Kish Kash | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 20 October 2003 | |||
Recorded | March 2002 – August 2003 | |||
Studio | Jaxx (Loughborough Junction, London, England) | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 50:45 | |||
Label | ||||
Producer |
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Basement Jaxx chronology | ||||
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Singles from Kish Kash | ||||
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Kish Kash is the third studio album by English electronic music duo Basement Jaxx, released on 20 October 2003 by XL Recordings and Astralwerks. After a lengthy tour which caused them exhaustion and homesickness, they settled in their new studio and wanted to develop a fresh new approach, less reliant on grooves and samples and more focused on songwriting.
It reached number 17 on the UK Albums Chart. [1] The album was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2004. [2] It later won the first Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album in 2005. [3] Three singles were released from the album: "Lucky Star", "Good Luck" and "Plug It In".
Returning from their 2001 world tour to promote Rooty with exhaustion and homesickness, Felix and Simon settled into their new Brixton studio. On 23 September 2002, they released second extended play Junction, which included four new songs and was named after Loughborough Junction, the place of the duo's original parties. [4] They also remixed Missy Elliott, DJ Sneak and Justin Timberlake while still deciding where to go next. [5]
The recording process took place between March 2002 and August 2003. [6] According to Buxton, the duo undertook the recording of Kish Kash in "a sober state of mind". [7] While making the album, they both stayed away from clubs, preferring to ignore the latest fads in dance culture, wanting to develop a fresh approach, less reliant on grooves and samples and more focused on songwriting, often starting with just a voice and guitar. [6] [7] "We kind of went back to school," says Buxton. "We got this new studio and had to learn how to use it." Adds Ratcliffe: "There was a greater sense that we didn't know what we were doing but it was more enjoyable than before." [6]
Buxton also revealed that they were going to name the album Rhapsody, but his father thought it was "too square" and commented: "It would be okay if [the album] was a rap record about sodomy, but it’s not." [8] Someone else then said the title was "like a box of chocolates or a Gareth Gates album", so they changed it to Kish Kash before the artwork went to print. [9] The new name was a phrase for money used by one of their friends. [9]
The album was also their last recording with record label Astralwerks, as they announced backstage of the 47th Annual Grammy Awards. [10]
The album opens with "Good Luck", with vocals contributed by Lisa Kekaula, a member of the American rock and roll group The Bellrays. The duo decided to collaborate with The London Session Orchestra on the song. Ratcliffe said, "I wanted to make a beautiful song. But I was having a lot of trouble figuring out how to express it." Their manager then suggested that they use an orchestra. "16 people participated in the recording. It was pretty spectacular. They're making real music!" [11]
"Benjilude" features vocals from Joe Benjamin, a 70-year-old Bermudan man "that walks around Brixton with a Stetson hat, a large stick and a kind of poncho." Buxton befriended him when the man used to live there, then he invited him to studio. "We like interludes; used sparingly and wisely, they help to blend things," said Ratcliffe. [12] [13]
Meshell Ndegeocello was touring in the UK when she worked with the duo for "Right Here's the Spot" and "Feels Like Home". But on the second day, she felt ill and they had to make her a bed in the vocal booth. [6] She told Windy City Times about her experience working with the duo: "It was good. I had a great time and I enjoyed it very much. It was nice to work with different people. I always enjoy the experience of making music with people". On the making of "Right Here's the Spot", she stated: "I go out (to night clubs) myself and I love that particular genre of music. It was fun." [14] In a 2015 interview with Songwriting Magazine, she recalled the sessions with the duo, stating that they "definitely taught [her] about sonics and sound, and also just the method of singing a lot and letting someone sift through it all and find the phrases which they like. [...] I think that's an amazing way to make songs." [15]
The collaboration between the duo and Phoebe Killdeer came as a suggestion from their record label, as Astralwerks also wanted Killdeer to study the two, despite the fact that she was a singer then herself. Killdeer recorded her part in three hours on an afternoon for the track "Tonight". She shared: "[It was] fun to work with them. We complemented each other well." [16]
The album's second track, "Right Here's the Spot", is a collaboration with Meshell Ndegeocello. Michaelangelo Matos from The Village Voice , called it "Ndegeocello's Prince-tribute collaboration with Basement Jaxx." [17] "Cish Cash", featuring the voice of Siouxsie Sioux, is a punk-influenced track. [7] The album's concluding track, "Feels Like Home", was claimed by Excalim.ca's Martin Turenne as "the gloomiest track in Jaxx history" with "a beatless dirge in which grinding electronics buzz" under Meshell Ndegeocello's "mournful" singing. [7] Ernest Hardy from LA Weekly called the song a "dreamy, atmospheric closing number". [18]
The lyrical theme of "Supersonic" is "outer space". [19]
"We wanted get back to the basics of what music was about and why it was important to us. If we had started this album with a carnival-esque house track, that wouldn't have felt fresh for us. We were interested in creating that genre, but not necessarily continuing on with it."
