Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe, the duo behind Basement Jaxx, provide the next logical step to what has so far been a practically faultless career with this retrospective Singles release. From their stunning debut album, Remedy, through to the acclaimed follow-up releases Rooty and Kish Kash, Basement Jaxx have infused the UK dance scene with ripely fresh, viable alternatives to what has become a stagnant playground, dominated by the eternally sterile and repetitive re-branding of soul, rap, and house music.

Basement Jaxx seem to be one of the few dance acts that seem capable of blending pop and dance music with a sense of experimentalism that continually refocuses their sound through an ever-mutating lens of contemporary electro, garage, hip-hop and salsa sensibilities, topped off with an added tongue in cheek element.

The real magic of Basement Jaxx however, is that they simply provide superior pop music that appeals to the youth of the day, and manage to combine this with some unusually innovative and skilful production sounds - for a dance band that is. Just like the new single featured here, Oh My Gosh!, you can’t help but find yourself playfully scrutinising how Buxton and Ratcliffe layer their samples and process sounds so cleverley and intricately that the process of inspection almost becomes as enjoyable as the addictive melodic content of the songs themselves.

The Singles collection weighs in at just under one hour, and it rarely pauses for breath or drops its standards throughout. The opening glamourous funk chill of Red Alert sets the tone right from the start – and whatever angle you view it from, it’s practically impossible to dislike this sumptous blend of soulful pop dance. Basement Jaxx then simply plough through a collection of their best electro pop wanderings, from much loved belters such as Good Luck and Romeo, to a few that you probably had no idea they had written, such as Bingo Bango and Do Your Thing – now better known from a host of TV adverts and trailers.

There is no such thing as highlights on this album as the quality is extraordinarily high, yet it would be criminal not to mention the crème de la crème, such as Where’s Your Head At, the chart topping techno-pop track, which so brillantly sampled Gary Numan and brought the Basement Jaxx name to the forefront of everybody’s lips due to its insanely catchy lyrical rhetoric and a superb promotional video.

The more intently you listen, the more you realise that from a production viewpoint, Basement Jaxx tear strips from their competitors. Lucky Star, featuring Dizzee Rascal has a mesmeric quality that breaks new ground in originality – the explosive fusion of outlandish electronica and organic beats, when merged with Rascal’s unique rap, delivers a truly revolutionary sound. Then there’s lesser know hits, such as Plug It In, which takes over from when Prince last made a huge impact with Lovesexy – the two acts seem to share many attitudes and songwriting techniques – including their grasp of song titles, like U Don’t Know Me.

Towards the end of this collection, the sparkling pop aspect of the Basement Jaxx sound decreases and paves the way for more soulful, sugar-coated house music, such as on Jus 1 Kiss, and Flylife, before closing with perhaps one of their slightly weaker tracks, the Latin-styled Samba Magic. But generally speaking, Basement Jaxx pop/dance hybrid is practically faultless.