It took several years for house producers to catch up with
Basement Jaxx. Alternately, as some might argue, several years passed before
Basement Jaxx decelerated enough for anyone sharing a vaguely similar stylistic slant to meet up with them. Even if 2003's Kish Kash wasn't bubbling over with new ideas and previously unfathomable contortions and combinations of old ideas, as Remedy and
Rooty had done before,
the Jaxx still did it better than anyone else, melting down 30 years of dance and pop, simultaneously casting fresh looks on both forms. They are to house what
Miles Davis is to jazz, what
Chuck Berry is to rock, what
Public Enemy is to rap. The Singles, a timely and nearly faultless stop-gap compilation, picks the A-sides from the three albums, adding earlier cuts "Samba Magic" and "Flylife," only two examples of why the debut LP was so heavily anticipated. Here's the only bad aspect: despite boldly displaying most of the duo's strengths, all of these A-sides just happen to be intended for clubs and high-speed driving, so the set doesn't show casual fans how adept
the Jaxx have been at mellow material, let alone the moments that disconnect completely from house constructs without any hiccups. Those who are fully aware of the duo's versatile brilliance and hang on their every beat might also do well to pick up the disc; the single edits offer some slight variations on the album versions, and the manner in which they are presented, typically stripped down to three-minutes-and-change, makes a durable argument for the duo as supreme pop songwriters. There's also a pair of new tracks. The rubbery "Oh My Gosh," easily the best of the two, is deliciously flirtatious and cartoonish, if more of a fitting
Jaxx-past-in-miniature parcel than an indication of what lies ahead. It's just as pleasurable as saying the name of the song's vocalist, Vula Malinga, out loud. ~ Andy Kellman