Kish Kash

''Kish Kash'' is the third studio album by English electronic music duo Basement Jaxx, released on 20 October 2003 by XL and Astralwerks. After a lengthy tour which caused them exhaustion and homesickness, they settled in their new studio and wanted to develop a new fresh approach with less reliant on grooves and samples and more focused on songwriting.

It reached number 17 on the UK Albums Chart. It later won the Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album the first time it was awarded in 2005. The album was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2004. Three singles were released from the album: " Lucky Star", "Good Luck" and "Plug It In".

Background and development

Returning from their 2001 world tour to promote ''Rooty'' with exhaustion and homesickness, Felix and Simon settled into their new Brixton studio. On 23 September 2002, they released second extended play ''Junction'', which included four new songs and was named after Loughborough Junction, the place of the duo's original parties. They also remixed Missy Elliott, DJ Sneak and Justin Timberlake while still deciding where to go next.

The recording process took place between March 2002 and August 2003. According to Buxton, the duo undertook the recording of ''Kish Kash'' in "a sober state of mind". While making the album, they both stayed away from clubs, preferring to ignore the latest fads in dance culture, wanting to develop a fresh approach, less reliant on grooves and samples and more focused on songwriting, often starting with just a voice and guitar. "We kind of went back to school," says Buxton. "We got this new studio and had to learn how to use it." Adds Ratcliffe: "There was a greater sense that we didn't know what we were doing but it was more enjoyable than before."

Buxton also revealed that they were going to name the album ''Rhapsody'', but his father thought it was "too square" and commented: "It would be okay if he albumwas a rap record about sodomy, but it’s not." Someone else then said the title was "like a box of chocolates or a Gareth Gates album", so they changed it to ''Kish Kash'' before the artwork went to print. The new name was a phrase for money used by one of their friends.

The album was also their last recording with record label Astralwerks, as they announced backstage of the 47th Annual Grammy Awards.

Content

The album opens with "Good Luck", with vocals contributed by Lisa Kekaula, a member from the American rock and roll group The Bellrays. Despite her musical style being different than the duo's. the duo decided to collaborate with The London Session Orchestra. "I've wanted to make a beautiful song. But I was suffering a lot on how to express it." At that time, their manager suggested them to use an orchestra. "The recording sessions were participated by 16 people. It was really spectacular. That is making real music!," he claimed.

"Benjilude" features vocals from Joe Benjamin, a 70-year-old Bermudan man that walks around Brixton with "a Stetson hat, a large stick and a kind of poncho." Buxton befriended him when the man used to live there, then he invited him to studio. "We like interludes; used sparingly and wisely, they help to blend things," said Ratcliffe.

Meshell Ndegeocello was touring in the UK when she worked with the duo for "Right Here's the Spot" and "Feels Like Home". But on the second day, she felt ill and they had to make her a bed in the vocal booth. She told ''PrideSource'' about her experience working with the duo: "It was good. I had a great time and I enjoyed it very much. It was nice to work with different people. I always enjoy the experience of making music with people". On the making of "Right Here's the Spot", she stated: "I go out (to night clubs) myself and I love that particular genre of music. It was fun." In 2015, she recalled the sessions with the duo, she stated that they "definitely taught erabout sonics and sound, and also just the method of singing a lot and letting someone sift through it all and find the phrases which they like."

The collaboration between the duo and Phoebe Killdeer came as a suggestion from their record label, as Astralwerks also wanted Killdeer to study the two, despite the fact that she was a singer then herself. Killdeer recorded her part in three hours on an afternoon for the track "Tonight". She shared: "t wasfun to work with them. We complemented each other well."

The album's second track, "Right Here's the Spot", is a collaboration with Meshell Ndegeocello. Michaelangelo Matos from ''The Village Voice'', called it "Ndegeocello's Prince-tribute collaboration with Basement Jaxx." "Cish Cash", featuring the voice of Siouxsie Sioux, is a punk-influenced track. The album's concluding track, "Feels Like Home", was claimed by '' Excalim.cas Martin Turenne as "the gloomiest track in Jaxx history" with "a beatless dirge in which grinding electronics buzz" under Meshell Ndegeocello's "mournful" singing. Ernest Hardy from '' LA Weekly'' called the song a "dreamy, atmospheric closing number".

The lyrical theme of "Supersonic" is "outer space".

Musical style

Basement Jaxx had previously been inspired by their peers in the dance music scene, but by the time of recording ''Kish Kash'' this had changed. "We were listening to what other people were doing and realizing it was all pretty stagnant and uninspiring," says Simon. "There was nothing to look up to in a way. We had to do something new." Around this time, the duo listened to artists that had "a less direct influence" on the record including Radiohead, the Neptunes, Timbaland and System of a Down.

Instead of being influenced by artists they had been in the past, like Prince and Todd Terry, the duo were more influenced by Brian Eno on their third album. "If anything, the new album is more classic in feel, more song-based", Ratcliffe explains to '' Billboard''. "It's more traditional in that respect. It's also a bit more intelligent, which is a very dangerous word to use."

Mark Pytlik from ''Pitchfork'' summed up the album's musical genres: "Containing fused-together fragments of disco, electro, acid, bollywood, new wave, and whatever the hell the incredible 'Living Room' is, ''Kish Kashs gaudy world collage fell by the wayside next to the minimalist sounds of microhouse and grime."

Singles

The first single released from the album was " Lucky Star" in November 2003. It reached number 23 in the UK charts. The single marked Basement Jaxx's return after a two-year break. The single featured Mercury Music Prize-winning artist Dizzee Rascal and British Bhangra vocalist Mona Singh on the chorus.

"Good Luck" was released in January 2004 and debuted at number 12 in the UK. The lead vocals were sung by Lisa Kekaula, lead singer of US band The Bellrays. "Good Luck" was re-released in July, due to exposure on the BBC
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