Brixton-dwelling duo Basement Jaxx have certainly had something of a big year, with last year’s greatest hits retrospective collection ‘The Singles’ going double platinum and the band celebrating the occasion with a triumphant live performance at this year’s Glastonbury festival. This fourth artist album ‘Crazy Itch Radio’ shows the Jaxx jumping straight back into the action rather than resting on their laurels and has already been described by the duo in interviews as being along the lines of a return to the warmer sound of their early EPs and debut album ‘Remedy’; it’s also one that shows the Jaxx gearing their productions around lesser-known vocal talents and collaborators, rather than the star guest-stacked outings that characterised 2003’s ambitious ‘Kish Kash’ album. What’s perhaps most immediately apparent upon listening to ‘Crazy Itch Radio’ more than anything else is the influence of Felix Buxton’s recently-acquired love of traditional Balkan music; indeed, he’s such an outspoken advocate of the Eastern European genre that he was recently responsible for putting together the ‘Gypsy Beats & Balkan Bangers’ compilation alongside DJ Ross Jones. In many senses, this Eastern European influence permeates through much of the new material on offer here, with curious instrumentation injecting a delightfully unorthodox and often indefinably melancholy edge to proceedings.

After opening with a dramatic orchestral / choral intro segue scored by Wil Malone that certainly gives good indication as to the Jaxx’s expanded recording budget these days, first single ‘Hush Boy’ kicks things off with a bang, the Jaxx reconvening with ‘Oh My Gosh’ vocalist Vula for an RNB-infused offering that certainly picks up directly from where previous singles left off, flamboyant horn riffs vamping their way over an electro-infused backing of crisp beats and bleeping electronics; complete with slightly unhinged out-of-tune male shouted vocals during the “If you want me for your girlfriend” chorus hook. It’s also an offering that highlights just how far the Jaxx have moved away from the house-oriented DJ Sneak-isms of their early tracks, with the predominance of heavily-stacked instrumentation and catchy hooks suggesting that radio play is perhaps being targeted here more than the clubs. By contrast, ‘Take Me Back To Your House’ represents perhaps the one slightly unwieldy miss-step amongst this collection; while it certainly fuses swooping Philly soul-oriented strings with a female vocal in manner that fits seamlessly, the choice of banjos as the predominant instrument had me flashing back to The Grid’s early nineties novelty single ‘Swamp Thing.’ While it certainly sounds like an interesting ‘outside the box’-style idea on paper, in the end, I’m really not sure if the world will ever really be ready for RNB banjo-house. ‘Hey U’ by comparison shows the Jaxx deploying unexpected instrumentation in a far more successful style, with the aforementioned Balkan music elements coming to the forefront in a standout banger that deftly fuses Eastern European instrumentation with buzzing house rhythms in a fantastic moment that’s half Balkan wedding festival, part dingy London club.

‘On The Train’ calls to mind Jamie Lidell’s ‘Multiply’ album of last year, with a soulful male vocal crooning its way over a smooth, swinging jazz-soul backing of clanking programmed breaks, deep live bass and massed horns, dubbed-out female vocal samples blurring into the distance as mobile phone key tones trace a monophonic melody over the top and the backing male vocals scat, before ‘Run 4 Cover’ brings on one of this album’s most furious dance-oriented moments, with grimy rhythmic programming colliding with massed live percussion as East London MC Lady Marga lays down a dense, dancehall-inflected verbal flow that certainly calls to mind a more distinctly Eastern European-inflected take on the sorts of directions explored by say M.I.A. or Lady Sovreign; indeed, the track originally appeared in limited 12” form last year on the duo’s Stop label. The lavish ‘Lights Go Down’ represents in many ways this album’s sprawling centrepiece, with the Jaxx recruiting British soul legend Linda Lewis to lay down her dulcet tones amidst an opulent backing of sweeping Wil Malone-scored orchestration, majestic horn swells, distant electronic buzzes and rolling handclap-laden Balkan percussion; it’s easily the most ambitious track the duo have attempted to date, coming across as more similar to something that Massive Attack or Hybrid might have released (particularly with its massed Russian-sounding vocal builds, that anything that immediately springs out from the Brixton duo’s past backcatalogue.

While in many senses ‘Crazy Itch Radio’ comes across as an album more geared towards after-club listening than the dancefloor (though there certainly still are plenty of club-oriented moments packed in there); it’s also one that shows the Jaxx deftly avoiding the trap that they could have set themselves by trying to top the star-studded excesses of previous album ‘Kish Kash.’ It’s entirely possible that the pronounced incorporation of Eastern European instrumental elements won’t be to everyone’s taste; but in this case the Jaxx are to be credited simply for attempting an ambitious crossover that for the most part works and also doesn’t simply slavishly follow current music trends. Of course, what’s most important here are the catchy hooks, and in this case, the Jaxx supply them in spades. Perhaps Felix and Simon’s most ambitious album outing to date – Jaxx fans won’t be disappointed.