The Director’s Cut: X-Press 2 – Thee [Acid Jazz]

X-Press 2 has been at the vanguard of British electronic music for three decades now. In that time this acclaimed DJ and production duo alongside Ashley Beedle, have turned out many hits. The London duo share the same sense of musical discovery that first united them on the dance floors of Shoom and Spectrum and the Balearic playground of Ibiza way back when. 

Both Rocky and Diesel have a truly pioneering spirit that fuelled early nineties underground anthems such as the percussive, US-influenced ‘Muzik Express’, the brooding moodiness of ’Kill 100’ (which was used by Raff Simmons for his first ever fashion show for the house of Givenchy) and a rare sense of personality and charm that gave rise to enduring classics like the 2003 Ivor Novello Award winning single ‘Lazy’ and ‘Give It’ with vocalists as unlikely yet inspired as Talking Heads’ David Byrne and Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner. 

In the years since the pair have continued to turn out powerful club cuts such as ‘Tonehead Chemistry’ and ‘Siren Track’ and have always been subtly evolving in the process. It means they are as adept at heads-down grooves as they are spacious, action-packed breakdowns, and this has helped keep them in favor with modern tastemakers like Seth Troxler, Eats Everything, and Subb-an.

‘Thee’ is the vital duo’s fifth LP release and the first on the label they signed to earlier this year. They have already dropped two singles from the album and now unveil another nine fresh cuts that continue their creative purple patch, following recent remixes for Gabriels and David Holmes. It comes after years of defining the sound of the underground with a mix of powerhouse club tracks and catchy songs, most famously their Ivor Novello Award-winning ‘Lazy ft David Byrne’. Whether crafting for the club, the radio, or the catwalk for brands like Givenchy, Rocky and Diesel continue to showcase the pioneering spirit that has been with them since the early 90s. ‘Thee’ is beefy, fad-free house music stripped back but full of flavor, emotional nuance, and well-used vocal fragments.

Say Rocky & Diesel of this latest musical chapter – “We’re so excited to be releasing ‘Thee’ with Acid Jazz. It’s been a long time coming, and some of the tracks have been with us for around ten years now. So it’s fantastic to finally get them finished and pulled together with a bunch of new tunes to form an entirely new album. “

How to listen: There are a couple of ways to proceed. First, you can listen to the whole album, which you will find below, and then read the notes. Or, read the notes as you listen to each track. This will completely change your perspective on the whole release itself and bring you closer to the artist and their work.

Moov

Moov was formed in most instances by how we were feeling in the studio on that day. The general vibe was deep summary hypnotic with a nod to Mood II Swing and Basic Bastard. It’s basically all about groove so we laid down beats and some loops from a couple of prog rock/folk albums to add a different colour and certainly, the guitar loops give it a summery feel. the idea in mind was to always have. A female vocal and we did toy with the idea of Bjork as we felt it had a quirkiness to it that would appeal to her.

Zeven

Zeven is a hands-down tribute homage to the French side of House. The original idea was born out of a disco loop of Casanova that Rocky had been cutting up at some gigs that we were playing at and said we needed to use that loop in a track. The energy created live meant that it was prime for use as a base or start point for a track. we went to the studio with said disco record and basically used the loops to build Zeven. We had the main loop plus a couple of others for arranging and it was made super fast which you can hear in the energy of the track.

Phasing You Out

One of the highlights we’d say off the album. It originally started life as a track from a few years previous which needed updating. The track has the amazing talent of Kele from Bloc Party who wrote the song almost 8 years ago. We decided to revisit it and give it a new lease of life. The idea of shaping it into what we describe as a piano scream-up where the piano chord stabs are the essence of the track. We had been to Clockwork Orange the weekend before we re-visited the track and heard playing with Knives by Bizarre Inc. and forgot how amazing that record is to this day. But instead of going down that route, it inspired us to look at other similar house tunes with big piano chords. We then remembered an old favourite from Mad Mike Banks on Happy Trax records by Unit 2 called “Can You Feel the Sunshine”.

Muse

Muse is quite an emotional/ ethereal track. I remember we were thinking about making an emotive deep but dark house tune. We were listening to things like “All Cats Are Grey” by The Cure and trying to harness that mournful feel. Another influence was Smokebelch and all things Weatherall. Again using loops and twisting them rather than looking through presets we came up with a haunting vocal melody. Once that was in place the rest of the track fell into place.

Can I See The Love

This track is probably an amalgamation of voguing and Peace Division.

Again another day in the studio where we wanted to make a full-throttle tribal house banger with a dominating vocal refrain. A subliminal tribute to the 80/90s NY clubbing scene.

The Rain

The Rain is another vocal track that has been sitting around for some time and glad it made the album. The guest vocalist is Sailor & I and we are big fans of his vocals. the original song is by an 80s band called Tone of Tails and is a dark broody electronic masterpiece as far as were concerned. The idea came together when listening to the original and thinking how it would make a great club record if we could get the right vocalist and turn essentially an electronic ballad into a house tune. When we were able to track down the vocalist and he agreed to do it we knew we were onto something. We were very inspired by “You Can Turn Around” Ame remix and wanted to add an acid feel almost in the mould of “Higher State of Consciousness”.

You Know Everybody

This track is about as raw as you can get. Straight off a sample from a college basketball cheerleader chant and wanted to make a stripped-down chanting house tune in a similar way to Carl Craig’s Good Girls track which has been an X-press 2 favourite.

We completed it in an hour and left it pretty much as it flowed, warts and all. It has all the intensity we were looking for.

Reach For Me

This track came about as a nod to all things 90s house at a time when there seemed to be a renewed interest in the period which some say were the golden years.

It was very much cutting and pasting sounds and merging textures in a chopped way. So the general vibe was deep groove with semi-nostalgic sounds and references.

Cope

Is almost like a partner to “Reach for Me”, both recorded in the same studio time. Again slight inspiration from the 90s and all the right ingredients for the track.

Bloom

One of the favourites/ highlights is a full-on tech/house beast. With an emphasis on Detroit techno & a Chicago side of house. A moody groove backed with a dark melody. It was the very first track when we first started recording the album 7 years ago and has been subsequently tweaked over the years.

Werq

This one’s just a groove that developed from an arpeggiated sound that we were feeling and then just let it flow. It is one single take from a recording from an ARP analog synth.