Basement Jaxx - Lucky Star

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  • The Jaxx explode into summer with another dancefloor screamer. The tough, breaky bottomline of their new track adds a tough soundscape for Dizzee Rascal to bust out lyrically. His contribution seems to save the track a little but doesn’t work to well with the busy production behind his vocals. The Jaxx should really leave a bit more room for lyrics in their spectrum of sound. The highly Middle-Eastern influence is prominent in the strings and disjoint melody, and although helping define the record as different from the crowd, doesn’t entirely gel with the fat analog basslines so commonly found in the Jaxx’s tracks. However, when the female vocal is added the entire track comes together nicely. The Jaxx 5000 Dub adheres to the fashion of analog squelches being the new black in basslines. It pounds out under the boompty style kicks and winds up and down, certainly ready to possess a dancefloor. The usual cut-up, frantic vocal interjections of a Basement Jaxx track are still present but fail to add much depth to the track. “Round, round, round we go” is bellowed now and then but also adds little to the track. Unfortunately these are the only components of this track that make a prominent mark in the overall sound and therefore, really point out how much seems to be lacking. I can’t imagine this capturing the attention of a dancefloor, it seems this track really does rely heavily on the vocals. The Jaxx 4000 House Mix is by far the best mix on this 12”. It has pulled out some of the convoluted high-end in the original and kept the vocal with a “housier” beat beefing up the track. The middle-eastern melodies are moved in and out of the track to compliment the vocals and the entire track flows quite nicely. Other small electro melodies are interjected nicely completing the sound of this nicely polished version.
RA