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Rating: Ratcliffe and Buxton are two superb circus bonhomme in their madness, all intent on subverting, on punkifying the cheesiest and handbaggiest house canons.
The electronic circus they present – ladies and gentlemen - in “Remedy” is, for the chemical generation, the house equivalent of that musical re-styling operation done with hip hop by the Chemical Brothers, with ragga by Jon Carter or the Freestylers, with techno by the Prodigy.
That is, they take an already codified musical genre, stuff it with straight and expansive substances, revitalize it in its most physical and sinewy aspect, beef it up with bizarre and anarchic samples, drug it in the bpm on Q-base, overdo it with the most kicking and musically incorrect bass lines available on the market.
Already the opening track Rendez-vu, at close inspection, flaunts an unbridled vitality very Pasolini-like, blue hooligan, the vocodered voices make it more of a pantalonnade Residents on Andalusian vacation, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas version. The “chemical” treatment is so evident in muscular and super energetic tracks like Yo-Yo and Jump’n’shout, as they are filled with clamors, squeaks, gurgles, whirlwinds, screeches and screams like they were whirling electronic pinwheels. Particularly in Jump and Shout, one notices the joyful and streetwise verve that devastates the raggage script the track stands on.
The enthusiasm and excitement these two tracks convey make us relive the mocking carnival-like atmosphere felt during their night at the Junction in Brixton, the violent south of London, where illegality reigned supreme.
Ah, the Junction… even the hyper-violent cops in a J. Ellroy kind of way would have gladly stayed away, not a shadow of regular taxi drivers in sight, the only sirens heard were those non-stop from the pirate-stations pumping merciless drum and bass and speed garage in the harsh London night; the only sensible choice was to reach the Junction, in that Brixton heart of darkness, with cautious mulatto-skinned drivers and hope not to run into a muy peligra metro gang of Creole Bubbas.
Once the entrance to the Junction was gained, the disco-pub stood out for its desolate and malheureuse suburban aesthetics. Here, Basement Jaxx performed the miracle of giving house back its original transgressive force and its primitive purity, as was done in the good old days at the Warehouse in Chicago.
Yes, at the Brixton Junction, house became frightening again. The squeaks and bleeps whirled saturatingly in the air, the 808s strafed, the 303 basslines screamed madly, phonetic distortions pirouetted in the dome's spirals… the mind flew not to Cocoricò but to the blues-boat parties of Aphex Twin and the sound drifts of Rephlex, the most irreducible and eccentric of English techno-labels.
At the Junction, Basement Jaxx were the conductors of a gang of irregular circenses, dissolute devoted to the creed of the telluric explosions of London beats and the tectonic erosions of the sound layers, who continuously tried to escape their bodies in a spiritual vision of music lived as gay science, to enliven the dreariness of their daily life.
Basement Jaxx's house is indeed a caress but of sandpaper. Even in the hit U can’t stop me, resident voices, bruised and distorted basses, bewildered breakbeats do not caress the seductive soul voice of Yvonne John Lewis; in Red Alert the vitaminic super-funk is too over the top to be consumed by the housewife from Voghera. Too energetic, too shattering, too lascivious to be a summer hit, Red Alert, stands out as a milestone of the naughtiest and most mocking chemical house.
Other single episodes stand out for the eruptions of rough and angular sounds as in the funk-hip hop of Same old show that seems to be performed by Public Image in alcoholic symbiosis with their camarades prophetiques Bollock Brothers. Another drunken techno-pagan party milonga is Bingo Bango where the crackling house-ska tempo proves functional to other boutiques big beat sets like those of Bentley Rhythm Ace or Fat Boy Slim (who is a fervent admirer of cellar jazz).
In fact, it was not unusual to see the lunette disks of the duo of disco-punks moonlighting in other dj-boxes like those of the adrenalinic gang Wall of Sound or Skint due to the desperate vitality that oozes in every groove of “Remedy”.
Contrarily, the ballad Stop 4 Love turns out to be melancholic and poignant during the masquerade, just to amaze the astonished audience with their electronic clownery with a dramatic number. “See – they seem to say – we can do this too” and down with violins, harmonicas and pianos in a full-blown melodious flutter, all velvet, lace and coquetries.
Then, not content, they reel off, with pyrotechnic games, a grand finale effect and hit with their best punch, the left one, dismantling everything with the booming final theme Don’t give up where the rascal synths slide and neigh, then fade leaving a soulful feminine voice to ripple, then remount more virulently and cancerously than before. A total devastation.
Then from nowhere, to not seem too bad, the closure of the circus carousel is entrusted to a soft-soul calembour, soft and sugary, sickly sweet.
