There are some people in this world who literally live, breathe and dedicate their lives to their chosen field. In the case of
X-Press 2 - the pioneering UK House outfit - the landscape for clubbing and musical consumption may change, but the ethics, spirit and feeling of house music has shined on for well over two decades.
Originally a three-man outfit that included the legendary
Ashley Beedle, X-Press 2's discography reads like a royal scripture - tracks such as underground anthem Muzik Express, Lazy (with
David Byrne of The Talking Heads) and many more - their influence and importance was cemented long ago, stretching right back to the days of acid house when the threesome DJ would attend
Shoom, Spectrum and various Balearic parties in Ibiza.
Now we're in 2012 and the futue looks just as bright as it always has for Rocky and Diesel. They've just released their latest album, The House of X-Press 2, which revisits classic sounds and styles from within dance music's history - but also finds itself slap bang in the middle of a cultural resurgence, an ever-growing love for house music of many shapes and sizes and also, the constant 'anything goes' policy of their formative Balearic years seemingly paralleled with today's hyper-eclectic landscape. Times have indeed changed - the old clubs and institutions have shut down - but X-Press 2 remain steadfast and in love with the scene,
their constant dedication and love for their art not waivering one tiny bit.
Read on as DT chewed the fat with Diesel and Rocky...
It’s been a little while since the releases of your
last album – tell us some more about what you’ve been up to of late?
Just making this album to be honest - prior to that, we were just
working as we always do, also spending time in the studio and DJing all over
the place.
You spent around two years working on this album –
what was the difference in working this time round? What did you do
differently?
Nothing, we honestly worked on this album in the same way that we
always work. We just have ideas and
bounce them round the studio then they lead on to other ideas until we come up
with a coherent piece of music.
You collaborated with some fine musicians, including
James Yuill, Rob Harvey, Timo Garcia and more...why did you make all the tracks
on this album a collaboration?
We didn't make all the tracks as collaborations. We treat each
track as a separate entity If we feel it needs a vocal then we'll think of a
vocalist. As far as the Tim and Timo tracks, well they're mates of ours and we'd
wanted to do something together for a while. It was just a case of when. We
just like working with other people anyway.
Of course, electronic music is a different ball game
to what it was even ten years ago – how do you feel about the impact of digitization
on dance music?
It's brilliant. It's made everything so much easier for everyone,
from making and selling music to buying it. We're not complaining.
W
hat are your feelings on the current resurgence of
house music? Are there any newcomers (especially from this whole, never ending
wave of deep house) that you’re champions of?
Again it's very healthy. There are loads of people making music
out there now, some of it great and some not. We're really into the music the
guys in Spain are making right now. Not exactly new, but
UNER, Coyu, Edu
Imbernon, Afkkt , Ramon Tapia are all ace. There's a guy called Maertz who is
really hot right now.
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