Thursday 10 December 2009

Basement Jaxx: just like raindrops, you feel so good upon my lips...

All of this highlights perhaps the most crucial difference between Daft Punk and Basement Jaxx: While Daft Punk have not budged from an image established in the late 1990s, have released only three studio albums over the past 13 years, and have been mostly coasting on the success of a record from 2001, Basement Jaxx have never been still for long, and seem entirely unafraid of failure. They are constantly striving and experimenting, and when you're brave enough to take artistic risks, you're bound to turn out a dud here and there. All of Basement Jaxx's missteps to date have been noble in ambition and easily forgiven when you take into account that the same impulses that produce an awkward misfit of a song like "She's No Good" also yield the glorious house psychedelia of "Raindrops". Basement Jaxx may not have a strong brand identity, but their eagerness to toy with their formula and broaden the emotional range of their material is truly inspiring, and sometimes that matters much more than being popular and influential. WATCH!

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