly of
Talking Heads
Talking Heads were an American rock band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991.[Talki ...](_blank)
), and on "I Want You Back" by
Dieter Meier of
Yello
Yello is a Swiss electronic music band, which formed in Zürich in 1979. For most of the band's history, Yello has been a duo consisting of Dieter Meier and Boris Blank; founding member Carlos Perón left in 1983.
Their sound is often charac ...
.
''
Makeshift Feelgood'' appeared in 2006, featuring
Tim DeLaughter
Tim DeLaughter (born November 18, 1965) is an American rock musician. He is the frontman of the bands Tripping Daisy, The Polyphonic Spree, and Preteen Zenith.
At the 61st Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, DeLaughter was nominated for Ou ...
,
Kurt Wagner, Anthony Roman from
Radio 4,
Kissing the Pink
Kissing the Pink are an English new wave and synth-pop band that formed in London in 1980. The current members are lead singer and guitarist Nick Whitecross, keyboardist Jon Kingsley Hall, second keyboardist George Stewart, and guitarist Simon ...
and
Rob Harvey.
In 2013 the "Kill 100 (
Carl Craig
Carl Craig (born May 22, 1969) is an American electronic music producer, DJ, and founder of the record label Planet E Communications. He is known as a leading figure and pioneer in the second wave of Detroit techno artists during the late 1980s ...
re-mix)" was used by
Raf Simons
Raf Jan Simons (; born 12 January 1968) is a Belgian fashion designer.
Beginning in furniture design, Simons launched his own menswear label in 1995. He was creative director at Jil Sander (2005–2012), Christian Dior (2012–2015), and Calvin K ...
for his debut Spring/Summer 2013 show in his role as creative director for
Dior
Christian Dior SE (), commonly known as Dior (stylized DIOR), is a French Luxury goods, luxury fashion house controlled and chaired by French businessman Bernard Arnault, who also heads LVMH, the world's largest luxury group. Dior itself holds ...
.
X-Press 2 are currently signed to
Skint Records
Skint Records is a Brighton and Hove based dance music record label owned by JC Reid, Tim Jeffery and Damian Harris. It was created as a sublabel of Loaded Records, also founded by Reid and Jeffery. Along with Wall of Sound, the label was a le ...
,
a
BMG company.
Discography
Albums
*''
Muzikizum
''Muzikizum'' is the debut studio album by X-Press 2. It was released on Skint Records in 2002. It features vocal contributions from David Byrne, Dieter Meier, and Steve Edwards. It peaked at number 15 on the UK Albums Chart.
Critical recepti ...
'' (2002) -
UK No. 15
*''
Makeshift Feelgood'' (2006)
* ''The House of X-Press 2'' (2012)
* ''MMXV'' (2015)
Compilation albums
*''
Remixes
A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...
'' (2002)
*''
Raise Your Hands – The Greatest Hits'' (2008)
*''Coast 2 Coast'' (2008)
Singles
See also
*
List of number-one dance hits (United States)
This is a list of number-one dance hits as recorded by ''Billboard'' magazine's Dance Club Songs chart – a weekly national survey of popular songs in U.S. dance clubs. It began on October 26, 1974, under the title ''Disco Action'' chart. It is ...
*
List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart
This is a list of recording artists who have reached number one on ''Billboard magazine's'' Dance Club Songs chart. ''Billboard'' began ranking dance music on the week ending October 26, 1974, and this is the standard music popularity chart in t ...
References
External links
*
X-Press 2 on Resident Advisor
{{DJ Award for Best Tech House DJ , state=collapsed
English house music duos
English dance music groups
Electronic dance music duos
Remixers