Basement Jaxx occupies a special place in the dance music universe. An innovator, they have a tendency to eschew trends that are simply in the air. Instead the Jaxx style is something they find deep in their own DNA– it doesn’t get whipped around by whatever sorts of beats the audio zeitgeist seems to be summoning. (Though they seem to absorb it all through osmosis.) As a result, the confident duo–Simon Radcliffe and Felix Button–makes music that seems far more influenced by their natures than by nurture. There’s a Jaxx sound and it’s singular like a fingerprint.
Now comes Junto, a new album that Radcliffe told Rolling Stone was conceived to be “something reenergized, something lighter, brighter, might hopeful.” It’s already inspired a remix by EDM royalty Tiesto and MOTi of Never Say Never, the first official single off the album.
