Basement Jaxx Biography
This respected, UK-based DJing and production duo comprises Felix Buxton (Ibstock, Leicestershire, England) and Simon Ratcliffe (b. England). Basement Jaxx's unique cocktail of influences (rap, funk, ragga, disco and garage, all given a deep house twist) has been described as "punk garage". It has found a devoted audience in their native London and beyond (especially in Japan, Canada, Australia and the USA) where their DJing skills have been in demand. Their Basement Jaxx club nights in London never fail to fill venues. Setting out to rediscover the original feeling of early Chicago house music, Buxton and Ratcliffe began by holding illegal parties in Brixton, south London in 1994. Starting in Ratcliffe's bedroom studio and issuing a number of EPs on their own Atlantic Jaxx label, they went on to release the club classic "Fly Life", an unusual blend of ragga and house, and the Ibiza anthem, "Samba Magic", besides various remixes, white labels and dub plates. In 1998, Basement Jaxx signed to the leading dance label XL Recordings (home of the Prodigy). Their first single for the label, "Red Alert", released in April 1999, received much praise and radio airplay in the UK and US and broke into the UK Top 5. The single's critical and commercial success was repeated by the follow-up, "Rendez-Vu", and the attendant Remedy. The duo's faces were rarely not on the cover of hip music and style magazines during 1999 and many pundits were naming them as the saviours of truly inventive dance music. Remedy featured in most music critics "best of" polls at the end of the year. Basement Jaxx's follow-up album, Rooty, titled after their underground parties in London, was released to even greater acclaim in summer 2001. The album spawned the UK club and chart hits "Romeo" (featuring Kele Le Roc), "Jus 1 Kiss" and the Gary Numan-sampling punk garage romp "Where's Your Head At". A third album, Kish Kash, represented something of a departure for the popular duo, and despite receiving mixed reviews was another commercial success. The 2005 compilation set featured a number of new tracks, including the single "Oh My Gosh".
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
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