Music Album
Publisher: XL Recordings Ltd.
Review by: Werdna Elbee
There are few dance acts in the world who are pure class. The likes of Fatboy Slim and The Chemical Brothers just add subtle little things that make every track perfect, unlike 99% of the other crap dance acts that just throw together some loops and samples and hope the clubbers are too high to notice. So in which percentage does Bassment Jaxx go into?
As soon as you start listening to their latest album, Rooty, you can tell it's well polished. They've obviously taken a lot of time to make sure that every track is as perfect as it can be. The majority of the songs are catchy, well wrote and surprisingly for dance music...original!
The next thing you notice is the fantastic rhythm. Most dance songs have the same drum beat running though it, but Bassment Jaxx seem to be confident to mess around with the drums and the bass as long as the rhythm is there. Even when the beat is broken off, just to kick in again moments later...it keeps with the rhythm. This may not be a big deal to rockers as it is the drummers job to do that, but in dance music they don't usually bother.
Then you begin to discover that the tracks on this album are proper songs. No loops and samples here. They are proper songs produced as dance music, with fast bits, slow bits, verses and choruses. A lot of time has been put into preparing the songs, recording the singers, finding and making the right samples, just as all songs should be. You may be surprised to find that most dance songs are made by accident when the DJs are messing around with their stuff, so finding a well made and produced dance song is a revelation... never mind finding a whole album.
So yeah, I like this album. This is one problem however.
Rooty is nowhere near as good as Bassment Jaxx's last album "Remedy". Remedy is a classic album that should be in every music fans collection. It had a much more natural and organic feel to it, and the songs took inspiration from all over the world, particularly of a Latin flavour. In my opinion it is the perfect dance album.
Rooty was always going to struggle compared to it's older brother. How can you beat perfection? By the looks of it, they attempted to take a different approach. Rooty has a much more electronic feel, with voices warped, synthesisers playing and even electronic drums beats. While it still sounds like a Bassment Jaxx album fans will be surprised, and probably a little disappointed, by this new direction.
I still recommend this album to everyone. It's well made, and has some brilliant songs on like "Romeo", "Where's Your Head At" and "Do Your Thing" (the last one is probably the closest thing you'll get to a "Remedy" style track). Just don't expect another "perfect" dance album.