I've got to be honest here, i think Basement Jaxx get a bit of a bum deal nowadays.
it's hard to argue that they haven't sold out, or gone of the boil, and I've seldom paid any attention to their last few releases, but, there was a time when they were at the fore front of dance music, be it deep Chicago jacking house or borderline poptastic dance anthems, and whatever peoples opinions maybe of them now they have been responsible for some truly awe inspiring music over the last two decades.
I've been revisiting a lot of their 90's output of late – specifically the older Atlantic Jaxx labels output, and this popped up. It's the title track from the Urban Haze EP, and it's one of those tracks that just steps right outside of what you'd expect from them. It's an almost ambient piece based around classical sounding chimes, that just drifts along from one point to another.
the track was written after one of them cycled home from the studio through Brixton to Camberwell after an al night session, and it shows. I think it's possibly one of the most soundtracky bit's of music I've heard from a predominantly dance music outfit, but it's structure and the weight of emotion behind it are both fantastic. I remember hearing it and thinking it could quite easily have been form the Ridley Scott movie Black Rain
They used to tuck a few tracks like this away on the B sides of their AJ releases, if you can find it you should also check out a track by them called Stanley…again slow, mellow and fantastic.
Enjoy!