Basement Jaxx

House music tends to mythologize itself as an urban wonderland where anything can happen, but few artists make music that lives up to that fantasy the way Basement Jaxx's does. South Londoners Simon Ratcliffe and Felix Buxton, who began recording tracks together in the mid-'90s, reimagine Prince's Paisley Park as a bustling, shape-shifting grooveathon taking in dub, psychedelia, Vocoder chants, soca horns, Latin-jazz vibes, football-hooligan yell-alongs, and tuff-girl vocals, all set to a luscious, irresistible 4/4 beat.

You can hear Ratcliffe and Buxton's vision taking shape on the dozen early sides collected on Atlantic Jaxx Recordings: A Compilation. "Samba Magic" and "Belo Horizonti" (the latter credited to the Heartists) explore Latin music with an assurance shocking in a pair of pasty Englishmen, while the thuggish stomp of "Set Yo Body Free" and the euphoric synth stabs of "Fly Life" are definitive mid-'90s club anthems. It's Remedy, though, where the duo goes nova. From the Spanish guitar strum that hooks the synth-string disco of "Rendez-Vu" to the carnival-bound horn blasts of "Bingo Bango" to "Same Old Show"'s playful retooling of the Selecter's "On My Radio," the album displays more variety than most house DJs demonstrate in a six-hour set. The disc's masterpiece was "Red Alert," the best "1999" rewrite ever, complete with a bass hook every bit as irresistible as Prince's synth riff.

Improbably, Rooty was even better. Some club rats cried sellout because the Jaxx made the tunes short and structured them like actual songs instead of stretches of beat punctuated by occasional stuff on top. Everybody else danced their asses off. The irresistible "Romeo" plays follow-the-bouncing-hook, while "Get Me Off" and "S.F.M. (Sexy Feline Machine)" make electro bleeps signify like hot-'n'-heavy breathing. And "Where's Your Head At" turns a Gary Numan sample until it both jacks your body and bangs your head at once, escaping house's often narrow parameters by refusing to put on the same old show. Kish Kash, released in 2003, is more kaleidoscopic-leaning pop, with 'N Sync's JC Chasez buttering up the swarming rock-dance "Plug It In," Siouxsie Sioux making the punk-disco title cut stick like porcupine quills, and Meshell Ndegeocello paying explicit homage to Prince on the nasty "Right Here's the Spot." Unknowns like Emily (the piping "Hot and Cold") and Totlyn Jackson ("Supersonic") hold their own, as Buxton and Ratcliffe prove themselves to be the best production team in the world this side of the Neptunes. (MICHAELANGELO MATOS)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide