X-Press 2: Lazing in (Brockwell) Park- June 11

"When I was younger I was always very wary about going to Brixton but it seems to have grown up and there's some really great clubs and bars round there. So I like it."

Headlining the Saturday night event of Brixton's upcoming Park Festival, X Press 2's Rocky is the first to admit he remembers the area's erstwhile infamous reputation though adds he excited about playing the Brockwell Park event.

"I don't feel much affinity with Brixton, sure, we're from West London originally, he points out, though my girlfriend lived in Dulwich so I go out there a little bit and I like the area as well. I think Brixton's cool, so it will be good to do this thing in the park."

The thing in the park he's referring to is a brand new three night music festival in Brockwell Park (June 10-12) which starts on Friday wirh R&B popsters Lemar and Shola Ama, transforming into a house, garage and urban dance festival on Saturday (on Sunday it goes punk with the Stranglers). X Press 2 (aka Rocky, Diesel and their third long term collabaorator Ashley Beedle) headline the main arena spinning their usual six deck extravaganza, alongside DJs Norman Jay, Danny Rampling and stacks more house legends including Jocelyn Brown and Michael Watford (doing PAs).

Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): As X Press 2, there are three of you spinning for just an hour a half between you at the event, how does that work in practical terms-

X-Press 2: "We play five or six records each, and that's it, so you bring your six best records and pump it out basically. There's no sort of build up or anything like that when it's that short space of time it's just a get on, get into it and get it over with kind of set. That doesn't mean we just bring six records each, we've all got certain kinds of tunes and effects that we play together. It's all about a vibe really."

Skrufff: Do you still play a lot of X-Press 2 songs- When was the last time you played "Lazy', for example-

X-Press 2: "I don't remember, a long time ago. Don't get me wrong - I still love it - I think it's an amazing song, but I'm just one of those people that always wants to play the new things. There will always be a time when you'll slip the odd old track into what you're doing, but I'm always wanting to move it forward; to look for the next thing that's coming along."

Skrufff: Where are you at musically at the moment, what's enthusing you-

X-Press 2: "Personally, I'm quite into a lot of the German stuff that's coming out. One of my mates went over to Cologne last week and spent about six hours in a record shop there, and brought me loads of stuff back from there; that kind of house music fused with electro sound."

Skrufff: Tiefschwarz type stuff-

X-Press 2: "Absolutely. And some of the English guys that are really doing it at the moment, people like Switch and Jessie Rose. We had that big tribal thing going on for three or four years before but now the sound seems to be moving away a little bit from that."

Skrufff: Are you still going to record shops and buying many records generally-

X-Press 2: "Absolutely. I still spend fortunes week in, week out. Always Thursday, Friday afternoons, I'm down in Soho, in your little Bermuda Triangle of record shops down there."

Skrufff: Which shops-

X-Press 2: "Phonica, Black Market, Plastic Fantastic and Vinyl Junkies; they're my main ports of call. I've also started using some of the online places as well, I've found one called Boom Cat a couple of weeks ago, which is great for that German techy, bleepy stuff. That's quite cool. I still spend a hundred pounds a week on buying stuff, as well as getting sent lots of promos."

Skrufff: So you're buying about 15/20 records, week in, week out-

X-Press 2: "Pretty much yeah."

Skrufff: Are you playing all those records generally-

X-Press 2: "Probably not, no, I buy them and will probably play about five of them. It's just that thing - that v Tags

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