Basement Jaxx: Doin' It Root Down

A little over a year ago, I filled this space with an impassioned defense of Beck's 1999 album Midnite Vultures. In this fine piece of pop music commentary, I lauded the album's funky squareness and its relentlessly decadent booty groove. Outside of the context of the site, I insisted that Midnite Vultures was destined to be looked back upon as a classic and a jumping off point for music in the next century. Looking back on that posting, I have only one thing to say: Boy am I tired of being right.

Exhibit A: Rooty, the latest album from the British dance duo Basement Jaxx. Rooty is infused with the same inventive synth-funk alchemy and sleezy rump grinding energy that made Midnite Vultures so fresh and fun. Hell, Rooty could even pass as the remixed outtakes from that disc. Not that it would need to. The album has its own libido firmly in place, with tracks like "Romeo," SFM (Sexy Feline Machine)," "I Want U," and "Get Me Off." Like Beck, BJ furiously mixes and matches disparate genres into airtight grooves that range from dirty to downright geeky, while a healthy house sensibility underlies the entire effort and provides the continuity. Whereas Beck brought Dirty Mind-era Prince into the 21st Century, Basement Jaxx brings him to all the way to the club. The anthem "Where's Your Head At," an instant dance floor classic, is even making its way into mainstream radio, aided by a disturbing yet eminently enjoyable video featuring a maniacal troupe of species-splicing monkeys ransacking a genetics laboratory.

The video is actually a fitting metaphor for the album. The most exciting and infectious aspect of Rooty is its seemingly voracious appetite for experimentation and the obvious glee with which it is carried out. Such alchemic joi de vivre has become increasingly scarce, not just in the rapidly expanding galaxy of male dance duos, but in the pop universe as a whole. So go pick up a copy and shake that ass this weekend.