Basement Jax, Kish Kash
In the past few days, Arsenal defender Martin Keown has been in the newspapers, following his outburst in his team’s fixture against Manchester United. As his hilarious primate face was reproduced in infinite sports sections throughout the national press, one was reminded of the video for Basement Jaxx’s Gary Numan-inspired ‘Where’s Your Head At?’, featuring some terrifying, vaguely human monkeys. Perhaps coincidentally, or perhaps following an intentional publicity stunt involving spiking Keown’s half-time orange with mental drops, the band’s third album ‘Kish Kash’ is scheduled for imminent release. And rather good it is too.
This is an album which, in a world where each band seems to have a new genre invented for them by the music press, displays a refreshing lack of respect for any particular style. The most obvious summary one could make would be to point out two of the guest personnel – both Siouxsie Sioux and Dizzee Rascal offer their vocals on the record. There’s an underlying theme of dance music, but above that are countless other themes. There’s bursts of electro-punk, Spanish guitar, an Indian-influenced riff on forthcoming single ‘Lucky Star’, samples, broken rhythms, and tracks with more parts and ideas than you could find on an entire Oasis album. Put unscientifically, there are numerous ‘is this the next track starting?’ moments. Even to a hardened indie-rock fan, it’s clear that ‘Kish Kash’ is the result of a lot of work and a lot of attention, whether you enjoy the final sound or not.
It’s not that the album doesn’t have its faults. Some of the songs verge on the self-indulgent in length, and there is a general lack of really memorable melodies and hooks. It is, perhaps, more of an album in its own right than an album made up of potential singles. Given the current state of dance music, however – with acts often interested only in commercial success – this can only be praised.
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