Basement Jaxx blast another compass point

The third of a quartet of compass pointing London shows finds Basement Jaxx in the west of town, Hammersmith. [After visiting North and South, East is tonight, at the Ocean, to end the tour but the duo will be back in their adopted ‘hood of Brixton, as well as Manchester, for a few March airings.] And the reports from the first two dates ain’t hype - it is an extravaganza, the celebration of sensual fulfilment without undressing!

There are beats, melodies, funk, punk, rap, cybernetics, organic gear, an array of singers, visuals - the whole damn container to elevate this pass the event level and into a spectacle zone! It takes but a few bars for the audience to get into the whole groove, it was a partytime before you could spell it backwards!

It doesn't let up for solid 90 minutes and when Felix Buxton steps to the mike for ‘Where’s Your Head At?’, it feels like an emo-quake, a surge of energy, the all-round adrenaline-rush and the entire venue is jumping up! No single soul coan stand still although we all are well covered in body fluids of the general bonhomie and satisfaction.

Of course the majority of material comes from the band’s current ‘Kish Kash’ album, from the opening ‘Good Luck’ to the Siouxsie Sioux sung ‘Cish Cash’ (on the disc). The iconic punk-Gothess/babe-in-black was supposed to appear with the band, as she told us, and these four dates around London were an ideal opportunity… [But then, other CD guests - Dizzee Rascal, Me’shell Ndegeocello and N*Sync’s JS Chasez - were also absent.]

Lisa Kekaula, the striking singer with cult Californian outfit The Bellrays, is present to pump it to the limit, push the atmo to the maximum. The other vocalists, changing over with such an ease one hardly noticed, were simply sizzling. When the band performed ‘Delirious’ - i.e. ‘Right Here’s The Spot’, it was like being back in the Prince’s vintage days of ‘Purple Rain’ period. We loved the li’l ‘Purple One’ in the days when he cut the monstrous pop songs you couldn’t resist to dance to! BJ’s have taken his recipe with relish to redefine it as a techno-funkdom.

‘Supersonic’ raises the bodymeter as well… Buxton and his colleague Simon Ratcliffe stood behind their banks of keys for the first part of the show but moved forward, toward the end, to mic and guitar, respectfully. Chords, projections, action - it simply rocked the joint!

That old chestnut whether decknicians [i.e. studio cats] could really cut it on stage is years passé. BJ and Massive Attack, to name but two, play more exciting gigs than Marilyn Manson, for instance, or the too-cool-to-move The Strokes.

Basement Jaxx are the real FCUK - F**kin’ Calibre UK!
*

Tour dates:

13 December 2003 - Ocean, Hackney
13 March 2004 - Carling Apollo, Manchester
19 March 2004 - Brixton Academy, London