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 ...

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 Dance Club Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. It is a national look over of club disc jockeys to determine the most popular songs being played in nightclubs across the country. It was launched as th ...

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.Talkin ...

), and on "I Want You Back" by

Dieter Meier Dieter Meier (born 4 March 1945) is a Swiss industrialist, musician and conceptual artist. He is the frontman of the electronic music group Yello, which was co-founded (with ex-member Carlos Perón) by music producer Boris Blank. He is a vocali ...

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 l ...

, a BMG company.

Discography

Albums

*''

'' (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

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