inthemix | Features | Plump DJs: Headthrashing back to Australia

The Plump DJs have made a very loud return to form with the release of their new album, as well as a hectic schedule of gigs throughout the European Summer. John Treadgold spoke with Lee Rous about the new record and how he’s finding summer in London. “It’s a lot better now that I’ve found bird-song radio, you tune in and it’s got the sound of birds singing and barnyard life, it’s great, do you wanna have a listen?” While listening to the static chirp of birds and rustling trees, it became apparent that these stalwarts of big-beat-breaks cast a wide net from which to draw their many influences.

Headthrash is the new album by DJ duo Lee Rous and Andy Gardner, and by all accounts it was well received by an audience who has been gagging for a new release since they unleashed their last full length album, Eargasm, so many moons ago. They wouldn’t dare stray too far from their breaks roots, but Rous was quick to emphasis that this new offering has a fresh sound. “It’s a pretty varied body of work, we set out to do something different and we’ve spent the last two years in the studio putting this together. We’re still trying to push the boundaries and come up with some exciting and fresh ideas.”

In contrast to the progressive structure of Eargasm, Headthrash combines a more divergent selection of tracks. “The tunes are all so varied we had to think of contrast and if you listen to the album all the tracks sort of fit together in a very contrasting way. One song will be really in-your-face and the next will be soothing and the next chunky, they compliment each other with a certain flow but with less of a progressive set-up. There’s tracks like He Got Beef which is like the slowest acid-dance track ever known, but then there’s still some nice old-school flavours with Intermission and SNAFU.”

The Plumps have been with their label Finger Lickin’ for near on a decade now, and it would appear they’ve earned the respect of their benefactors to the point of being given free reign. “It’s different to what Finger Lickin’ is used to selling. They’re used to up-front dance albums, but on this album there’s tracks that are a serious divergence from our regular sound, we were really able to have a bit of fun, there was no obligation from Finger Lickin’ to make music for the purpose of making money, we were under no pressure to follow their designs, we had total artistic freedom, that was really great. We’re really aware of how valuable it is and tried to explore our talents, if you can call them talents, not everybody thinks they’re talents.” Rous laughed to himself. But it’s clear the Plumps have plenty of fans, the pair have been residents at Fabric in London for many years. “We’re doing four nights at Fabric now, we’ve changed the name to Headthrash to coincide with the release of the new album. Yeah it’s still rockin’!”

Not satisfied with playing at one of London’s biggest clubs, the pair made the trip to Ibiza this summer where they were able to inject some breakbeat into the traditionally house dominated dance floors. “Playing breaks to the crowd at Ibiza is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. This year we broke through, playing for Carl Cox on the Terrace at Space, we were very well looked after. We also played the main rooms at We Love and Eden. It’s all changing in Ibiza with a specialisation of genres, the new electro wave has been huge, it’s all starting to blur together, where once it was just house, now rock is starting up in a huge way.”

Clearly, Ibiza has evolved over the years, but it’s disappointing that the interest in new genres on the island happens at the same time as laws are introduced to curb its reputation for unbridled hedonism. “It’s pretty damn wild, but they’ve started to bring in a few more restrictions, there were too many starry eyed kids walking into road accidents in the middle of the day, so the clubs all have to close at 6am now.” It was sounding like the days of 24 hour clubbing were over, but Lee assured me that if you know the right people there’s plenty of cliff top villa parties to keep one night rolling into the next.

Not content with island hopping, the Plumps have had a hectic summer of touring and managed to play a total of nine festivals. “It’s been our busiest summer ever, we played at Glastonbury, Glade, Global Gathering.” The pair certainly haven’t slowed down, and Rous stresses that they’re not stagnating. “As you evolve your sound changes, you can’t please everybody, tastes change all the time, we just make sure we’re both 100% happy with what we put together or it doesn’t happen.”

The pair have been making music together for 14 years, and Rous explains that being immersed in this line of work for so long can make it hard to switch off. “I find it really hard to relax if there is new, innovative music playing, d’you know what I mean? It’s like it just draws my attention and I start thinking about it and can’t concentrate. So I like to listen to old music, tunes that I’ve heard a thousand times that are simple, otherwise I just get wrapped up in the complexity of a new tune, I start dissecting it, it’s hard to explain but when I’m at home I like to listen to old music.”

Putting the complexities of the creative mind aside, Rous also concedes he does listen to the productions of certain contemporaries. “Modeselektor are putting out some cool stuff, and of course the Stanton Warriors are still really good, I do listen to their stuff I’ll admit it. Actually they’ve done a remix of Shifting Gears, it’s really good.”

Headthrash is out now through Finger Lickin’, distributed locally by Inertia. Don’t forget the Plump DJs will hit Australia to tour with Parklife very soon, proudly supported by inthemix. For all the latest on Parklife 2008 head to inthemix.com.au/parklife:

Sat Sep 27th – Adelaide
Sun Sep 28th – Melbourne
Mon Sep 29th – Perth
Sat Oct 4th – Brisbane
Sun Oct 5th – Sydney