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JXL - A Broadcast From... (Roadrunner)
UK release date: 2 June 2003
JXL - A Broadcast From...

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track listing

1. Intro 3PM
2. Crusher feat. Saffron
3. Don't Wake Up Policeman feat. Peter Tosh
4. Spirits feat. Saffron
5. Angels feat. Gary Numan
6. Between These Walls feat. Anouk
7. Access To The Excess feat. Chuck D.
8. Catch Up To My Step feat. Solomon Burke
9. Never Alone feat. Terri Hall
10. Logos feat. Phill Mills
11. Configuring Audio System
12. Nightmares feat. Infusion
13. Beauty Never Fades feat. Saffron
14. Rivers feat. Shelley Harland
15. Aqua Man feat. Infusion
16. Clouds feat. Grant Nicholas
17. JXL Radio Technical Support
18. Reload feat. Dave Gahan
19. Perfect Blue Sky feat. Robert Smith
20. Tennis (UK Bonus Track)

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It would have been easy for Junkie XL (the man behind the Elvis remix A Little Less Conversation) to have released an album of Moby-like tracks - catchy big-beat loops and occasional vocals. But Tom Holkenborg (JXL's real name) has done the opposite, producing an album which is so diverse that its sense of coherence is impressive.

Radio JXL: A Broadcast from the Computer Hell Cabin will gain sales from broad demographic, since it must hold the all-time world record for "feat." tracks. A wide array of artistes perform, many of them old-time, including Dave Gahan (Depeche Mode), Gary Numan, Saffron (Republika), Robert Smith (The Cure), Terry Hall (The Specials), Grant Nicholas (Feeder), and Chuck D (Public Enemy).

The most immediately impressive piece is the single Catch Up To My Step. Solomon Burke's vocal and the heavy bass and guitar riffs make it the most danceable track. Apart from this only Terry Hall's Never Alone and Peter Tosh's Don't Wake Up Policemen reach any level of hip-moving groove, driven by ska and dub four-to-the-floor.

Most other highlights depend on song-writing more than production. Grant Nicholas' Broken has soothing and emotional big beats and is one of the best songs on the album, matched only by Robert Smith's lovely electro/Kraftwerk Perfect Blue Sky. Dave Gahan's Reload takes a darker approach and comes a close second.

Chuck D raps up a storm over vocoders and big hip-hop thuds in Access to the Excess, his flow still sounding good 10 years on. But one flow that hasn't dated as well is Saffron's. Her high-energy self-written tracks fit in to the album (impressive - since their production is so '90s Republika-like), but her punk-like vocal is a little misplaced.

Radio JXL isn't a dance album, although it has some quality dance vibes on it. Neither it it obsessed with cutting-edge production - Holkenborg has the sense to make the focus the songwriting. In the end it's the right production for the right song, and thankfully most of the songs are right themselves. The XLent Junkie has pulled it all into a diverse album that holds together, and which won't bore quickly.


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