Author: Basement Jaxx

Format: CD

Release Date: 12-09-2006

Details: Amazon.ca Smashed up in a jam-packed stew, Basement Jaxx's Crazy Itch Radio is an extravagant lesson in musical jollies. Rippling with R&B, kitchen-sink funk, and a litany of resourceful MCs, it's a concept record with a boy-meets-girl storyline that exists mostly as a prop for Simon Ratcliffe and Felix Burton's manic inventiveness. On Jaxx records like Rooty and even 2003's Kish Kash, house masterminds Masters at Work and Green Velvet were the most often-mentioned reference points, but Radio blows out the kind of easy genre-hopping more associated with Prince, along with a Parliament/Funkadelic-style theatricality. Despite how much is going on, the whole thing sounds impeccably smooth, even when Ratcliffe and Burton decide to toss a banjo into "Take Me Back to Your House," or flirt with ballads on "Lights Go Down" and "Keep Keep On." The record lacks a dance floor jam like their breakthrough "Rendez-Vu" or Rooty's "Where's Your Head At" (though "Everybody" comes close), and the finale "U R On My Mind" wanders aimlessly. But wild ingenuity and the desire to stretch are qualities that threaten to keep Basement Jaxx relevant well into the next decade. --Matthew Cooke Product Description The dust has barely settled from their recent The Singles retrospective but Basement Jaxx are back on the floor with a brand new studio album. Crazy Itch Radio, built around the concept of a radio station (complete with interludes and skits), begins with an absurdly dramatic intro before flowing into the contrastively slinky, feel-good single "Hush Boy", a slick, mellow mash-up of styles that wouldn't be out of place on the duo's kaleidoscopic debut Remedy. Indeed, Crazy Itch… unfolds with a fluidity and infectious joie-de-vivre not really seen since first album. The ease with which tracks like banjo-house anthem "Take Me Back To Your House" and "Hey You!" spill from the speakers in colourful floods of cinematic strings, Balkan folk references, house beats and rock guitars, pays testament to the duo's outstanding studio alchemy. Elsewhere on the album they make grime sound fun ("Run 4 Cover"), pay coruscating tribute to marijuana ("Bubbles") and drop the odd slow number ("Lights Go Down"). Immediate and vibrant, Crazy Itch... is Basement Jaxx at their sassy, life-affirming best. --Paul Sullivan

UPC: 634904020521

EAN: 0634904020521

Model: XLCD 205

Languages: English

Binding: Audio CD

Item Condition: UsedVeryGood