Tales From The Dark Side: for some an atrocious little known supernatural thriller made for TV in the 1970s. For Basement Jaxx – the conceptual basis for their pumping nightmare follow-up to the camp if delicious ‘Rooty’ release of 2001. The candy-coloured magic-house of that album, ultimately giving way to horra-house.
Darker, more urban but every bit as mischievous and furtive than either ‘Remedy’ or ‘Rooty’, ‘Kish Kash’ was always going to be a bit of a mixed-bag, tune-wise. Caught midway between the incendiary blasts of punk, the slapping bombast of northern-soul and the frolicking peculiarities of funk, ‘Rooty’ had given shape to an emerging Jaxx aesthetic: mash it up, push it around, pull it in every direction and stick it back together with plastic explosives and bubblegum. ‘Kish Kash’ simply plugs this amorphous creature into the mains and gives it life.
Jumping out of the crypt like some monster-mashing cyborg, tracks like ‘Right Here’s The Spot’ featuring Meshell Adegeocello, and ‘Lucky Star’ featuring the award-winning Dizzee Rascal, strike like white-hot funky lightning; crunching bass, swirling and decadent key sequences, and some crazy, orgasmic vocals. It’s tense, it’s immediate and it positively drips in naughty fluids. The delirium continues with ‘Supersonic’ with the dirty, sleazy rasps of Totlyn Jackson whipping up the murky waters of the Mississippi delta blues, as if Moby had strayed onto the set of ‘Interview With A Vampire’ and started kicking out the jams. ‘Plug It In’ on the otherhand sees the Jaxx pursuing the same falsettos highs and funky innuendo of Prince and Beck’s ‘Midnite Vultures’ – it’s a little contrived – but it still packs one hell of a party.
Breaking up the carnival of the insane, however are a couple of smoothies; the ambient and reggae tinged ‘If I Ever Recover’, the lilting and Latin inspired ‘Tonight’ featuring Phoebe, and closing track ‘Feels Like Home’ – a song that literally melts into the early hours of the morning. Could well be the best thing on the album….but it’s not. The reason I say this is because that would be neglecting the three main pillars that hold this crypt party aloft: the booming soul address of ‘Good Luck’ featuring the mighty swelling lungs of the Bellrays’ Lisa Kekaula, the punky, electro Banshee shrill of ‘Cish Cash’ featuring Siouxsie Sioux (this album’s ‘Where’s Your Head At?’) and the ‘Rooty’ inspired ear candy that is ‘Hot ‘N Cold’ blowing away like old Smokey himself.
It’s an intense listen, I’ll say that, but it has the tunes if not the subtlety of Remedy and avoids the cheeky indulgence and saccharine excesses of Rooty.
What’s lurking down in the basement? Hammer-House, that’s what..