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Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe met over an obscure Masters At Work
record in Brixton, south London in 1994. Choosing the name Basement
Jaxx (Simon had a studio in a basement and the music jacked), their initial
ambitions were humble: to put on great parties and produce records
which emulated their heroes on the US house scene.
Over the course of several EPs on their Atlantic Jaxx label, however, a
more idiosyncratic, homegrown sound emerged in the edge-of-panic
squeal of Fly Life and the bassbin psychosis of Set Yo’ Body Free. Their
1997 Atlantic Jaxx compilation was informed by soul, jazz, reggae, house
and samba but also the more raucous British traditions of punk and rave.
In Armand Van Helden’s charming assessment, they took house music and
"fucked it up the ass".
Signing to XL, they released their debut album, Remedy, in 1999. An
instant classic, it spun ragga, disco and R&B into anarchic new mutations
and yielded the hit singles Red Alert, Rendez-Vu, Jump And Shout and
Bingo Bango.
After touring the world Basement Jaxx hosted an intense, intimate club in
a Brixton pub and called it Rooty. That became the title of their second
album in 2001. Fiercer and rowdier than its predecessor, it featured
Romeo, Jus 1 Kiss, Get Me Off and, most startling of all, the Gary Numansampling punk garage blitzkrieg Where’s Your Head At. The Tractordirected video, which computer-grafted Felix and Simon’s faces onto
rioting monkeys was the stuff of particularly entertaining nightmares, not
to mention an MTV statuette to add to their Brit (Best Dance Act 2002)
and half a dozen Muzik awards (including best group three years in a
row).

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