Spin (p.94) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "Still the savviest dance ac on the planet, the Jaxx are beat connoisseurs whose fetishes have grown increasingly exotic."
Entertainment Weekly (p.77) - "A parade of torch singers and grime slinger provide guest vocals that are almost as dramatic as the synthesized squeal around them." -- Grade: B+
Uncut (p.106) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[With] endlessly inventive ways of sounding upbeat....The record ends amid glowering Massive Attack strings and smoky recriminations."
Magnet (p.86) - "By reveling in a wealth of niches, RADIO reminds us that pop music is meant to be populist. This record is an itch, but it's also an embrace."
CMJ (p.5) - "[E]bullient dancefloor anthems that gracefully straddle pop and disco..."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.100) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] funny, funky and gloriously eccentric stew."
Basement Jaxx: Felix Buxton, Simon Ratcliffe.
Recording information: 2006.
If dance music's ethos is primarily one that favors a less-is-more approach, Basement Jaxx have willfully thumbed their noses at this convention since the mid 1990s. Favoring an often-dizzying mash-up of styles, CRAZY ITCH RADIO is a vivid, splashy, and occasionally disorderly ride through musical reference points as diverse as roller-boogie disco, hip-hop, and Latin freestyle. The album is thematically tied together by a narrative based on an imaginary radio station--and indeed the edit-happy, cut-and-paste aesthetic is not aurally dissimilar to a collage created by randomly dialing through pop and R&B stations. However, the songs hold up to repeated plays through the Jaxx's inventive production and soulful guest vocal contributions by Linda Lewis and Robyn.
