If there's a rub, there it lies. Fans initially charmed by Simon and Felix as house music's post-Daft Punk saviors should understand: The stadium disco the Jaxx practice is sitting out this season's rock revival with a pulled groin and a lack of ideas to fix its, by turns, "deep," "jazzy" and "progressive" injuries. At the same time, the manic energy that drove the Jaxx's "Where's Your Head At?" to MTV and radio in 2002 is fueling numerous rock bands that want to play to gyrating dance floors. So Kish Kash gives the people what they want: an amusement park's worth of beats, live instruments, and more interesting vocalists than an opera festival. (On one record, one time only: *NSYNC's other boy wonder JC Chasez, U.K. hip-hop wunderkind Dizzee Rascal, bald soul mama Me'Shell NdegéOcello, and wigged punk mama Siouxsie Sioux. But there's hardly an instrumental on here.)
The basic tenet of Kish Kash is if you can't have fun here, you can't have fun. The Jaxx's predisposition to the funk of the Prince and "Magnificent Seven" variety remains at the fore, as does their desire to see what else is out there. And they still produce music to make a large, packed room of individuals of differing, discerning tastes vibe together, which, come to think of it, is not a bad kind of overload at all.