There's a reason why Basement Jaxx has toured all summer without releasing its new album. It simply wasn't finished in time for the proposed March release date last winter, and a UK tour and worldwide summer festival dates were already booked. "We've done nearly a year's worth of touring and now we've got to do it all again," Simon Ratcliffe jokingly tells Spinner.

Indeed, the English progressive house band's fifth record, 'Scars,' has a new release date of Oct. 6 and the duo begins another UK trek in December with its 12-piece touring band. For now, however, the pair -- Felix Buxton is the other member -- will mark Basement Jaxx's first American performances since 2006 with a handful of DJ-only dates running Oct. 30-Nov. 7.

Despite the release hiccup, the tour was surprisingly successful, with Basement Jaxx playing main stages as far-flung as Japan and, for the first time, South Korea. Ratcliffe and Buxton did a DJ gig there a couple of years ago, but this was their first full-on live show. "It's surprising which songs are the most popular in different parts of the world," Ratcliffe says. "In Korea, we were warned that we had to play 'Hot 'n Cold' from our third album 'Kish Kash.' We don't play it usually, it's not so well known, but over there everyone knows it."

Apart from having a fun summer, Ratcliffe says the brightest side to this pre-album release jaunt was finding audiences were still eager for the dynamic duo's funked-up house music. Even new songs like just-released leadoff single 'Raindrops' were lapped-up. "The four songs we play from the album have been going down really well. That's the way it goes," he adds of this tour timing gaff, "you can't always plan these things."