Basement Jaxx, The Singles
I’m not too sure about ideologically how a “singles” album fits into the noskipsnoshuffles programme, but this album certainly propelled me towards Temple Meads station with extreme efficiency. Every week as part of my course I have to go to the Bath office, and I still don’t have a clear mental picture in my head of how long it takes me to walk to Temple Meads…music always helps me turbo my way there, and I seem to arrive a good twenty minutes early with plenty of time to sit on the platform and read. Last week I listened to the Hungarian (?)/Japanese song Chris, Hayley and I sang to karaoke in Tokyo last Christmas. This week it’s Basement Jaxx, and it begins with what I suppose is the radio version of Red Alert, there’s a huge difference in the mix between this and the one from the album.

Where did it all begin, the use of bonus re-mixes, or differing arrangements? I’ve probably said before how I was struck by the difference between three different versions of Hyperballad by Bjork, and how when I was a music student I’d wanted to make a different album of Revolver by the Beatles…I’m only sleeping as Dixie, Taxman as a barbershop quartet, And your bird can sing as Classical string quartet…I have always had a fascination with musical arrangements, and noting the difference the arrangement can make. The acoustic/chill-out version of Romeo was a revelation when I first remember hearing it, in Kirstie’s yellow bedroom in Edinburgh, pre-going out music. In my last year at Uni there was a sudden explosion of these “chill-out” albums, that track featured heavily and the trend continued into adult life. There was an amazing song called Daydream in Blue by a group called I-monster which routinely appeared on such things and then vanished.

Anyway, Basement Jaxx steer me to the station, past coloured houses, tall white churches and squares of green in Bristol. I walk past the Jamaican café, the way I used to walk to St Matthias when I worked with all the young badduns…the particular smell of Jamaican cooking still a novelty, I would always lift my head when I walked past the window of the café, and the chef would always wave and say “Good morning” – flick back to the Edinburgh I remember first hearing some of these later tracks (Bingobango, do your thing etc) and switch the scene to those tall grey buildings, all four floors of stern frowning and, crowds of people pushing and shuffling. Certainly no-one smiling. Certainly not me. I wonder where Basement Jaxx come from. OK, I did walk past a number of vagrants on my way, and not everyone was smiling, but the music speaks of a party coming. I notice how autobiographical this is becoming. Maybe there just isn’t that much to write about Basement Jaxx. Good music though.