On the eve of their sold-out Fabriclive.08 album launch party, Plump DJs’ Lee Rous is at home in London drinking up media attention with a bottle of wine. He’s been probed on the phone for three hours, but one gets the feeling that chattering away for the quick-witted Lee Plump is as easy as one, two…music in three dimensions.
The plump patter, however, is a sweet Riesling. And Lee is arguably one of the nicest and most laid back blokes in not just breaks, but dance music. His animated voice is colorful, and his laughter so amplified that the phone receiver must be moved away from the ear to protect hearing! Huh? I can’t hear you? The pops of laughter are not just loud; they’re gutsy tidal waves of jovial force synonymous with duo’s strike in Breakbeat since 1999.
So, those who have felt the ripple effects of the Lee Rous and Andy Gardner collective can make the association themselves… of how the decibels of Plump DJisms have plucked the eardrums, and how breakbeat has since seriously tickled the most proper of feet. It ain’t no slanted testimony, and if you haven’t seen the writing on the wall you can kiss this bass: numerous sold out Plump-headlined parties around the globe, reinforced with the kind of cross-over record sales that every underground breaks artist, or otherwise, would hissy-fit with excitement over.
“We just do what we like doing and we try to work towards that,” says Lee on the Plumps’ success before his positive and grateful attitude unfolds. “I can’t say there’s any miraculous plan or anything, it just seems to happen. We’re just fortunate that everyone else seems to like what we’re doing. We’ve been working on the new album for a year and a half now.”
The album Lee talks about is the highly anticipated second artist album from the Plump DJs on Fingerlickin’ Records since the galactic fame of A Plump Night Out released in 2000. Since then, the Plumps have unleashed the Urban Underground compilation, with various other 12’s along with their re-dubbed dubplates of singles from the likes of Orbital and BT. And now…we get a taste of Plumps in 2003 with their Fabriclive ensemble showcasing a teaser of four of their latest numbers.
Indeed, all the new Plump chubby cargo on Fabriclive.08 is minted with their unique sound. But they’ve ventured into new, more refined waters. Staying detached from other people’s expectations of what “Plump DJs” should sound like – hype per se- the two-some have taken time to playfully elope with the rawness of artistic groove. Though their anchor remains very “them”, still connected to that robust Plump vessel.
“We’re both 30,” says Lee of his and Andy’s self-awareness to the changes that ensue with growth and age. “And we both realise that for things to continue we’ve a) got to be mates and b) just enjoying ourselves, musically. And we’ve never really been followers of fashion too much. We were pretty much loners at school…”
Doing whatever floats their boat is a rudimentary belief that propels the soul and mind of both Plumps. When they see guys and girls dancing during their sets, they love it. When they see guys and girls criticizing, they still do what they like. Don’t like it? Dowatchyalike. “We like playing our game, and I think the important thing is to listen to the majority and not the minority. You’re always going to have critics. Though, the people who we find most inspiring are the ones we can’t quite understand sometimes. I think it’s important to just do what you like, and if you can’t please everyone…” Lee claims before he caps in a very English way ”... then sod it!”
“Drawing inspiration from strange places,” he says, to transform the absurd into the very digestible is another charm factor for Lee and Andy. “You know, I’ve spent 24/7 in a box with Andy making funny noises. We sampled the sound of bacon frying. It was on an old BBC record song. And we actually used that as atmospherics in one of the tracks. You’re not going to tell anyone, and they’re not going to realise that they’re actually listening to the sound of bacon frying…but it’s there. We even sampled the sound of a shaking cigarette packet.”
Although the Plump DJs unique sampling antics are most bizarre, beckoning an iz you fo’ reawl retort, Lee avers that there’s no such thing as original thought, and that they – we, you, me, them, and the unborn children of the world – are just products of our environment, reprocessing surrounds through filtered assimilation. Music in three dimensions. So the Plump’s music is actually their humour of life expressed through acoustic imagery?
“If you’re going to get deep like that…” Lee’s tone shifts into academic reflection, voice deep. Both ends of the line can almost picture yesteryear’s pot-bellied, visor-eyebrowed university lecturer peering over his spectacles with his answer. Patches on elbows, nervous ticks, hairiest of nostrils… eek! Snap back to reality…oh there goes gravity…Lee resurfaces laughing with “what was the question again?” – clearing the air of an almost-serious mood.
“We’ve used some funny bits and bobs,” he belly chuckles, when asked if he and Andy stole Rolf Harris’s whoopy board to make wobbly noises. “We’ve got a load of old analog synthesizers. We use those; combined with various other analog bits and bobs. I can’t give too much away, but we use a combination of old techniques to create a new sound.”
Bacon frying, bits, wits, bobs, knobs, cigarette packs shaking, the essence of Rolf Harris and his sporty kangaroo, now probably ill on Animal Hospital – it only seems nonsensically natural that last year Lee should have a fancy-dress birthday party where the theme was Stars and Vegetables.
“I wanted to give all my friends a party they could remember. Just to be able to push the love back and say thanks,” Lee gets fuzzy. “I wanted like, vegetables. My twin sister wanted to have Stars, so we had Stars and Vegetables. But it was only me and Andy that turned up as vegetables! The other two hundred people came as really flashy Hollywood stars! It was funny, I ended up DJing in a carrot outfit.”
And Andy? “He went as a tomato!,” he combines wincing with a gargling giggle, almost snorting. “So we had a big furry carrot, and a big furry tomato. We hadn’t even planned it, I didn’t even know he was turning up as a vegetable.”
Organic costumes, organic sounds, and even organic relationships are elements that keep the Plumps real. Not quite cricket situations are relished and nurtured. How? Lee and Andy invited the parental unit and the rest of their family out to Fabric one night to show them what was going on in their world.
“As you see your parents once in a while, me and Andy kept turning up looking like crap, not slept,” he relates to the universal problem every clubber has. “And your parents are like ‘what the hell are you doing with your self? Why don’t you get a proper job?’ We’d had enough. We’d feel like we were doing really well…and you turn up at your parents and they’d say ‘why don’t you get a job like so and so next door?’
Oh dear.
“So they came up…sisters and cousins and god knows who else. And we had them in Room 1 at the DJ booth at three in the morning! It was fantastic,” he laughs with humorous achievement before he tells of the monster created of exposing the olds to dance music nightlife. “Now both my parents are like, ‘can we come more often?’...No!”
Lee rigorously assures that the Parental Plumps won’t be joining them in vegetable suits or anything of the sort at the album launch at Fabric. Instead the Plump DJs will be joined by the stellar Stanton Warriors, James Lavelle, Tayo and many more for a night of…well…do you dare ask? “I think the compilation has sold more to date than any other Fabriclive compilation so far,” chuffs Lee. “All the management is totally chuffed, and we’re totally chuffed too. It’s going to be a mad night.”
We can only imagine.
Plump DJs – Fabriclive.08 is out through DMC.
