SOMETIMES YOU JUST GOTTA LET THE RHYTHM TAKE CONTROL...

It was back in the Autumn of 1999 that I first came across Basement Jaxx, thanks to the single Red Alert being played in all the pubs and clubs I found myself traipsing into on the Costa Del Sol while on a golfing holiday with a crowd of mates.

Now I've never been someone who has dismissed dance music as 'not for me', but to be honest I don't have that much of the genre in the collection. But Red Alert had become such an integral part of the week that I set out to track it down on my return to Glasgow.

In the end, I bought the LP Remedy and found that there was an awful lot to like about the dance act Indeed, not long after they played a show at Glasgow Barrowlands and I dragged Mrs Villain along and we had a right good time despite being among the oldest folk in the venue, and that more than anything else convinced me that Felix and Simon were well worth keeping an eye on.

Since then, we've gone along to see them on three more occasions and never been disappointed, although it's fair to say that the shows at the Barowland outshone those at the Academy, mainly due to the sound at the latter venue often being problematic. They're an act that always get me off my seat and onto the dance floor - as can be testified by Sunday Correspondent John Greer who somewhere has video footage of myself and Mrs Villain dancing to Red Alert at his 40th Birthday party a number of years ago....the icing on the cake being it was a fancy dress bash and we were there as Austin Powers and Felicity Shagwell.

But of all their songs that I've liked over the years, the second single lifted from the album Rooty, released in 2000, is the one I reckon is most timeless. It's a near perfect mix of pop and dance with a really infectious hook all the way through which was well deserving of its #6 placing in the UK singles charts:-

mp3 : Basement Jaxx - Romeo (radio edit)
mp3 : Basement Jaxx - Bongoloid
mp3 : Basement Jaxx - Camberwell Skies

Happy Listening.