History of
All 5 members of Xiang V3 hail from Sandwich, Kent, which is in the South East of England.
The band was first created in October 1993 when a few of the current band members decided to make some music in a garden shed. The instruments used were a simple drum machine and a keyboard.
The original members were CB, DJ Speng, TJ the DJ, and Carl Dodd (Carpet Monster). The music created was fairly basic and was pretty crap. They practised for about a week producing many tunes which were recorded onto tape.
The band was put on hold for about 2 months until December 1993 when the Christmas holidays allowed them to start again. DJ Speng was always keen on Jungle music and tried to create Jungle beats using the drum machine. His efforts were all in vain as playing 168 beats per minute on a 4-pad drum machine requires superhuman speed. Because of this impossibility, the music was more Dance style which no member really liked.
It was during this period that CB sat down and wrote the first proper song. It was called Famine and was basically a song about the horrors of famine. In terms of lyrics the song was unbelievably great, but DJ Speng thought the song was too damn Do-Gooding and refused to play any part in the recording.
On the morning of December 21st 1993, after about 3 hours of practice Carpet Monster told the other 3 band members he had to leave for his lunch. He left, leaving the others with the impression he would return later. He never came back.
With the band now down to 3 members and operating under the name Mirage, they kept practising their dance tunes but none of them really thought the style of music was very good and the band almost ceased to exist.
In February 1994 the 3 remaining members tried to pick up where they left off 2 months before but turned more towards Techno beats which were a lot more similar and closer to Jungle which was the style the group was aiming for. It was during this period that CB discovered that the name Mirage already existed and they operated without a name. Enter Dr Fred. He had keyboard lessons at the age of about 8 and the 3 existing members thought he would be the perfect addition to the band as they had heard some of his synthesised keyboard music.
The Techno tunes prevailed and the band was on the up once more with the harmonious sounds of Dr Fred accompanying the very repetitive Techno beats.
The next band name to enter the scene was Sur5al. Despite this name being agreed by each member, truthfully nobody liked the name as it sounded like a shitty boy-band name.
The band then took a year long break, and in August 1995 Dr Fred's younger brother Termy appeared on the scene as they found he had great inspiration on samples that DJ Speng could use to perk up the boring Techno beats that were constantly being churned out of the instruments.
With the band now up to 5 members, the band was once again paused until August 1996 when Dr Fred came up with the idea of using a PC and a Music Tracking package to allow them to overcome the problem of only using basic instruments. The package used was Mitsumi Music Maker and the first computer generated track was called Gas. It was a huge step up from the crusty quality of the cheap separate instruments that were used. The tune was another Dance tune which consisted of a range of different beats, synthesisers and samples. The name Gas was repeated during the song by DJ Speng which was intended only as a joke but in the end the sample stuck, so that is how the track was named.
The tune Gas was written by Dr Fred and DJ Speng, with assistance by TJ the DJ and Termy. The Mitsumi Music Maker was a primitive package and not much could be achieved with this.
In March 1998 a package called Fasttracker 2 was discovered which is much more advanced and is still used today by the band. This package was just what DJ Speng needed and his goal which was to write Jungle music came true. He solely knocked up a number of Reggae Remixes by turning them into Jungle. He used famous songs such as Keep On Moving by Bob Marley & the Wailers.
Dr Fred kept on pursuing with his Dance tunes as he found that he could fit more of his keyboard samples to them easier than to any of DJ Speng's Jungle tunes. Although Fasttracker 2 was the new inspired program for the group, Dr Fred went on to make another hit which was nameless using the Mitsumi Music Maker. Also an extended version of Gas was made by DJ Speng & Dr Fred with the extension: The MarkArew extended mix.
In December 1998, DJ Speng came up with Do Ya Like Jungle which was a big hit with the rest of the band members and in fact with just about everybody in his college class.
It was then the band realised that Jungle Composition was the music of the future and that it should be the style in which they should base their tracks.
If you listen to Do Ya Like Jungle, you will hear the words: "My fine Feathered Finks" and "The time is almost nigh". This sample was a speech from The Penguin taken from Batman the series. The original idea to use this was by TJ the DJ (younger brother of DJ Speng) and DJ Speng thought the sample went so well that he decided to keep it and it is still there today.
After the success of the track they finally decided on the name Xiang V3. CB created the logo by hand and Dr Fred scanned in the image and adjusted the colour scheme.
Although the main writers of the tracks are DJ Speng and Dr Fred, contributions are always made by the other 3 members, whether it be a simple sample idea or an arrangement of synthesised harmonics.
That, my fellow fans is how Xiang V3 came about. Enjoy the rest of the web page which includes personal fact files on each of the band members and links to cool MOD sites.
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