Basement Jaxx Albums (5)
What The Critics Say
Previewed by "Twerk" -- their booty-disco, "Maniac"-quoting team-up with Yo Majesty -- plus the uplifting perfection of the five-star track "Raindrops" -- sung by member Felix Buxton with Auto-Tune on the assist -- Scars is an obvious return-to-form effort for Basement Jaxx, reigning in the big conceptual ambition displayed on Crazy Itch Radio for better or worse. Getting back to everyday business sounds like sweet relief on tracks like the good-timing "Twerk," and while this is the lunk-headed party theme you'd expect from such a pairing, two of the other marquee-worthy collaborations far exceed expectations. First up is the hot-stepping, Santigold cut "Saga," which suggests that a shared love of the Clash and the Specials was discussed ahead of time. More stunning is the Yoko Ono team-up "Day of the Sunflowers (We March On)" which takes a "Walking on Thin Ice" strategy, supporting Yoko Ono's stark poetry reading with a razor sharp, no wave dance track. The wistful "My Turn" with Lightspeed Champion is like that grand, danceable dreamer that shows up towards the end of the best Pet Shop Boys albums, leaving only the Amp Fiddler effort, "A Possibility," up for debate, since adding new, rather average lyrics to Santo & Johnny's classic instrumental "Sleepwalk" seems an unispired move from this innovative crew. Still, it hardly breaks the album, and there's nothing here you could write off as true filler, but that perfect flow that made their masterpieces so thrilling is missing, plus the increased number of doubtful or regretful numbers referenced by the album's title seems to come from a totally different song cycle than the busy, rump-shaking stunners. Even if this is a bumpier ride than expected, Scars is a worthwhile throwback to the freak attitude that kicked off their career over a decade earlier. Anyone excited by the idea will find plenty to love. ~ David Jeffries, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Basement Jaxx capped a run of three marvelously progressive and near-perfect albums with a singles compilation deserving of the stature shared by Pet Shop Boys' Discography, New Order's Substance, and the Smiths' Singles. Where to go from there? Away with 1999, in with Gypsy Beats and Balkan Bangers and other expectedly unexpected inspirations. Out pops Crazy Itch Radio, a disc loosely wrapped around the concept of the duo running their own station. They could have just as easily sold this as an original cast recording to a nonexistent stage production. Then again, the music is so color-packed, so off-the-wall that it could also work as the soundtrack to Rat Fink renderings of scenes from a movie dreamed by Baz Luhrmann. It's too big to fit on a stage and in an orchestra pit that would have to accommodate the Jaxx, a very active horn section, the London Session Orchestra, a Russian accordionist, a pile of vocalists and MCs -- including Linda Lewis, Biz Markie, and Robyn, along with the relatively unknown likes of Vula Malinga (previously heard on the non-album single "Oh My Gosh"), Lady Marga, Martina Bang, Skilla, Younger Sensation & Charmzy -- and 30 kids from Malawi's Nanthomba Orphan School. The album takes the form of a nearly linear narrative involving the ups and downs of an alcohol-fueled romance between a boy and a girl. Given the assorted voices and the unflagging flow of recombinant sounds, it's easy to be thrown off this trail, but there is a definite method behind the pacing and sequencing, and the emphasis on songcraft and the making of a thematic whole is more than apparent. The story begins with a dinner at an unfinished Mexican restaurant (the sparkling, hilarious, rush-inducing "Hush Boy") and moves to his place (the "Cotton Eye Joe"-destroying banjo-house jam "Take Me Back to Your House"). In "Hey U," the boy lowers the boom on the girl, tells her he'll "always be a travelin' man," and then declares on the following "On the Train," over shades of the Stray Cats' "Stray Cat Blues," that "mamma gave me dancing legs." During and after these events, there is some longing, a lot of heartache, a healthy amount of playground-style spite, and some resolution. The songs, when added up, don't amount to the heights of the previous albums. They don't pack the same immediate wallop. While they do benefit from repeated listens, that familiar urge to rewind and commit to memory isn't as powerful. The Jaxx, however, are as adept as ever when it comes to unlikely fusions and unexpected twists that lord over anything else that could be termed left-field dance-pop. At this point, it's impossible to imagine them topping themselves; an album that is merely deeply engaging and wildly entertaining cannot be considered a flop in any way. Next time out, they'd do well to further explore the direction taken by the unlisted track that closes the album. A sinuous slow jam not terribly unlike Remedy's "Being with U," its seductive simplicity is at odds with everything else in the program. ~ Andy Kellman, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
