It's a brisk early December morning in Chiswick, United Kingdom and Lee Rous is at home, thinking about getting a tan. You see, Lee and the other half of breakbeat duo Plump DJs, Andy Gardner, will be gracing Antipodean soil to ply us with more squelchy, sweaty, wobbly breaks madness on New Years Day, in not one, but two of Australia biggest cities.

The Plumps line up alongside world #1 drum & bass DJ Andy C, Melbourne favourite and Mob label head Tayo, winner of the 2004 Break beat awards for best single, B.L.I.M and Bristols' Full Cycle duo Krust & Die at 33 & 1/3 at the Esplanade Hotel in St Kilda in the a.m. They then fly up to play the sell-out Field Day at The Domain in Sydney with Miguel Migs, Tiga, Martin Solveig, James Zabiela, Junior Jack & Kid Creme, De La Soul, Black Grass, Meat Katie, Lee Coombs and Black Strobe.

But right now, in the lead-up to a climactic, jet-set, summer breaks-on-the-run Aussie tour, a jovial and relaxed Lee’s more immediate concern is about his skin complexion.

"I'm gonna get under the sunbed actually. I'm not gonna embarrass myself with a "London tan" in Australia when all you lot are blingin' it and looking fresh with your Aussie tans, after eating loads of fresh Barramundi and stuff, I'll come over looking plump and slick."

Lee laughs. I get the feeling he is looking forward to it, but I wonder about the logistics of their New Years Days shenanigans. How will they cope?

"A lot of Champagne on the plane between both gigs! Haha… I'm really looking forward to it I think we're doing the late slot at Field Day in Sydney Harbour and playing the morning or about lunchtime in Melbourne. It'll be off the hook."

So what's in store for us lucky Aussie kids then?

"Over here a Xmas/NY set you might be playing a few old classics, but in Oz the dance scene is quite knowledgeable and enthusiastic and we really won't be able to get away with just playing old classics. In anticipation of this we've made loads of new music that we've got to play when we come out. Twelve new tracks of our own, some experimental dance stuff, so we'll be looking forward to the Aussie reactions to that.

There's a really big track by a band called Evil Nine "Crooked". We've been playing the Bassbin Twins mix for most of the year, it's a fucking brilliant tune man. Totally off the hook, really simple but its just fuckin' the attitude of the record it's just hitting all the right buttons from where I'm sitting. I think the Evil 9 album has been our favourite album of the year, them as an act have been really good for breakbeat in general. So that's my big tip. I think it's probably our favourite tune of 2004.

There's also this Max Sedgley bootleg which we played when it came out earlier in the year. We've managed to get ourselves a few copies on vinyl so we might spin that but we've got loads of new stuff."

Mmm… new stuff. Does this mean the mix compilation due for release around May is coming along well? When you consider that a mix CD coming from one of breaks' most in-demand production teams, by rights should have tons of their own records on it.

"We've just been working really hard trying to make some innovative dance music, well, innovative breakbeat. We've been exploring some more techno sounds, and in ways exploring the funkier sound that we enjoy. We've done a really good track called "Acid Hustle" which is seriously large and we've also done a track we haven't even got a name for yet which is soulful breakbeat with a funk edge. It'll be really good to play these to an Australian crowd and see what reaction it gets."

Now known for their triumphant sets and inciting pogo-mad dancefloors the Plump DJs created a stir in the breaks scene soon after their debut 12"s, and first compilation "A Plump Night Out" hit stores in 2000. It brought new interest to the genre and injected some fun back into a too-oft gloomy and introspective style. Their subsequent mixes "Elastic Breaks" for Mixmag, Urban Underground - The Breakbeat Elite and FabricLive 08 cemented their reputation of seeking the dirtiest of basslines and the funkiest of breaks and samples to wiggle the dancefloor. This year dropped the debut artist album, "Eargasm", to critical acclaim from pundits, and contained DJ Magazine's No. 1 Breakbeat Tune of 2004, "Creepshow". Also on the album were collaborations with new-romantic revivalist Gary Numan, Lamb's Louise Robinson (nee Rhodes) and a cut-up of blues great, Eddie Bo's vocals,

So, let's see, new tracks, guest vocalists, and "experimental dance". What's next? A live, Freeland-style band?

"We're considering doing an artist album in 2006, another one, our only other artist album being Eargasm. So I think then we are gonna be diversifying a bit, I mean I don't really know quite yet what we're gonna be doing. We've thought about doing… (stops and thinks)…something live… but then again we like dance music, we're Plump DJ's not Plump Band, it would be a hard thing to try and orchestrate (a Freeland style band). Our heart is in clubs and in most dance music and I think that's where it will stay in the foreseeable future."

So it's just studio time and gigs then?

"No, we're really lucky, I always wanted to travel when I was a kid and we're really lucky that we get a chance to do that with our vocation, we try to make our time count wherever where are.

I feel a bit guilty if I just go over there on a holiday. I try to make it "work" at some point - I've got two weeks off (after New Year's Day) and I'm having a bit of a holiday afterwards. I'm going to Byron Bay after Sydney, then to Perth with me mate Liam, and doing some shark diving and some skydiving, nice and quiet eh? (chuckles)"

Gutsy. I'll give him that.

We Australians love our summer breaks, and the people of Sydney showed us how much they love them by selling out Field Day in near record time, with some of the biggest of the acts in the game on stage before Lee and Andy.

"I think that it's the scale of the enthusiasm for breakbeat really, which is a big attraction for us, I think as well the girls in Australia rock, the weather rocks, the food rocks, the people generally - the attitude of the Australian people rocks and of course Field Day rocks!

I had a massive conversation with Kid Kenobi's MC, MC Shureshock,) after a set at Fabric recently, which incidentally was a great affair. I think all the Aussies kicked all the Brits out of Fabric and it was actually a piece of Australia in England for one night, which was quite mad.

We were talking about why breakbeat is so big in Oz. None of us could get to any firm conclusion after about two hours of conversation and we were chewing each others ears off! I guess maybe it's because breakbeat is rooted in hip-hop, and hip-hop having such a large sub-culture in Australia, it's just grown naturally. Discussing this type of stuff I could just go on forever - I'm just pleased that breakbeat is so big over in Australia so we can go and get a bit of sun every year…and enjoy one of the best crowds in the world. haha"

Speaking of Kid Kenobi, which Aussie breaks artists have stood out for you in recent times?

"There's a guy called Nick Thayer. He made a record earlier in the year and me, being slightly dyslexic, can't remember the name of it. I only remember it had a red label and it's pretty funky. It's been great seeing him doing well and people like Kid Kenobi, who's been playing at Fabric. I know Jesse's (Jesse Desenberg – Kid Kenobi) been working hard for long time, seeing him over at Fabric was wicked. He's been really well supported by Brits and Aussies over here, he recently played at a night in London and apparently that was a roadblock, so you can take it from me that these guys are doing Australia proud. NuBreed, on Mob records I heard their stuff about two years ago. I've managed to have a couple of chats to them a couple of times. So yeah there's a lot of good shit coming out of Oz.

Which is great really cause you've got a tough environment for making music in Australia, we're lucky in England in some ways that the weather's shit, we don't mind sitting in the studio, making music. I've just done a remix of Lee Coombs' "Shiver", we're just embarking on a remix of an old British house track called "Void" which is an old fave of ours, from when we got into house music. I hope people just listen to the set cause most of the set is made of our new records which we've made over the year. I hope people enjoy that, you should come down and check it out."

Deal.

Plump DJs Eargasm is out now through Fingerlickin’ Records.