X-Press 2 first burst onto the international club scene in 1993 with the demented sirens, typewriter-noise percussion and dance floor pyrotechnics of "Muzik Express". The three DJs, Ashley Beedle, Rocky and Diesel, all from unfashionable suburbs of London, had each played leading roles in the capitals cooler, more influential club scenes. Their first studio session left them cold; they"d intended to sample an old Cloud One track but that typewriter percussion noise was all that survived. Everyone else disagreed. "Muzik X-Press" was an instant worldwide club hit. DJs as influential as Pete Tong and New York"s Junior Vasquez then in his Sound Factory prime loved it. Clubbers around the world declared it an instant anthem. Its follow up, the juddering, funky "London X-Press" with its exhortation to "raise your hands!" was just as monstrously successful, it was the daft dancefloor smash, "Say What", that came next. When their records began to get, as Ashley puts it, "more oblique", the three were content to put X-Press 2 aside and move onto other projects, and the three moved effortlessly into jazzier, funkier, more downbeat arenas with their internationally respected Ballistic Brothers team-up. In April of 2000 X-Press 2 found themselves back together on the road and in the studio.