Basement Jaxx

With their freewheeling, genre-flipping approach to house music, British duo Basement Jaxx became one of the biggest names in electronic music in the late ’90s and early 2000s. • Simon Ratcliffe and Felix Buxton started Basement Jaxx as a club night in Brixton, South London, in 1994. Ratcliffe had previously recorded under the names Tic Tac Toe and Helicopter, while Buxton had worked as a house DJ throughout London. • After a series of EPs, the duo released their debut album, Remedy, in 1999. It went platinum in the UK and yielded two Top 5 singles: “Red Alert” and “Rendez-Vu”. In the US, both of those singles, as well as “Bingo Bango”, topped Billboard’s Dance Club Songs chart. • French dance demigods Daft Punk invited Basement Jaxx to be their opening act for their first UK shows. • Their 2001 sophomore album, Rooty, spawned two more Top 10 UK hits: “Romeo” and the rowdy “Where’s Your Head At”, which samples a pair of songs by UK New Wave hero Gary Numan. Both went Top 5 on Billboard’s Dance Club Songs in the US. • Featuring everyone from goth icon Siouxsie Sioux to grime pioneer Dizzee Rascal, the duo’s third album, 2003’s Kish Kash, reached a career-best No. 2 on Billboard’s Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart. The LP earned Basement Jaxx a Grammy for Best Electronic/Dance Album. • The twosome won Best Dance Act at the BRIT Awards in 2002 and 2004. • Their 2005 greatest-hits album, The Singles, arrived with two new songs—one of which, “Oh My Gosh”, reached No. 8 in the UK, giving Basement Jaxx their fifth Top 10 single. • As befits their naturally cinematic sound, Basement Jaxx have scored two films: Attack the Block and a documentary on hula hooping called The Hooping Life.