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Basement
Jaxx – Kish Kash
[1] Good
Luck (featuring Lisa Kekaula)
[2] Right
here’s The Spot (featuring Meshell Ndegeocello)
[3] Benjilude
[4] Lucky
Star (featuring Dizzee Rascal)
[5] Petrilude
[6] Supersonic
(featuring Cotlyn Jackson)
[7] Plug
It In (featuring JC Chasez)
[8] Cosmolude
[9] If I
Ever Recover
[10] Cish
Cash (featuring Siouxsie Sioux)
[11] Tonight
(featuring Phoebe)
[12] Hot
‘n Cold
[13] Living
Room
[14] Feels
Like Home (featuring Meshell Ndegeocello)
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| Kish Kash
is the third album from the Jaxx, released in October 2003; it follows
on from Remedy, which enjoyed massive success from several of the
singles reaching high places in the national chart during 1999 and
2000, and Rooty, which was slightly less successful. |
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Kish Kash
opens with a massive dancefloor tune called ‘Good Luck’
featuring Lisa Kekaula of the The Bellrays. ‘Good Luck’
is a house-influenced track and has received massive rotation on
the radio and in the clubs; it was also the reason I bought the
album. It’s recently been remixed by Roni Size and Tim Deluxe.
‘Right Here’s The Spot’ featuring Meshell Ndegeocello
continues the standard set by ’Good Luck‘, but drawing
on a more breakbeat type of sound, with a deep deep bass. After
a brief ‘Benjilude’ we have the first single released
from the album, featuring UK hip hop golden boy Dizzee Rascal; ‘Lucky
Star’. The track has done some serious damage around clubs
and radio stations; it draws on eclectic pool of influences, from
Dizzee’s hip hop vocal, to a breakbeat drum pattern and an
Indian electric horn. ‘Supersonic’ is another house-influenced
piece, starting with a few random bleeps and squeaks, but it soon
picks up with a thumping back beat and looping vocal, laid on top
of a harmonica. The trouble with this track is it feels as though
it's building to something, but it never happens, which is kind
of disappointing; all that build-up and then the track finishes.
Which isn’t something that can be said for the following track;
‘Plug It In’, a breaks track featuring JC Chasez and
Ty. It's excellently produced, incredibly funky and the second best
track after the opener. After a long Cosmolude we’re greeted
with a much needed downtempo track by the name of ‘If I Ever
Recover’ with Felix Jaxx on vocals with a string arrangement
supplied by the London Session Orchestra. It breaks the album up
nicely, though could be longer in my opinion. ‘Cish Cash’
is a breakbeat track, reminiscent of earlier Chemical Brothers or
recent Prodigy stuff, with vocals from Siouxie Sioux of Siouxie
and the Banshees; it’s an industrial-sounding piece with an
electric fuzz guitar supporting the kick drums and breaks. ‘Tonight’
is a slower track, with an acoustic Latin guitar and violin setting
the tone for quite a sultry piece of music. ‘Hot and Cold’
is another dance track albeit quite a minimal one, a simple stop
start beat and kick bass show what the Basement Jaxx do best: simple
dance music that sounds bigger than it is. ‘Living Room’
again features the vocals of Felix Jaxx, starting with an electric
guitar, building up with a great drum pattern, slowly speeding up,
and then……ending!! I hope this track is released as
a single or a B Side, but much much longer; it has so much potential,
but ends up just taunting you. The last track is a deep atmospheric
piece entitled ‘Feels Like Home’, rich pads and nicely
arranged strings close the album off very well indeed. |
This is a very
enjoyable album, with a couple of filler tracks and some stuff that’d
sound excellent if expanded on. It's solidly produced and makes for
enjoyable listening in the short term. I’m not sure however if
it’d be something I’d go back to in a few years. Time will
tell.
3 out of 5
David
Wright |