With two full-length masterpieces behind them, Basement Jaxx still hadn't recorded a bum note, nearly ten years after getting together. But while their third record, Kish Kash, is still miles ahead of the various formula relied upon by scores of dance producers, it isn't the same filler-free party classic as Remedy and Rooty. In fact, it reveals the duo perhaps relying too much on their own formula, the jumped-up Prince production with tech-heavy percussion and effects exploding all over the mix. Granted, Buxton and Ratcliffe ably deflect most criticisms with this LP, shot through with high-profile collaborations -- nearly all of them intriguing tracks with star turns. Post-punk hero Siouxsie Sioux shows various electroclash victims just what it means to be a post-modern diva for "Cish Cash," while *N'Sync's J.C. Chasez is a surprising success on the beguiling "Plug It In" (though the final few minutes are so close to Prince the track becomes more rip-off than homage). Teenage garage-rap sensation Dizzee Rascal turns in a fabulous outr� performance on "Lucky Star," but the Indian filmi sample driving the song displays Basement Jaxx in a light they've never been in before: behind the times. There's really no way to make a splash with a third full-length that sticks so close to the formula, even one they helped create; Kish Kash may be the best dance record of 2003, but it's the least imaginative LP the duo have ever released. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Sophomore album blues from a pair of producers who just want to party all night and make a few tracks during the day? Not a chance. Two years of globetrotting as house superstars fortunately haven't dulled the keen blade of Basement Jaxx's production style. So raw you can't believe they spent over an hour per track, so perfect you're glad they stopped noodling about long before most producers would, and so poppy they should get picked up by commercial radio in America as well as the rest of the world, Rooty is the second straight triumph from a pair of producer/DJs who look set to carry the torch for dancefloor electronica in the years to come. Titled after the duo's just-recently-closed club night, this is a true party album -- shot through with no-attention-span tangents, bridges, and interrupted samples, nowhere better than on the psychedelic soul of "Broken Dreams," with its Tijuana Brass horns and Middle Eastern flute. Though it's missing the genre-spanning flair and red-line energy that made 1999's Remedy the best dance album of the '90s, Rooty comes very close, with a similar emphasis on swinging rhythms and slapping percussion. It's much funkier than Remedy, much closer to commercial pop, and much more sensuous, with several tracks of moaning, juiced-up funk from the Prince playbook. The opener, "Romeo," is groovy and luscious enough to be the next single from Destiny's Child (with a tad more vocal histrionics), and almost every track features vocalists who sound less like professional singers (or flavor-of-the-month robots) and more like they've been tapped as finalists at a posh karaoke bar. (A few of those female-sounding vocalists are actually the Jaxx themselves, altered slightly.) Add a little filtered disco ("Jus 1 Kiss"), a track of rowdy New York house (the Gary Numan-sampling "Where's Your Head At," with background shouting from Erick Morillo and Junior Sanchez), bleepy acid house ("Crazy Girl"), and some P-Funked-up house ("Breakaway") and the result is a stunning, diverse album that's not only an immediate winner but a great album down the line as well. You can take the boys out of Brixton, but you just can't take Brixton out of the boys. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
The duo's long-awaited debut album is one of the most assured, propulsive full-lengths the dance world had seen since Daft Punk's Homework. A set of incredibly diverse tracks, Remedy is indebted to the raw American house of Todd Terry and Masters at Work, and even shares the NuYoricans' penchant for Latin vibes (especially on the horn-driven "Bingo Bango" and the opener, "Rendez-Vu," which trades a bit of salsa wiggle with infectious vocoderized disco). True, Ratcliffe and Buxton do sound more like an American production team than a pair of Brixton boys would -- they get props (and vocal appearances) from several of the best American house producers out there including DJ Sneak, Erick Morillo, and Benji Candelario. And "U Can't Stop Me" is an R&B production that could probably have gotten airplay in major rap markets across the U.S. Elsewhere, Buxton and Ratcliffe chew up and spit out mutated versions of hip-hop, ragga, Latin, R&B, soul, and garage -- the varied sound that defined the worldwide house scene of the late '90s. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide
