Rooty

Albums that Changed Me

In 2001, House Music was everywhere. And I, a seventeen-year-old fool, was completely obsessed with it. Immediately a connection deeper than perhaps the ones I’d make with the humans of this planet, although, I suppose a lot of us can say that, can’t we?
The music was and is the love of my life, and this is one of the moments that showed me that.

It started the same for my partner and I. Go to the bookstore, buy a new CD, listen to it on the way home as we smoke weed, make out for a little bit, and then talk about what we heard. It was a fun experiment, and one I suppose we still conduct now.

With Rooty it was a bit different, though. With Rooty you could tell things had changed. House had gone to the next level. I suppose there’s always another level, though. Always trying to get to the top floor, only to realize there isn’t one. Just the sky and the stars.

The album itself, released on June 21st, 2001, was the second album by Bassment Jaxx. Who I personally had no idea existed before that moment, and yet I suppose that’s why it was so much fun. Although, looking back, I think I first read about them in a music magazine, which I wish were still common those days.

DJ Mag, Mixmag, MIXER Magazine, I loved all of them. They spoke about electronic music from all around the world, and they showed me this planet was way bigger, and so was our house music scene. It’s like finding something you love, and thinking you’re the only one, then suddenly realizing, it’s everywhere, and everybody loves it. It’s an amazing feeling, and I’m so happy that Basement Jaxx helped me feel that.

Many people know the album from it’s first single, and I will discuss that in time, but to me the first song, ‘Romeo’, might still be my favorite, not just of this album, but of perhaps any song the duo has made since or before. Often times people think of the single first, and yet, when listening to an album, your first impression of an artist will be with that first track. Whether you hate them or love them, you will always connect your first memory with that song.

If that is the case ‘Romeo’, lives up to it’s name, as it’s funky, soulful, melodic, and a new style of house, that I didn’t even know was considered house. It has such inspirations in Rnb and that 90’s sound I grew up with like Lisa Lisa, but at the same time, as we continue on into a song like ‘Jus 1 Kiss’, you hear influences from Prince, George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic, and even bands like the SOS Band.

That isn’t to say they are trying to sound like any of them, but rather the opposite. This is a new sound made from the influence of the ones that inspired us, and it’s a sign of how the future of House Music would be a much more eclectic sound than just what’s heard on the dancefloor. House is something you can go home and listen to now, as well as something you hear at the club or the festival.

By the time you get to the middle of the album with songs like ‘I Want You’ and ‘Get Me Off’, you hear a bit of a punk 80’s synth vibe, and an adult oriented theme shows the dirty and sweaty side that House Music will always have. We’re always going to want that moment where things are hot and heavy to the sounds of funky beats, and Bassment Jaxx gives us a chance at that nearly nonstop.

This is also where I can see the influence this duo will have on fellow future U.K. acts like Gorgon City, Disclosure and Rudimental. That funky bounce that you seem to feel in the streets. What I love so much about House music is it can start at home with places like Chicago and New YORK City, and you can take it all around the world, and when it gets back it will be so different, but still it will have that soul that makes it what it is.

That is why House Music is eternal. It will always change and it will never die.

After that comes the hit of the track, ‘Where’s Your Head At.’ It’s so hard to explain how big this one got. I’d say it was on a daft punk level for a bit there. At the very least it changed my life, and that was long before I ever saw it on MTV, which I did. Back when MTV still played videos, at least.

Well, actually, I think this would only get played on MTV 2, but you get the idea.

No matter where I go, or what crowd I’m in, if this song comes on, there’s always a reaction, and it’s most definitely a good one. It’s catchy, and groovy, but it’s also a hot mess of a masterpiece. There’s so much going on that it just works, and I can remember thinking it was what the inside of my mind sounded like sometimes. Random backspins and all.

It’s the song that will forever represent the duo known as Bassment Jaxx for the rest of time, and I will jam it loud and clear until I’m 80 years old, living in a nursing home, and losing my hearing. It was not only better than any song on the radio from that year, but it was also as original a song as you’ll ever hear.

Plus, watch the video of you really want your head toyed with a little.

From there the album starts to slow down, and it eventually plays perhaps the most upbeat song of the album, ‘Do your thing’, which is such a mix of sounds that we know so well that I’m not even sure what to call it. Swing House? Soulful? Funky? Disco?

No, I don’t think its disco, but you get what I mean. It’s just one of those songs that represents where the sound has been and where it’s going, and that’s why it hits so good.

It’s a celebration that House is winning, and not as way of rubbing it in, but rather to say, that in this house there’s always room for more, but when you’re here, we’re all here, and I’m so happy that they know that in the U.K., like they know that in Chicago, like I hope we know that here in New Mexico.

House is a feeling because it’s meant to be shared, and I know without thinking twice that I was forever changed by this album and the music that came blasting out of the speakers that Summer when I was 17, and still naïve to the world.

I hadn’t seen yet what I have now, and still, looking back I suppose I felt the same way I do today. I knew I had house music and that was going to be enough to get me through.

The point of sharing this album was to show what house music has done to me in the hopes that one day it may save you too. But only if you let it.

Enjoy the ride you take to find the music that will change you.

See you on the dancefloor. Or not.