[ANNIVERSARY]
It’s 1999, sun is setting for the decade, Boy Bands and Teen Pop Stars are all the rage, the world might be heading for disaster due to something called “the millennium bug” and the worst of all dance music might be getting a little….GASP..stale!? Well at least that's how it was seen by Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe, aka Basement Jaxx.
Introduction
Enter Remedy! A rambunctious and kaleidoscopic display of genres, rhythms and sensibilities; Remedy was formed out of dissatisfaction with the state of dance music. What was something that was supposed to represent everyone from all walks of life coming together in unison, has now felt linear, close-minded, superficial, ultimately a shell of its former self. Basement Jaxx knew had to be done, even naming the album as an antidote to the poisons they saw in dance music.
"For me, Remedy was always about togetherness, which is the appeal of house music. You may be black; you may be white; you may be Jew; you may be gentile. It doesn’t matter in our house" - Felix Buxton
Songs/singles
Remedy was released with four singles. As with any artist, you have to make sure their first song makes the strongest impression, and boy did Basement Jaxx deliver!
Taking a page straight out of Parliament and Funkadelic, Red Alert is as much a jubilant ode to the wonderful world of funk as it is a natural evolution of the genre it's infatuated with. The vocals are provided by Blu James, who enthusiastically belts (and even screams) her lyrics with equal energy to the song. Its reprised verses are a subduer to the rather antsy pre-millennium tension that permeated the general public at that time, and perhaps a message that rings even truer today. A simple reminder that nothing is new under the sun. The track was a rousing success, peaking at number 5 on the UK Singles Chart and became the duo's first number 1 hit on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart.
Their second single (as well as the album's opening track), Rendez-Vu, opens with a thundering crash before a airy synthesizer descends like a ray of light, yanking you straight into the foreground with its shuffling house beats, Spanish guitars and fancy little vocoders. It’s everything you can ask for in a summer dance hit, served sizzling hot on a skillet. The charts seemed to agree as well; reaching number four on the UK Singles Chart and securing yet another number 1 hit on the US Dance Club Songs chart.
Their third single, Jump 'N Shout features ragga vocals by MC Slarta John amidst a gradually ascending beat before culminating in an explosive chorus. The song peaked at number 12 in the UK Singles Chart.
The fourth and final single, Bingo Bango, brought a little Nuyorican flavor to the mix. A Latin-infused romp with elements of Calypso, Samba on top on house beats, the song saw usage in a few films and TV shows like Queer as Folk (US Version), The Dancer (2000) and Get Over It (2001). Needless to say, the song was a success, adding a third number one hit to US Dance Club Songs chart and nicely wrapping up the album rollout with a bang(o).
Conclusion
Basement Jaxx achieved exactly what they set out to do, bring life to dance music once again; with Remedy, they exemplified just how epic and adventurous it can be. It was a breath of fresh air for clubs and still stands as one of the greatest dance albums of the 90s and of all time.
It helped solidify Basement Jaxx as one of the dance music elites alongside Fatboy Slim, The Prodigy, Underworld, Daft Punk, etc.. And when you have Thomas Bangalter (one half of Daft Punk) even consider your album to be better than theirs (Homework), you know you made it.
A major stepping stone in their journey to become the festival headliners they are now, Remedy is a celebration of dance music at its most exuberant, and its energy is still felt to this day.
Questions
What was your first experience like when listening to this album?
What are your favorite tracks?
Do you feel this album has made an impact in dance music? If so, in what way?
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Page received, u/nt96! This is such a fantastic writeup on a great debut album by one of my all time favourite artists. It’s my third-favourite Jaxx album after ‘Rooty’ and ‘Kish Kash’. Top tracks are ‘Rendez-Vu’, ‘You Can’t Stop Me’ and ‘Yo-yo’.
You absolutely nailed it when you mentioned that ‘Remedy’ was a breath of fresh air - I feel that towards the end of the millennium the poppy electronic music entered the post-Daft Punk wasteland where the French touch was becoming a bit too much, and I think it was Boris Dlugosch who said that (butchered quote incoming) by 1998 the scene had become “basically 1970s disco looped ad nauseam”. What the Jaxx did was so refreshing, they threw in everything into the mix, from funky and Latin house to UK and US garage and everything in between, all with a healthy dash of classic guitar-and-vocals songwriting, and their fellow electro-chameleons like Fatboy Slim and Groove Armada quickly started taking notes and infused their post-1999 albums with a much more eclectic and downright wacky mix of styles.
Here’s the weird thing about Basement Jaxx. They were absolutely huge about 20 ish years ago, came out with a bunch of really great dance-pop songs, and had a really unique and distinctive style of production. All their tracks are really busy, but have this sense of fun and playful energy to them. I’d consider Romeo to be amongst the best dance tracks of the 00’s and maybe even of all time.
And yet - what I find interesting is how I never hear them cited by modern artists as influence. Their cultural footprint is weirdly non-existent today, and that really surprises me. Maybe it’s that not enough time has passed, or their maximal style of production is at odds with today’s more stripped back styles, but it still fascinates me.
Paging u/vch01 👀
Scars will forever be a bop
Yeah Remedy is awesome. Basement Jaxx played a big role in me getting into music in the first place, and I’ve always found their music to be very eclectic and fresh. I can’t believe it’s been 10 years since their last album! I hope they release another one soon
Loved it a few years back, re-listening to it is just giving me a headache. Wayy too overproduced Rooty is much better imo
Basement Jaxx were an early foray into the Electronic side of my tastes as a teenager, only getting into them around 2004, so I was a bit late to this album. I do prefer Rooty and Kish Kash overall, but Remedy is a great introduction to their style. I prefer the singles the most, and I think the album tracks are a bit weaker than Remedy's follow up albums.