After the crazed delights of both "Remedy" and "Rooty", you'd think that BASEMENT JAXX mainmen Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe might want to take their collective feet off the accelerator for a while, but no: "Kish Kash" makes it a hat-trick, with more ideas spilling out of their ears than you could ever hope to take in over the course of several hundred listens.
And, while trying to make sense of all this is in a few meagre spins is nigh on a physical impossibility, as ever a number of brilliant tracks make their presence felt pretty much instantly. Opener "Good Luck" is a case in point: monumentally huge, with backwards masking, massive beats and a totally cinematic feel, plus the advantage of an ace vocal from The Bellrays' Lisa Kekaula and - whoo! - this woman's been done wrong big style here. "Good luck in your new bed, enjoy your nightmares" she coos like an indie Aretha Franklin spewing several strains of killer vitriol at once. Fan-fucking-tastic.
There's plenty more good gear, too. For instance, try "Lucky Star" on for size: featuring Dizzee Rascal, it transplants Mike Skinner to the Marrakesh souk, and while it's bladdy mad, my son, it's also so wonderfully irreverant you'll cave in anyway. Then there's the superficially smoother, but no less dramatic "Plug It In", featuring JC Chasez and a loose detonator of a chorus and the strange twosome of "Tonight" and "Living Room", both of which utilise frantically-strummed Spanish/ Moorish guitar figures. That's odd enough in itself, but the fact the latter finds Buxton desperate to "come back to my living room, let me take all your clothes off" in a voice reminiscent of Terry Hall is the true reality-suspender.
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It's the album's virtual title track, "Cish Cash" that really stands out, though. Much harder, rockier with nasty riffing, live drums and a great vocal from the High Priestess of Sass herself, Siouxsie Sioux ("You want it? You take it, you're insatiable!"), it's the one you'll find rattling around your skull hours later and is a totally satisfying collaboration on both sides.
Sadly, some of the other set-pieces fall on stonier ground. For example, the two tracks featuring MeShell Ndegeocello are a mixed blessing. "Feels Like Home" is a nice, wonked-out ballad to close the album, but "Right Here's The Spot" is too busy and cluttered by half and is very much style over substance; an accusation that could also be levelled at the falsetto outing "Supersonic", which soon reveals itself as a one-trick pony and a lame one at that. There again, "If I Ever Recover" fares little better. Despite a redemptive vocal from Buxton and the presence of the London Session Orchestra, it's far too wishy-washy for its' own good and suggests 'mellow' isn't really ver Jaxx's strong suit.
Nonetheless, "Kish Kash" is another frantically fine outing from this daring duo and one that you'll again find a sound financial investment. Providing you don't mind clearing away some blood and debris from your dancefloor after they've left, natch.
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