New Basement Jaxx

I think the "show me you're a man" bit is the vocalist? Just doing something really wacky with hr voice.

One of the nice things about being in London last week -- seeing the huge fuck-off ads for the album everywhere in the Tube.

Also, Good Luck is way WAY WAY better than Romeo - anyone who thinks otherwise=mentalist.

I'm amazed what a lukewarm reception the album is getting, critically, but yes, every review is saying much the same thing (great 1st half, dodgy 2nd half) but I really don't understand the hate for If I Ever Recover.

I love Romeo, possibly prefer it to Good Luck, but don't make me choose. Good Luck I find is a record really geared towards physical response, I know dancing to Romeo is great but Good Luck seems like some democratisation of drum and bass rhythms which to a dnb illiterate like me is very attractive.

Matt who was hating on If I Ever Recover? As I keep saying I think it is genius.

The "Lucky Star" mentalism still escapes me. It's nice enough but it's rather blatantly the second-worst track on the album (the worst being "Supersonic").

Right Here's The Spot
Feels Like Home
Plug It In
Cish Cash
If I Ever Recover
Good Luck
Hot N Cold
Living Room
Tonight
Lucky Star
Supersonic

I think the people talking about "Basement Jaxx does the unexpected!" being completely the wrong way of looking at them these days are absolutely correct. The genius of the Jaxx doesn't lie in newness or wackiness as much as it lies in their frightening ability to generate the perfect groove out of anything. (On a complete tangent, I think someone else said this already but "Right Here's The Spot" = "All The Critics Luv U In New York 2003" and is all the better for it.)

Lucky Star and Jaxx trax at their best don't need to be conventionally banging or loud to make you want to react insanely. I was talking about it on my blog earlier this week, that x factor which makes some tracks feel "harder" or inspires a more over the top physical response. I'm not sure what it is but Lucky Star definitely has it if you ask me.

Despite the way I ranked the tracks, the true strength of the album lies in the quiet downtempo tracks. "Feels Like Home" is just so effortlessly gorgeous, and "If I Ever Recover" can float through my head all day.

Ronan's point about dance reactions is pretty otm - I'm the only person I know who could dance to the Cornelius remix of Coldcut for example. Also, I think 'Lucky Star', with its suggestion and tentative embraces of millions of other directions within the song, like the rest of the first half comes off like a series of spasms or some crazy ball of repressed energy that keeps sparking up while someone tries to keep it under control.

Or, uh, that was how I tried to intepret my own thoughts to concur with Ronan's.

*me being hilarious

stevem: stop waiting!! buy a robert owens or mr fingers album!

Because as we all know they are actually ambient meditative droners.

Remedy and Rooty made me boogie when I saw them 'played' live, BTW.

Ronan I think that the point is that the songs are manic *and* totally natural sounding grooves. The entire project of the three albums taken in succession is "how far away from a conventional house groove can we push this and still make people dance like it *is* a conventional house groove even though it's not?" I think this is particularly obvious you compare the singles from each album.

If the Jaxx actually went overboard into totally non-groovy wackiness (it could happen, although in fact I'm half expecting their next album to be relatively straightforward for some reason) it would actually be a bit like what Reynolds describes Kish Kash as being.

As is common with really good dance producers, the duo treat their choice of "genre" like a rubberband, stretching it as far as it can go without snapping. You can feel the tension created in the music, and it's that, coupled with the realisation that this rubberband really should have snapped by now, which makes the music so exciting. Obviously once the band does snap though all the tension is lost (presumably see The Love Below here - I've yet to hear it).

one question i have for those who seem to be setting up an opposition between the wackiness and the groove element -- it seems to me that here the wackiness is an essential constituent of the groove itself; it's stitched right into each song's fabric rather than being stacked on top of it like so many jenga pieces. which is part of the reason why i find this album so enthralling. it's the gift that keeps on giving.

Mind you Ned, that was kinda amusing. 'Fells Like Home' as the blueprint for BJ4, haha.

He didn't much like Rooty either, apart from "Get Me Off" and "Where's Your Head At" (ie. the most straightforward grooves on the album). Maybe he just prefers the Jaxx really stripped back.