S'Express (pronounced ess-express; sometimes spelled S'Xpress or S-Express; otherwise known as Victim Of the Ghetto) were a British dance music act from the late 1980s who had one of the earliest commercial successes in the acid house genre. "Theme from S'Express" was also one of the earliest recordings to capitalize on sampling culture and it topped the UK singles chart as well as the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in the United States (also scraping into the Hot 100 at #91). The song took the...
S'Express (pronounced ess-express; sometimes spelled S'Xpress or S-Express; otherwise known as Victim Of the Ghetto) were a British dance music act from the late 1980s who had one of the earliest commercial successes in the acid house genre. "Theme from S'Express" was also one of the earliest recordings to capitalize on sampling culture and it topped the UK singles chart as well as the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in the United States (also scraping into the Hot 100 at #91). The song took the bass and brass sections from Rose Royce's 1979 hit "Is It Love You're After" and "Rose Royce Express" and mixed it with the brass stabs from Crystal Grass' 1975 funk anthem, "Crystal World."
The main player in the act was DJ/producer and remixer Mark Moore. 1989 saw the release of their debut album "Original Soundtrack", which featured a group line-up of Mark M (Mark Moore, noise engineer), Michellé (microdot clarinet and vox), Mark D (trumpet, noise, boogie factor), Jocasta (hi-hat hairspray, background vox) and Pascal (Pascal Gabriel, noise engineer). The album compiled S-Express's "Theme" and its follow-up club hits "Superfly Guy" and "Hey Music Lover" along with an album's worth of new compositions. Singer Billie Ray Martin also appeared on several tracks on their debut.
By the release of the second album "Intercourse", the act was reduced to a duo of Moore with new vocalist and DJ Sonique. Although not as successful as their debut, Intercourse spawned several mid-charting UK singles and club hits, most notably "Nothing To Lose". Sonique, already a successful DJ, eventually embarked on a solo career and produced one of the biggest pop and club hits of the late 1990s ("It Feels So Good").
Moore went on to release many singles, remixes and albums on his own and also formed the band Needledust.
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