Basement Jaxx
Rooty
(Astralwerks)
By: Glennie Rabin - ModernRock.com
The Basement Jaxx have gone lusty and lush with their latest menage à traxx, Rooty. The new CD-- named after a club night the two put on in Brixton-- is the follow-up to last year's Remedy, and once again, the Jaxx have mixed up just what the doctor ordered.
Diva vocalizing carries the disc through 13 funky, punky dance tracks. Kele Le Roc is a fierce Juliet singing out to her "Romeo" on the first-- and strongest-- track. "SFM" purrs with a loungy attitude about a "Sexy Feline Machine." And the whole album is just that. Sexy.
In Rooty, Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe have put out a group of tunes that would fit right in at a futuristic, Hugh Hefner, cyber-mansion. Especially the over-the-top "Get Me Off" with its demanding, carnal coo “Don’t want to be coy / It’s time to get me off.” And then there's the standout track "Where's Your Head At," which takes you out of the disco beat porn flick for a second for a raucous dancehall anthem—also featured on the Tomb Raider soundtrack.
With evocative vocals, tweaked beats and rich soundscapes, the Jaxx are definitely back in full effect with this offering of punk, garage house. The English duo’s studio resourcefulness and inventiveness shine through on their sophomore effort, reaching deep into their roots to create Rooty. There may not be a track on the new disc as strong as "Red Alert" from their breakthrough debut CD, but the album will definitely bump you up and keep you shuffling your feet. Like “Do Your Thing,” “I don’t need no TV / I don’t need no news / All I need is a bumpin’ beat to bump away my blues.”
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