The doubt quickly arises: geniuses or thrice over shrewd? Probably both.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Rendez-Vu (05:45)
Dum’Dum’Dum Dum’Dum’Dum’Dum’Dum’Dum Dum’Dum’Dum
Doo’up Doo’up Doo’up Doo’up Doo’up Doo’up
call my name,
I got you in my heart, I got you in my head
Your magic it surrounds me
I've got you in my heart, I got you in my head
Let's make a rendezvous
I've got you in my head
Let's make a rendezvous
Let's make a rendezvous
Let's make a rendezvous
I got you in my heart, I got you in my head
Your magic it surrounds me
I've got you in my heart, I got you in my head
Let's make a rendezvous
I've got you in my head
Let's make a rendezvous
Let's make a rendezvous
Let's make a rendezvous
I 've got you in my head.........
I got you in my heart and I got you in my head
I 've got you in my head
Let's make a rendezvous
Let's make a rendezvous
Let's make a rendezvous
I 've got you in my head.........
I got you in my heart and I got you in my head
02 Yo-Yo (04:29)
You were a prophet from above
Then you came and sucked my blood
My pain became my strength
I am reborn I'm
Def not dumb
Lest you forget
Yo Yo Yo Yo Yo Yo
03 Jump n' Shout (04:42)
Hey easy now, easy
Yeah yeah
Got ta Jump n' Shout
Got ta Jump n' Shout
Jump jump jump
yeah yeah
Hey easey now, easy
yeah yeah
Bwoy out a road fi wi name dem a call
Bout dem want fi dis Basement Jaxx after all
When we check it out dem a brain it small
Seven time rise seven time will fall
Dubplate pop out a mash up di dancehall
Crowd de pon di receiving end dema a bawl
Who dem a bawl for Basement name dam a call
True dem play sweet music fi one and all
Di people dem a beg di super DJ fi more
Because dem love di way wi play di hardcore
Dem a jump an shout like a goal jus score
Watch how dem bubblin pon di dancefloor
Di vides dem hot and di music wicked
Wi come fi nice up di life weh you life
Jump an shout an tell dem be positive
Live di life you love love di life you live
Some say dem a badman but dem a big fugitive
How dem fi pop off dem gun no want nobody fi live
If dem a badman then nobody should be dead
All know dem deh a dem yard with dem bible a beg
But some a fool never know di rule
Dem never did go to Basement Jaxx school
Be we's willing fi teach dem fi a shilling
Make sure he's not di next victim in a killing
Cos we have di knowledge we go a good college
A+ in a history and home economics
An wi love music that's why wi bust up di garage
If a guy want test wi him dead
Got ta Jump n' Shout
Got ta Jump n' Shout
Jump jump jump
yeah yeah
But some a fool never know di rule
Dem never did go to Basement Jaxx school
Be we's willing fi teach dem fi a shilling
Make sure he's not di next victim in a killing
Cos we have di knowledge we go a good college
A+ in a history and home economics
An wi love music that's why wi bust up di garage
If a guy want test wi him dead
Got ta Jump n' Shout
Got ta Jump n' Shout
Jump jump jump
yeah yeah
Got ta Jump n' Shout
Got ta Jump n' Shout
Jump jump jump
yeah yeah
Got ta Jump n' Shout
Got ta Jump n' Shout
Jump jump jump
yeah yeah
Got ta Jump n' Shout
Got ta Jump n' Shout
Jump jump jump
yeah yeah
05 Jaxxalude (00:35)
Ja-ba-ba-Ja-ba-ba
The rhythmn, the tracks,
The Basement Jaxx,
The rhythmn, the tracks,
The Basement Jaxx,
The rhythmn, the tracks,
The Basement Jaxx, (60's and it's crazy...)
The rhythmn, the tracks,
The Basement Jaxx...
06 Red Alert (04:17)
Red alert! Red alert!
It's a catastrophe
But don't worry.....Don't panic
Ain't nothin' goin' on but history, yeah
But it's alright, don't panic
And the music keeps on playin' on and on
And the music keeps on playin on and on (repeat)
On and on
On and on
And the music keeps on playing on and on ( repeat )
The way you shake, shake, shake, shake
The way you shake, shake, shake, shake
Baby
Yippie-yay-yay-yay-yo
Yippie-yay-yay-yay-yo
Yippie-yay-yay-yay-yo
Yippie-yay-yay-yay-yo
On and on
On and on
And the music keeps on playin' on and on ( repeat )
And the music keeps on playin on and on....
08 Always Be There (06:24)
Feed me hungry, feed me cold
When lines run deep and when I'm old
(Doo-wap Doo-ba-doo-wap oh yeh)
Will you be there for me?
Will you always be there?
Will you always be there?
Fear of loneliness on a lonely planet
Fear of having it all and then not to have it there
Feed me with affection every day
Will you always be there?
There for me?
(Will you always be there?
Will you always be there?)
Bathed in the celestial bloom of your embrace
Let's play with the stars
This is our universe
12 Gemilude (00:47)
For all it's worth,
I've been jackin' in the basement from birth,
Never really knew it,
Until I started walking to earth,
While feelings inside me,
Got me here rhyming,
Escape to my hotel room doing time there,
I'm thankful for that,
I'm in the studio with Basement Jaxx,
(Yeah, funky!)
Woah, woah, woah, woah,
Gemini? That's right,
Gemini...
Gemini?
Gemini...
Yeah...
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