— Buxton on the new musical concept of Kish Kash with Exclaim.ca [7]
Basement Jaxx had previously been inspired by their peers in the dance music scene, but by the time of recording Kish Kash this had changed. "We were listening to what other people were doing and realizing it was all pretty stagnant and uninspiring," says Simon. "There was nothing to look up to in a way. We had to do something new." [6] Around this time, the duo listened to artists that had "a less direct influence" on the record including Radiohead, the Neptunes, Timbaland and System of a Down. [6]
Instead of being influenced by artists they had been in the past, like Prince and Todd Terry, the duo were more influenced by Brian Eno on their third album. [7] "If anything, the new album is more classic in feel, more song-based", Ratcliffe explains to Billboard . "It's more traditional in that respect. It's also a bit more intelligent, which is a very dangerous word to use." [20]
Mark Pytlik from Pitchfork summed up the album's musical genres: "Containing fused-together fragments of disco, electro, acid, bollywood, new wave, and whatever the hell the incredible 'Living Room' is, Kish Kash's gaudy world collage fell by the wayside next to the minimalist sounds of microhouse and grime." [21]
The first single released from the album was "Lucky Star" in November 2003. It reached number 23 in the UK charts. [1] The single marked Basement Jaxx's return after a two-year break. The single featured Mercury Music Prize-winning artist Dizzee Rascal and British Bhangra vocalist Mona Singh on the chorus. [22]
"Good Luck" was released in January 2004 and debuted at number 12 in the UK. [1] The lead vocals were sung by Lisa Kekaula, lead singer of US band The Bellrays. "Good Luck" was re-released in July, due to exposure on the BBC coverage of the Euro 2004 television campaign. It reached number 14 that time around. [1]
"Plug It In", the third and final single from the album, was released on 4 April 2004 and debuted at number 22. [1] It featured 'N Sync member JC Chasez (credited as 'J.C. Chasez').
A music video which didn't feature Siouxsie Sioux was also made for "Cish Cash", though it was not released as a single.
