TATE MODERN
This is the eleventh in a series of original music tracks written about artworks at Tate Modern.
Tate invited Basement Jaxx to walk around the gallery and find a work of art that would inspire them to write a track.
In the end, it was Karel Appel’s Hip Hip Hoorah! that grabbed their attention. They said 'the approach of the music was to have a hybrid sound or melodic thread for each creature, with a central theme that is ‘the world in which they exist’.’ This is the result.
You can listen to it in the gallery or here online.
With album sales of more than 2.5 million under their belt, including 2005's double platinum UK No.1 collection "The Singles", Basement Jaxx have also developed into a remarkable live act in which they eschew the usual head bobbing DJ style show that dance music is known for in favour of an all out sensory assault featuring drums, percussion, guitar and an army of singers.
They have won a Grammy for "Best Electronic Album" to add to the two BRITs (Best Dance Act) and numerous other awards. Having already played Hyde Park and closing the main stage at Glastonbury, 2006 saw the first Jaxx UK arena tour, packing out the prestigious Wembley Arena in London and selling over 55,000 tickets across the UK in support of the album "Crazy Itch Radio".
Working on a fifth album right now, Basement Jaxx will be taking time out from the studio to visit selected European Festivals this summer, including Global Gathering and a headline slot on the Channel 4 Stage at V Festival.
The title of Hip, Hip, Hoorah! was intended to celebrate the artistic freedom from tradition achieved by the CoBrA group. The figures are hybrid creatures, combining human attributes with animal or bird-like features. Appel thought of them as 'people of the night', and so gave them a dark background. The bright colours and child-like imagery are typical of CoBrA. Appel often took inspiration from children's drawings, believing that 'the child in man is all that's strongest, most receptive, most open and unpredictable'.
You can view this work in the Tate Collection.
Dutch painter, printmaker, sculptor and ceramist, born in Amsterdam. Studied at the State Academy in Amsterdam 1940-3. After the war attempted to start anew by working in the spirit of children's drawings. First one-man exhibition at Het Beerenhuis, Groningen, 1946. Founded with Corneille and Constant in 1948 the Experimental Group in Amsterdam, contributed to the periodical Reflex and took an active part in the COBRA group 1948-51 with Jorn and others. Moved to Paris with Corneille and Constant in 1950, his paintings soon becoming more thickly painted and with swirling forms, with grotesque imagery of animals, monsters and the human figure. Awarded the UNESCO prize at the 1954 Venice Biennale and the 1960 Guggenheim International Award. Began to make relief paintings in 1968, followed by painted sculptures in wood and polyester, and later in aluminium.
From Ronald Alley, Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981
You can read about Karel Appel in the Tate Collection.
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