Basement Jaxx - Kish Kash

There is a small club in Houston called Numbers that I have been to a few times. My first visit went well and an entertaining add-on to the night was the video screens that were filled with funny black and white movies starring dogs while alternative music played in the background; a nice in between act diversion. On my second venture, the dogs and nice music were replaced with montages of gory film clips and electronic music. Approximately ten minutes went by before my friend and I physically felt ill. Light headed and nauseous, the repetitive beat had me on the verge of sickness, and I had to find a seat quickly before fainting. Such is my experience with electronic/dance music. To me, most of it sounds the same, and they all seem to follow the same formula of taking eight bars of music and repeating it for four minutes with only minor variations. So the new Basement Jaxx album hits my desk, and what am I to do? I ignore the past and concentrate on what comes through the speakers. Did it win me over to exploring the genre? No. But did it end up being a quietly nice surprise of an album? Yes. Kish Kash doesn’t stray too far from the proven formula that has kept the band around longer than most, but it does keep the listener jumping and jiving for the majority of its tracks. “Good Luck” is a very catchy and danceable song that is immediately infectious to any listener, fan of the genre or not. “Right Here’s The Spot” marks the first of two tracks featuring Meshell N’dgeocello (you remember the John Cougar video right?). It’s more standard electronica but still has enough mainstream appeal to work. “Lucky Star” wraps up a nice starting trio, even if it feels more like a rap song with an electronic beat than an electronic song with rap. Now, let’s address some of the downfalls of the album. A few of the tracks fall into the hated formula of the genre. “Supersonic” and “If I Ever Recover” both suffer from repetitiveness and get kind of old quickly. In addition, a trio of needless and pointless interludes (“Benjilude,””Petrilude,” and ”Cosmolude”) appear on the disc. But for every downturn, the disc redeems itself. “Cish Cash” jumps tempo right back up and gets back on the right track after its sour lead in and “Hot ‘N Cold" climbs into your ears with a Metric-like sounding jam. While “Tonight” has a Spanish feel that is a bit out of place and doesn’t quite work, “Living Room” sounds like a Frank Black experiment and succeeds rather well to balance it out. Even “Plug It In,” with its random cameo from JC Chasez, is actually pulled off quite well. Ending with Meshell N’dgeocello’s encore, “Feels Like Home,” the track kind of wanders but is a nice mood settler to finish the album (though it could have been trimmed just a bit). Overall, this is a great electronic/dance disc. If it can entertain me (considering the genre it is from), then it is definitely something of note. It was also announced today that it is up for the Mercury Music Prize, so I am not alone in my assessment. It has a few flaws that keep it from great stature, but this is definitely a surprise for me and worth a spin in the clubs and in the house. [www.basementjaxx.co.uk]