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 85/100 [23] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [24] |
Blender | [25] |
Entertainment Weekly | A− [26] |
The Guardian | [27] |
NME | 6/10 [28] |
Pitchfork | 9.1/10 [29] |
Q | [30] |
Rolling Stone | [31] |
Spin | B [32] |
Uncut | [33] |
Despite being very pleased with the album, the duo expected a critical backlash for its star turns and darker sound. [8] Review aggregator website Metacritic gave the album a score of 85 out of 100, signifying "universal acclaim". [23] "We thought we’d get a kicking", says Buxton, "but it’s gone down well." [8]
Scott Plagenhoef of Pitchfork gave Kish Kash a score of 9.1/10, calling the album "the most propulsive, ferocious music of the year as well as some of the most poignant." [29] David Browne of Entertainment Weekly called it "the richest and most fervent music the Jaxx have ever made". [26] John Davidson of PopMatters called it "their best sustained effort so far." [34] Andy Battaglia of The A.V. Club called it "an album that sets the bar for density and imagination almost unreasonably high." [35] Blender praised the album as "their most violently inventive album yet", [25] while Uncut described it as "a truly exhilarating 50 minutes of music." [33]
Stephen Dalton of NME , on the other hand, called Kish Kash "a naggingly problematic record" with "a void at its heart that no amount of cool celebrity mates can conceal." [28] Dave Simpson of The Guardian was critical of the album's "recurring sense of enforced jollity" and "lame attempts at introspection", but concluded that "anyone left standing on pop's dancefloor will certainly lap this up". [27] AllMusic's John Bush, whilst giving it a very positive review and calling it perhaps the best dance record of 2003, wrote that Kish Kash was "the least imaginative record Basement Jaxx have ever released." [24] Robert Christgau of The Village Voice was more reserved in his praise, giving the album a three-star honorable mention rating and remarking: "Is that blood the big-time vocalists smear on the tracks, or ichor?" [36]
Complex called the album their last "great project", seeing as their subsequent albums failed to make a mark with critics or the Grammy board. [37]
Ella Eyre said the album was the first she ever bought "because [she] kept stealing [her] mum's and [her mother] hid it from [her]." She also cited Basement Jaxx as one of her musical influences. [38] [39]
Kish Kash was included in several year-end lists, including Spin at number 38. [40] It was voted the eighth best album of 2003 in the Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of American critics nationwide, published by The Village Voice . [41]
Vice's electronic music website Trump ranked the album on their list of "99 Greatest Dance Albums of All Time" at number 36, calling it a "repulsive menu of flatulent electronic overload", [42] while at PopMatters , the album was listed on their "100 Best Albums of the 2000s" list at number 18. [43] Pitchfork ranked Kish Kash and Rooty at 66 and 65, respectively, in its list of the 100 top albums from 2000 to 2004. [21]
While predicting winners of the 47th Annual Grammy Awards' categories, Sal Cinquemani and Paul Henderson from Slant Six Magazine predicted the song's[ which? ] win, with Cinquemani jokingly said: "Do they really need to make room for Kish Kash? I would have thought it was a glock." [44] Their prediction came true as Basement Jaxx became the first ever to win this category. According to Billboard , their win was greeted with "universal applause." [45]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Good Luck" (featuring Lisa Kekaula) |
| 4:42 |
2. | "Right Here's the Spot" (featuring Meshell Ndegeocello) |
| 4:24 |
3. | "Benjilude" |
| 0:09 |
4. | "Lucky Star" (featuring Dizzee Rascal) |
| 4:31 |
5. | "Petrilude" |
| 0:10 |
6. | "Supersonic" (featuring Totlyn Jackson) |
| 5:23 |
7. | "Plug It In" (featuring JC Chasez) |
| 4:51 |
8. | "Cosmolude" |
| 0:54 |
9. | "If I Ever Recover" |
| 3:22 |
10. | "Cish Cash" (featuring Siouxsie Sioux) |
| 4:18 |
11. | "Tonight" (featuring Phoebe) |
| 4:02 |
12. | "Hot 'n Cold" |
| 4:00 |
13. | "Living Room" |
| 2:25 |
14. | "Feels Like Home" (featuring Meshell Ndegeocello) |
| 7:26 |
Total length: | 50:45 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
15. | "Acid Luv" (Twilite Mix) | 4:23 |
Basement Jaxx
Additional musicians
Technical personnel
| Additional vocalists
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Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
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Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
United Kingdom (BPI) [55] | Gold | 100,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
Basement Jaxx are an English electronic music duo consisting of Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe. The pair got their name from the regular club night they held in Brixton, London, UK. They first rose to popularity in the underground house scene of the mid-1990s, but would go on to find international chart success and win Best Dance Act at both the 2002 and 2004 BRIT Awards. Their most successful singles are "Red Alert", "Rendez-Vu", "Romeo", and "Where's Your Head At".
