Basement Jaxx - Junto

By Buxton’s own admission, their seventh album seeks to “unite people” and some cuts do hark back to the giddy unabashed pop and mass-connecting floorfillers of their early days. Single ‘Never Say Never’ is undeniably an instantly-rousing summer smash in waiting, even if vocal sensation ETML makes blatant advances towards that already-fiercely-competitive boyish soul futurist throne (watch out Sam Smith, John Newman et al). Then there are those world-unifying hooks during ‘Power To The People’ and ‘We Are Not Alone’, which are so sky-facing they make Dario G’s all-in anthems look undercooked and ambitionless.

Of course, these points are mired by some thoughtless filler. ‘Unicorn’’s borborygmus bass, incessant bounce and vocal spiel is uncomfortably close to that of Disclosure - a transparent impersonation that belongs only on the laborious playlists of high street fashion outlets. Worse still is ‘Rock This Road’ - the sort of jabbering, parping nonsense that could only be entertained by lobster-red Brits on coastal breaks. Either side of it, fervent percussion and a haphazard hodgepodge of world influences collide to create underwhelming and forgettable results.

On paper, ‘Junto’ (Spanish for ‘together’) should make for an eclectic, flag-waving affair - but sadly many of its disparate parts blissfully miss the mark.

Tags: Album Reviews, Reviews, Atlantic Jaxx, Basement Jaxx