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Shake your Plump
Plumps on Plonk. Lee Rous, one half of certified rockstars Plump DJs knocks off a bottle of “nice Bordeaux claret“ as he discusses the latest inclusion in the FabricLive series. The mix includes no less than six officially credited Plumps tracks/remixes to gorge on. Plus their sampling nuances of a frying pig in the pan (I shit you not!) and a gaggle of other found sounds from their underground.
Along with Andy Gardner, the two executed a perfect hit and run with their eternally kewl debut artist album ‘A Plump Night Out’ in 2001. Such massive demand for a party-starting album was unprecedented. By now you have probably borrowed it out and grabbed a copy of someone else’s in the meantime to tide you over while your former friend goes to Mexico ‘until this blows over’.
The Plumps slammed down a chaser with their less-hyped Urban Underground mix disc. The start of 2003 sees them (to nick a De La Soul lyric) ‘Back up in the spot/ Claiming we never been gone.’ Why? Because their FabricLive 08 CD has fans scrambling to get a copy, while new ears are being converted every waking second of the day. News just to hand: It is already the highest-selling in the FabricLive series. Racing!
“Because it’s become a real family affair at Fabric … we had a long way to fall if we didn’t do a good job,” Rous discloses. So what did they go and do? Cram 20 scorching tracks into 70 minutes for optimum effect! Perhaps the finest moment of all comes at the conclusion of the mix, sampling a soulful diva from their youth.
That’s right folks, it’s back to the 80s again. The Plumps end their set by churning out a white-hot black label of Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’, cheekily named ‘Donna Kebab’. I admit to Rous that the track reduced me to a blubbering mess in the middle of the dancefloor when I saw them drop it at SummaFieldayze on the Gold Coast. ”Australia’s a very emotional place,” Rous enthuses, “I found myself nearly crying twice in Sydney when we did the Field Day gig,” he counsels.
“We did a tune a while ago called Punch Drunk that ended up fitting really well with it. Someone who I don’t know (laughs) bootlegged it.” The swingin-slammin-sizzlin ‘I Feel Love’ (Patrick Cowley mix) closes the Fabric CD in fine festival fashion. Unfortunately I missed the boat first-time around. “We played it at Field Day last year and it went down really well. Justin (Soul of Man) from Fingerlickin’ heard it and said ‘That’s a winner! We’ve got to release it.’ But we’ve not been able to clear it. I think a few sneaky promos have made it out there.”
Rous and Gardner lead strongly on ‘Fabric Live 08’, giving birth to their mix via an fresh ‘Plumps Intro’. “That was a really old piece of vinyl … an emotional 12 inch we picked up in a second hand record shop,” Rous recollects, talking up the classy symphony that adds a bit of caviar to the mix.
“We adapted it and put some synth work into the introduction and that’s what we came up with.”
The progressive-in-vibe-but-not-in-genre duo put “the mechanics of the tunes together” with an AKAI Sampler over a fortnight. After this it took two months with a machete to slash through the streamers of red tape, while keeping aware of what other breaks compilations were being hatched onto the market. “I’m pleased people are liking it or I’d be well-gutted” he adds, oscillating back to knockabout guy with wheezy rumbles of laughter.
“The tracks merge quite well, even though your following, in one case Punx ‘The Rock’ is a house tune with an electro tune (‘Energise’ Casino Kid remix of Chad Jackson).” Sinister basslines sidle into town, taking no prisoners, toting a lethal kickdrum and jagged highhats. For the duo, piecing together the mix ended up almost like the card game of Memory. “We were writing the tunes down on bits of paper, laying them out on the floor and working out which would fit with which,” he recalls methodically.
Mr Velcro Fastener’s ‘Electrical Appliances’ pops its dancing shoes on too, courtesy of a solid once-over by the Plumps. End result: technical term – ‘blowing up’. “We’ve known Ali B for years before he was on Capitol Radio. I used to promote with him. He said he had a great track on his new label AIR records. He gave us the mix exclusive for the comp. We’re all a family, working together.” Donna Summer’s wails may soon become their mantra.
Perhaps the hardest act of the millenium to follow was ‘A Plump Night Out’ and, in truth, this gem doesn’t quite surpass their earth-shattering debut. But it does reinforce their innovative backflipesque style, which has seen a legion of imitators come and go. Nobody has quite nailed the festival-breaks sound quite as well as the Plumps - FabricLive 08 is worth the price of admission. This ain’t an infomercial babydoll, this is fact.
Three for the Road
1. Interestingly Overlooked Melbourne Fact
"Back In The Day" - C83 appears as the third last track. ‘That’s real exciting’, I hear you say. In fact, the C83 tune is actually an uncredited remix by Melbourne’s golden child EK, champion of the ‘Sound Not Scene’ stable. “I’m actually slightly dyslexic. I didn’t know too much about where the people came from”, offers Rous. Tsk tsk. “The breaks scene in Melbourne is better supported than perhaps anywhere else in the world.” Good damage control.
2. Interestingly Overlooked Pricy Wine Story
“Probably the one we had with the Japanese promoters on the way back from Australia last time. They took us out and said ‘Don’t worry about the cost of the meal’. They got offended when we offered to pay so we ended up getting a bottle of French wine that was about $150.” Word to local promoters, the bar(tab) has been raised.
3. Just Plain Eargasmic Plumps Goss
The next Plumps artist album looks set to be another vital chapter in the way forward for breaks-Jim-but-not-as-we-know-it. Due in June/July, Rous is keen to let the cat out of the bag. “It’s gonna have vocal tracks from Gary Numan and Lou from Lamb. We’ve got some down tempo tracks, full-on club monsters, strange electro experiments. It’s been a brilliant couple of years, we’ve been self-indulging in music. We’ve done 20 tracks and we’re just wading through them.?
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Published / Monday, 17 February 2003
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