Meshell Ndegeocello is an American singer-songwriter, poet, and bassist. She has gone by the name Meshell Suhaila Bashir-Shakur which is used as a writing credit on some of her mid-career work. Her music incorporates a wide variety of influences, including funk, soul, jazz, hip hop, reggae and rock. She has received significant critical acclaim throughout her career, being nominated for eleven Grammy Awards, and winning two. She also has been credited for helping to "spark the neo-soul movement".
Rooty is the second studio album by English electronic music duo Basement Jaxx, released on 25 June 2001.
"Where's Your Head At" is a song by English electronic music duo Basement Jaxx. It was released as the third single from their second album, Rooty, on 19 November 2001. The song is based on samples from Gary Numan's songs "M.E." and "This Wreckage". The song peaked at number nine in Canada and the United Kingdom, number 16 in Australia, and number 39 on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, the band's only charting single on a non-dance music chart in the United States. The song ranked at number 83 on Pitchfork Media's list of the "Top 500 Tracks of the 2000s".
Crazy Itch Radio is the fourth studio album by English electronic music duo Basement Jaxx. The album features Linda Lewis and Swedish popstar Robyn among the guest vocalists.
Cookie: The Anthropological Mixtape is the fourth studio album by American soul singer and rapper Meshell Ndegeocello, released on June 4, 2002 by Maverick Records. Following the commercial underperformance of her third studio album, Bitter (1999), her label encouraged her to return to her earlier sound and record an album that sounded more "black". Ndegeocello collaborated with a number of prominent Black musicians, including Talib Kweli, Missy Elliott, and Tweet, as well as her backing band, the Conscientious Objectors, and recorded the album during the summer of 2001. The record, which Ndegeocello modeled on the mixtapes of her childhood, adopted a hip-hop and R&B-influenced sound and political lyrics similar to that of her debut album, Plantation Lullabies (1993), focusing on themes such as consumerism, revolution, religion, and same-sex attraction. Throughout the album, Ndegeocello also features samples of recorded speeches by Black activists, poets, and musicians, such as Angela Davis, Gil Scott-Heron, Countee Cullen, and Etheridge Knight.
"Red Alert" is a song by English electronic music duo Basement Jaxx. It was released on 19 April 1999 by record label XL as the first single from their debut album, Remedy (1999). The vocals from the track were provided by Blu James. It reached number five on the UK Singles Chart and became their first number-one hit on the US Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. As of September 2023, the single has sold and streamed 600,000 units in the United Kingdom, allowing it to receive a platinum certification from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).
"Lucky Star" is a song by British electronic music duo Basement Jaxx. It was released as a single from their third studio album, Kish Kash. The song features grime artist Dizzee Rascal and Mona Singh, the daughter of Channi Singh. It was released under XL Recordings, the same label Dizzee Rascal himself was on at the time of release. It was released as a 12" single and reached number 23 on the UK Singles Chart.
"Good Luck" is a song by British electronic music duo Basement Jaxx featuring vocals from Lisa Kekaula of American band the Bellrays. It was released on 5 January 2004 as the second single from their third studio album, Kish Kash, and reached number 12 on the UK Singles Chart, number two on the US Hot Dance Club Play, and number 22 on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart. The song was nominated in the Best Dance Recording category at the 47th Grammy Awards.
Scars is the fifth studio album by English electronic music duo Basement Jaxx. It was released in September 2009 by record labels XL, Ultra and Interscope. Three singles were released from the album: "Raindrops", "Feelings Gone" and "My Turn".
