Playlist favorite Edgar Wright took to Twitter yesterday, giving mad props to the score for frequent collaborator Joe Cornish‘s directorial debut, the sci-fi invasion flick “Attack the Block” (opening in U.K. cinemas this spring). The big, very exciting news? That he identified none other than British dance-poppers Basement Jaxx (nee Simon Ratcliffe and Felix Buxton) as the composers.
“Heard some of Basement Jaxx’s score for Joe Cornish’s Attack the Block yesterday,” he wrote. “Still humming it today.”
This is the first we’ve heard that Basement Jaxx were involved with the film in any capacity, let alone providing the entire score and frankly, it’s one of the most inspired score ideas we’ve heard in ages. If you’re familiar with their previous output (they last dropped the darkly tinged not-quite-double-album combo of Scars and Zephyr back in 2009), they do funky, sometimes world music-infused pop music with a decidedly sophisticated sonic edge and they sound perfect for a film whose tag line is “Inner City vs. Outer Space.” We also wonder if they’re looking to outdo their contemporaries Daft Punk in the “making awesome electro scores for big sci-fi movies” department. If anybody can do it, it’s the Jaxx.
Cornish, who collaborated with Wright on the polish for Steven Moffat‘s “The Adventures of Tinin: Secret of the Unicorn” script (the Steven Spielberg-directed film hits this Christmas) and worked on Wright’s “Ant Man” project for Marvel, should be making quite a splash with his directorial debut. “Attack the Block” stars another Wright regular, Nick Frost, and is out in the U.K. in April 8th. We did a little digging and can’t find anything (yet) about when the soundtrack will drop, although Basement Jaxx have been self-releasing their back catalog to iTunes, so that could be an option. Featuring mostly only U.K.-known actors (minus Frost, who’s role we’ve heard is small), “Attack the Block” is about a teen gang in South London (hoodies) defending their block from an alien invasion. Jodie Whittaker (“St Trinian’s,” “Perrier’s Bounty“) and Luke Treadaway (“Heartless“) star.