How do you follow up such a massive debut album and still keep the same mainstream-versus-underground appeal? Well ask Basement Jaxx because they've done it with their second album Rooty. The vibe of Rooty is very much in keeping with its predecessor Remedy... a non-stop party. Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe, the duo behind Basement Jaxx, could make a funeral march sound cheerful and ripe for dancing to. This they do with the surprising "Get Me Off", which has one of the darkest, nastiest sub-bass lines the pair have yet produced but which still comes up smiling. The lead single "Romeo" features Kele Le Roc and is a characteristically sugar-soaked house track with a good-time vibe, sounding a little like 1980s carnival band Amazulu. Many of the tracks have a real retro influence of soulful disco, with "Jus 1 Kiss" successfully mixing hugely complex and original production with a four-to-the-floor feel, like a latter-day Earth, Wind & Fire. It is a unique talent that Basement Jaxx share with only a few other artists: they can create music with mainstream appeal without compromising any of their more unusual ideas. Rooty reveals once again that under that quirky pop exterior Basement Jaxx remain skilfully different and unusually innovative. --David Trueman