"Bingo Bango" is a song written and recorded by English electronic music duo Basement Jaxx for their debut album, Remedy (1999). The track, which contains a sample of Bolivar's "Merengue" and as a result, Jose Ibata and Rolando Ibata are credited as songwriters, combined dance music with various elements of Latin music. It was released by XL Recordings as the album's fourth single on 27 March 2000, and later became the duo's third No. 1 song on the Billboard Dance Club Play chart. The song also peaked at No. 6 in Iceland and No. 13 in the United Kingdom.
Zephyr is the sixth studio album by English electronic music duo Basement Jaxx, released on 7 December 2009 through XL Recordings internationally. A departure from their prior work, it was described as chill-out music. Zephyr was originally intended to be a double album with Scars, released in September 2009, but each was ultimately issued separately. The album missed most major music charts, but did appear at number 12 on the UK Dance Albums Chart.
"Plug It In" is a song by British electronic music duo Basement Jaxx featuring American singer JC Chasez, formerly of NSYNC. It was released on 29 March 2004 as the third single from their album third studio album, Kish Kash (2003), and debuted at its peak of number 22 in the United Kingdom the following month. The song also charted in Australia and Ireland, reaching numbers 43 and 45 respectively. There are various versions of the song, including a radio edit which was featured on the duo's first greatest-hits album, The Singles (2005).
"Get Me Off" is a song by British electronic music duo Basement Jaxx. The song was originally intended for Janet Jackson after she contacted the duo to collaborate for her seventh album, All for You. "Get Me Off" was released on 17 June 2002 as the fourth single from their second studio album, Rooty (2001). The song reached number 22 in the United Kingdom, number 43 in Australia, and number 47 in Ireland. It is their only single from 1996 to 2005 that wasn't included on their greatest hits album, The Singles (2005).
"Romeo" is a song by English electronic music duo Basement Jaxx, released as the first single from their second studio album, Rooty (2001). British R&B singer Kele Le Roc provides the track's lead vocals while Corryne Dwyer sings the background vocals. The song was released on 4 June 2001 as the first single from the studio album.
Basement Jaxx vs. Metropole Orkest is a collaborative album by English electronic music duo Basement Jaxx and Dutch orchestra Metropole Orkest. The album features of older Basement Jaxx tracks rearranged for an orchestra with participated vocals from Vula Malinga, Sharlene Hector, Brendan Reilly, Oli Savill and Lisa Kekaula.
Junto is the seventh studio album by English electronic music duo Basement Jaxx, released in August 2014 by record labels Atlantic Jaxx and PIAS. It is the duo's first full-length album since Zephyr in 2009, and was announced on 19 May 2014. The title is taken from the song "Power to the People". The album sees a departure from the dark tone of their previous album Zephyr.
"U Don't Know Me" is a song written and produced by English electronic music duo Basement Jaxx. The Bellrays' lead singer Lisa Kekaula, who has previously appeared on Basement Jaxx's 2004 single "Good Luck", also co-wrote and contributed the song's main vocal. "U Don't Know Me" was described as a rock song with "kiss-off" lyrics that were similar to "Good Luck". On 13 June 2005 XL released the track as the second single from their greatest hits album The Singles. Later editions of the compilation replaced the album version with the "JaxxHouz Radio edit" which was also featured in the song's video.
"Back 2 the Wild" is a song by English electronic music duo Basement Jaxx, released on April 12, 2013, via London-based independent label 37 Adventures. The song was written and produced by group members Simon Ratcliffe and Felix Buxton while Korean artists Baby Chay and Miss Emma Lee contributed the vocals. At the time of the release, "Back 2 the Wild" was intended to be the lead single of their then-upcoming seventh studio album entitled Music, but the idea was eventually scrapped. The group instead released Junto (2014), which deluxe edition features the song's Korean version and remixes.
Phoebe Killdeer is an Australian producer, songwriter and the lead singer of the groups Phoebe Killdeer & the Short Straws and Phoebe Killdeer & the Shift. She is best known for her song "The Fade Out Line", which became a major international hit in 2014 when a reworked version of it was released by the deep house producer The Avener retitled as "Fade Out Lines".