Basement Jaxx proves problematic to the indie ear that does not dismiss them outright. “Rooty” and “Kish Kash” are two of the best releases of the new millennium for anybody who values pop and eclecticism. “Rooty,” along with Andre 3000’s “The Love Below,” is among the finest of fake Prince albums, both easily outranking Beck’s “Midnite Vultures.” “Kish Kash” is a more varied and challenging release, though remaining one of the best recent albums.

While these releases, despite their pop sheen, have settled nicely into the pop pantheon (even longtime haters Pitchfork ranked them in the top 100 releases of this decade), their 1999 debut, “Remedy,” a revelatory masterpiece in its own right, has languished. Pitchfork gave this album a notoriously negative review that embarrasses more through its literary pretensions and narrative style than the great album does through its style.

At the time, the greatest sin Basement Jaxx committed was making music that could most easily be described as house. House is a nice genre, applying the kinds of amendments to disco that would later be made to rock and called “post rock” (and in the same city, Chicago!) some 20 years earlier. Basement Jaxx merely took the house style and filtered it through British eclectic ears, adding elements of South American dance.

“Remedy” turned out to be one of the breakthrough dance albums, fuck what Pitchfork thinks. In its aftermath, Basement Jaxx released a collection of the singles that led up to its breakthrough in the form of “Atlantic Jaxx: a Compilation.” This collects a number of pre-”Remedy” Basement Jaxx singles as well as BJ-produced efforts by collaborators.

All of the singles on “Atlantic Jaxx” reveal both a dance-based four on the floor drive as well as a genuine curiosity over Hispanic dance formats. The compilation is currently available on Relative Theory’s “$5.98 or Less” rack, from which I have already stolen a few amazing albums.

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