Basement Jaxx - Kish Kash (Astralwerks/XL)- By Joe O'Brien

"Soul, Punx, Unite" reads the new -millennium coat of arms on the cover, but not simply in a Bellrays kind of way- though Bellrays lead singer Lisa Kekaula commands a good deal of spotlight on the fierce opener "Good Luck," and props to the Jaxx for giving her a mega-super disco to showcase that voice instead of the usual dingy garage.

Sure enough, there's plenty of soul ("Supersonic" features Totlyn Jackson and a delicious gospel holler) and a little punk ("Cish Cash" rules ass with help from Siouxsie Sioux; "Living Room" is essentially a Doolittle outtake with a drum machine and two minutes of fuse rather than fuse-detonation-repeat).

But of course it's techno that unites the mish mash of Kish Kash and makes Eminem look like a jackass. A certain 36 year-old bald-headed effeminate techno man may be on cruise control for the moment, but people will listen (and dance) to the stuff if it's done as craftily as Basement Jaxx so frequently do it on their new record. Not all the moments work; I skip "Plug it In" not so much because it features JC Chasez, but because the "Plug it In! Plug it In, Baby!" refrain sounds scarily like a remix of the plug-in air freshener jingle. There's a lot more to love, however, even if some folks complain that it's not exactly on the razor's edge of dance music. "Lucky Star" sets Dizzee Rascal loose in a bling-yang mash-up of east and west, no doubt done before (Panjabi MC, Jay-Z, Timbaland to drop a few), but never this relentlessly; it's phenomenal. "Tonight" uses that exotic acoustic guitar that Timberlake and The Neptunes love so much, but adds, among 24 other cool sounds, Phoebe's coolly reverbed noir-dame vocals; sexy, sexy. And "If I Ever Recover" feels a lot like "Porcelain," but manages to be both warmer and chiller; it'll probably be the soundtrack to even more commercials.

Wait a second, what was that album title again? Could it be all of these songs are premeditated follow-ups to the Pringle jingle success of "Where's Your Head At?" Shit, "Plug it In! Plug it In, Baby!" won't leave my brain whether I like it or not, and now I'm thinking of replacing my incense with goddamn electric potpourri. In fact, the more I listen, the more slobber I see dripping on Madison Avenue suits, and maybe that's the point of Kish Kash. Well, if they're going to follow in Moby's footsteps anyway, bringing exhilarating, honest-to-Jesus soul to techno-pop then promoting it through corporate TV advertising, I hope they at least give the extra royalties to charity. That would be the soulful, "punk" thing to do.

Discography

Remedy (Astralwerks, 1999)
$14.99 @ Amazon.com

Rooty (Astralwerks, 2001)
$14.99 @ Amazon.com