Basement Jaxx Photo: jean-luc brouard
UK legendary dance music duo Basement Jaxx are returning to our shores for one show only this summer.
Basement Jaxx - consisting of Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe - will be performing at Love Your Ways in Auckland on 29 December.
Buxton was last in New Zealand for a performance in March this year.
He told Music 101 he bought several Māori and South Pacific music records from an Auckland record shop and he has since been incorporating samples from the records into his DJ sets.
"Just because it's something a bit different, so there might be some of that [this summer performance]," he said.
When they perform, Buxton said about the third of the music played is Basement Jaxx, the rest of the set is made up of bootlegs and new versions of their original songs.
"We often play a bit of Talking Heads a cappella or something like that. Nowadays you have four CDJs so you can play everything together so it's very easy to mix and match all sorts of music."
It has been almost 30 years since Basement Jaxx formed.
"We're still here and we're still alive and I suppose the weird thing is, is that music doesn't seem to have moved on." he said.
"But the dance music industry now is massive compared to what it was. I think electronic music is really healthy and exciting at the moment. There's drum and bass, every brand of house, techno, it feels real and truthful. There's a lot more truthful music I think."
Buxton said for Basement Jaxx, music was never about trying to make money.
"It's about wanting to move your body and connect to your soul and uplift the mind in a very genuine way," he said.
Photo: Supplied / Lucy Hammond
Buxton said there is a very good vibe when he has talked with young people at music festivals they've performed at.
"Definitely the energy is very similar to how it was about 20 years ago, which was when it was a bit more less corporate minded I think. So that's really good, people are getting a bit more authentic."
Dancing, Buxton said, is important for our sanity, if anything.
Buxton's latest project has been writing a piece for Citizens of the World Choir, a refugee choir based in London. He sung as a choir boy growing up with his dad, a vicar.
"It's a real range of voices from the 18 to 80 age groups," he said.
"I studied sound healing for a bit and discovered that when we sing together, our heartbeats all align and start being in rhythm with each other and it puts us in this real magical space."
"I don't know what the facts are for festivals and dancing together but definitely if you're having a dance duel with someone or you're deeply in the art of dancing, you can get to a transcendental moment and it takes you away from the body and into this space."
Buxton loves creating music with uplifting energy and he thinks we should all sing together more.
After dining at a restaurant in Norway a few years ago, Buxton said a group of older people broke into song after finishing their meal.
"It was so lovely to see this real and joyful experience and I think that's one of the things we have forgotten about, natural, joyful expression of an experience because people have become very self-conscious about their self-image."
His goals for the new year after their kiwi performance?
To complete a musical and make a new Basement Jaxx album.
So long as there is music, Basment Jaxx isn't going anywhere.
