Basement Jaxx "Raindrops" video debuts, minds are blown.

Monday, June 08 2009

... So I just finished watching the video for the new Basement Jaxx single "Raindrops", like, 5 or 6 times in a row and am completely mesmerized. I've been a huge fan of these guys' music for more than a decade now and have, according to what I've charted in my collection on discogs, 17 of their records in my collection. So yeah, I'm a pretty big fan. This is no surprise to most people that know me.

Those who've been paying attention to their exploits over the years know that when the Jaxx aren't releasing mind-bending pop music they're likely in the process of commissioning equally impressive music videos for their material. There are few artists alive who have remained as dedicated to the evolution of the music video over time, or who have created a comparable body of work in the music video medium at large (The Chemical Brothers and Bjork being two others who come to mind). They release videos for nearly all of their singles and the videos themselves are consistently clever, creative, innovative and often bizarrely subversive.

The "Raindrops" clip may very well be their best to date. It is an objectively near-perfect marriage of sight and sound rarely seen in the format and is likely as harmonious a visual representation of their sound that we are likely to ever see. I've always thought of the Basement Jaxx's music as this sort of cosmic, genre-bending, multi-ethnic, neon orgy of sounds and apparently I'm not the only one... Because that is exactly what this video appears to be. It's a kaleidoscopic and hyper-sensual explosion of colors that is absolutely stunning to look at from start to finish.

The song itself has been a bit of a creeper for me in the sense that I wasn't particularly sold on it at first but have grown to appreciate it more and more with each subsequent listen. I'm hoping for big things from this new record of theirs, as their records have provided for MANY a beautiful summer night's party soundtracking in the past. That sunken, filtered bassline and vocal accompaniment in the verse portions of the song strike the perfect chord for me when it comes to summer-sounding music and if this one starts to pick up steam in the clubs then we might have one serious party corker on our hands for 2009. We shall see...

Additionally, here are a few of my favorite clips of theirs from the past. Enjoy!

Tags: Basement Jaxx

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