Jaxx entertainment

There’s always been a bit of a problem ‘round House Music Central with the whole idea of the ‘artist album’. Y’see, house music is actually music for dancing to. It may have mutated this way and that over the years, but fundamentally, it’s meant for jiggling one’s bits to in a repetitive manner. DJ mix CDs can capture the essence of the club, but the artist album is supposed to reflect much more than that: they’re supposed to be songs, but they usually end-up being a collection of singles and fillers. You can count the amount of truly original and innovative dance music long-players on about seven fingers. And one of those … ahem … fingers belongs to Basement Jaxx.

In 1999, Felix Buxton (him of the varying hats) and Simon Ratcliffe (him without any notable headpiece) gave us Remedy. And boy did it work. It gladly ripped up the ‘house album’ instruction manual and replaced it what sounded like a quick flick through umpteen pirate radio stations in London. And Jamaica. And Brazil. And Ibiza.

Remedy got accolades-a-plenty, but with such praise comes pressure. Or more specifically, the difficult second album. Or was it?

"Actually, we felt more pressure with the last album, really," reveals Simon. "That was our first album, so we felt more pressured to conform to what was expected – we were more worried about it. But with Rooty (or as Simon pronounces it, ‘Roo-tee’), it was different, we took it where we wanted to go."

"It was easier because we didn’t work as late in the studio. You know, we stayed there until around 7 or 8pm instead of say, 5 or 6am on the last one. We still had a life, got to go to the pub and meet our mates, got off earlier, no … slog.

"And we we more confident about this one. On Remedy we were listening to a lot of people like Busta Rhymes or Timbaland, and we were trying to do something like that ourselves, but this was more about creating new music ourselves. We had no plan really. This is more our own sound."

So what does the new album, Rooty actually sound like? Hard to say. If it was a Chinese meal, it’d be Everything Schezuan. Ingredients? Funk, punk, electro, disco, UK garage (and I’m sure I heard some country) in a big melting pot marked ‘house’ with an added dash of pop. And then some.

So, given the slightly diverse nature of Rooty, will they lose much sleep if they miss out on the Ibiza hit this year?

"I’ll be able to sleep fine!" laughs Somon. "Y’know, I’ll be glad when the album’s finally out, because then we’ll know whether it’s a success or not. I hope it is. We’ve had a club, called Rooty – (a monthly ‘secret’ club night in one of their locals in Brixton for 200 or so of their mates) – running while we were making the album, and we used that to keep us in touch with what was happening.

"We’ve tested tracks in the club and some have become anthems and some have had to be re-thought. We’re just trying to make the link between us and our audience, the dancefloor."

So when hotpress offers the deliberate firestarter prompt in the shape of: "There’s no really traditional Jaxx club stompers on this album", Simon immediately counters.

"But what’s a traditional Basement Jaxx tune? With all the earlier stuff we’ve done, the first few EPs, there’s always been a house track, an ambient track a jazz track, you know. OK, you still have ‘Get Me Off’ and ‘Where’s Your Head At?’ but then there’s different ones like ‘Romeo’."

Aaaah, ‘Romeo’. The first single off the album. A fresher slice of unashamed pop-meets-two-step-meets-Kele LeRoc you won’t hear all year. And given that that’s what it sounds like, how would he feel if hotpress described it as ‘pop music’?

"Well, I don’t mind because that’s what it is, really," he offers. "There’s nothing wrong with that. I mean, Bob Marley is pop, Lauren Hill is pop, so we’re not worried about that. Pop records get played on the radio so some of them must be good. We don’t compromise with what we do, and this just has a different character. I suppose it’s different for us in the sense that it has a bridge, a chorus, a verse and a melody. It’s a progression for us as songwriters."

And it’s this ambition to aspire to something more than a couple of dancefloor ditties that sets Basement Jaxx apart from their house contemporaries. But there’s always been this thing about them that they’re just about as far removed from the Clubbing/Mixmag/Media old boys’ network as two jobbing London knob-twiddlers/DJs can be. Do do they prefer being wrapped up around the 909 with a nice mug of tea to larging it with whoever’s large this week?

"Yes, I think so. You see, when we came out in ’94/95 we got lumped in with all the ‘nu-house’ stuff that was being bandied about at the time, and we didn’t understand that or feel part of it because we were always doing something different. We just didn’t fit into that category. So we’ve always been outside the scene. Because, in the end most scenes just fall apart."

"It’s like in the States," he says, warming to the theme. "Most US DJs – but not all - are businessmen at heart, but we say: ‘We respect what you do’ and leave it at that. The same in the UK, with whole ‘scene’ thing, we just steer well clear of that. And I think that’s a good thing."

Er, ain’t that a little at odds with the whole Mongoloid (a much hyped ‘house music alliance’ between the Jaxx and several overweight but talented US DJs/producers and a few others) concept?

"Well, yeah. The Mongoloids was a good idea, to sort of create a house music Wu-Tang. We pledged allegiance to one and other and promised to help on another out, but in the end nothing really happened. It was like: ‘Well done, you’re now a Mongoloid’, … that’s great, what do we do? Nothing. On the Wu-Tang thing, house music isn’t the same as hip-hop. We couldn’t all exactly take one knob each! Can you imaging us, DJ Sneak, Roger S and Armand Van Helden in one studio?!"

In truth, the idea of the Jaxx in Da Mongoloids (boyeee!) always seemed a little bit odd. From their alleged ‘nu-house’ beginnings, they’ve nearly always done things for themselves. Take the consistently excellent Atlantic Jaxx label – where their early material surfaced – or the party rocking bootlegs of Inner City’s ‘Good Life’ and, even better, Eminem and the Jam.

"We have those things there in case we feel like doing something different," we’re informed. "If we want to release a latin-jazz-fusion record, we can do it on Atlantic Jaxx, or if we want to put out an r’n’b record like Gynn Jay Allen or even a rock record (he says this like it’s the strangest concept in the world), we can do it. It allows us to do something different, to give new people a chance."

Going back to the ‘far removed from the maddening scene thing’, there’s always been a family element to the house that Jaxx built.

Simon concurs: "On this album, we’ve used a few more singers and vocalists, and we hope we’ll be able to give them a break – just like Slarta John (vocalist on ‘Jump and Shout’ from Remedy and now general shouty rapper about town). Some of the people on Rooty – some our friends - have never even sung before. But for us it’s more about an attitude, it’s got something to it, something different."

A bit like Basement Jaxx, really.

Rooty is available now on XL Records