Plump DJs: The Story So Far.....
Emerging from the nascent Nu Skool Breaks scene at the end of the last century, the Plump DJs are the quintessential production duo. Over the course of fifteen acclaimed singles and three superlative albums, Andy Gardner and Lee Rous have become heavyweights of cutting edge club music.
Their beginnings were effortlessly organic; Andy was enjoying success as a producer on Freskanova Records working under the pseudonyms of Bowser and Cut & Paste when he began DJing regularly at the infamous Passenger night, co promoted by Lee and Steve Blonde. With an anything goes freestyle beats approach to its music policy, Passenger was one of London's hottest tickets. "There was a lot of enthusiasm" remembers Lee, "We had four pages about this little bar event in The Face and two pages in NME, just because so many people were going down there, there was so much energy." Already well acquainted through mutual friends and many nights clubbing, the pair decided to transfer the abundance of energy that Passenger exuded into their own music. "I started working as a runner for Freskanova and my DJing was going really well and Andy's DJ’ing was going well but he wanted more gigs and I wanted to get into the studio, so the Plumps were born".
The Plump DJs name first appeared as a remix credit on Soul Hooligan's 'Sweet Pea', a one off white label 'Y2K' quickly followed but it wasn't until their paths crossed with Finger Lickin' Records’ A&R doyen Justin Rushmore that things really started to snowball. The pair's first two outings for the label, 'Electric Disco / Plumpy Chunks' and 'The Push' /'Remember My Name', were cavernous slabs of pumping beats and filthy squelching bass that took the world's dance-floors by storm and began to turn the heads of some big name players. It was however, the advent of the samplers for their debut mix album 'A Plump Night Out' that carved their name deep into the soul of dance music. Featuring a typically bold remix of War's disco-edged funk anthem 'Galaxy' and Plump classics 'Move It With Your Mind', 'No Way' and the seminal 'Scram', The Plump DJs were transformed from promising Breakbeat contenders into dance music's big league heavy hitters. The ‘Plump Night Out’ album itself went on to become a textbook demonstration in how to rock the party.
A deluge of remix offers followed from the likes of Electronauts, JDS and Deejay Punk-Roc, along with the support of heavyweight luminaries including Pete Tong, Sasha and the Chemical Brothers. With their creative juices flowing, the accolades began tumbling in, dance chart #1's, singles of the month and compilation of the year, all reinforced the Plump DJs uncanny ability to remain relevant to a purist underground, whilst enjoying mass club appeal. Their ‘Elastic Breaks’ covermount for Mixmag gave the tome its biggest selling issue ever, their lauded remix of the Electronauts’ ‘Bumper’ won best remix at the Muzik Awards and they narrowly missed winning Best Breakthrough DJs. Levi's snapped up ‘The Push’ for a Japanese jeans advert and several releases graced the soundtrack to Playstation's flagship Wipeout Fusion game. The Hartnoll brothers’ admiration of the pair resulted in a personal request for the Plump DJS to be Orbital’s tour support, which regularly saw Andy & Lee taking complete control of 30,000 people and leaving a lasting impression. Their DJ sets became the stuff of legend as they dropped unreleased gems that would blow away the uninitiated and keep the faithful salivating, waiting for their next move. With expectation at fever pitch the release of 'Big Groovy Fucker' kept the dance-floor pressure on, as flipside 'TB Reality' became a Fatboy Slim anthem. The Plump DJs were at the zenith of club-cool.
In 2003 their first artist album the appositely named 'Eargasm' saw them raise the bar once again with an unparalleled set that changed the course of the Breakbeat scene and made waves throughout club-land. Including contributions from former Lamb chanteuse Louise Robinson, funk legend Eddie Bo and electro godfather Gary Numan, the record covered all stylistic bases from Derek May to Stevie Wonder, confounding expectations and giving a glimpse at the depth to which the Plumps' influences ran. Worldwide DJ tours and the establishment of their roadblock 'Eargasm' Fabric residency followed hot-on-the-heels of the album. The trophy cabinet was given another extension to cope with the influx of honours as the Plumps swept the board at the Breakspoll Awards, something that was to become a feature of the event for several years to come.
After a whirlwind of activity, Lee & Andy returned to the depths of the fabled Laboratoire Plump to plot their next moves. The result of their scheming was 'Saturday Night Lotion'. Following the ‘Plump Night Out’ blueprint; half way between a new artist set and a mix album, ‘Saturday Night Lotion’ was one of dance music's most eagerly anticipated excursions. Featuring their boldest releases to date, including 'Get Kinky', 'Acid Hustle' and 'The Soul Vibrates', as well as a raft of the finest moments from stable-mates Soul Of Man and Drumattic Twins and old sparring partners like Lee Coombs and the Freestylers, the Plumps once again took their mercurial brew to the next level. As the rest of the dance music scene seemed to crumble around them, our dynamic duo showed no signs of losing their way with a blistering trip through the Plump psyche, turning up the intensity, weaving a 70-minute masterpiece with their trademark magnitude.
Keeping their foot firmly on the gas in the club arena with a startling D Ramirez mix of Electric Disco which ruled the white Isle during the summer of 2006, the Plump DJs once again retreated to Laboratoire Plump and began piecing together their latest magnum opus. Holed up in a stew of their own creativity, Lee & Andy have assembled an arsenal of tracks with quiet confidence. The first clue is ‘System Addict’. A lowing beast of beats and churning bass, an instant dance-floor smash. Alerting club-land to the imminent release of new material, tension has been rising as DJs, producers and fans alike wait with bated breath for the next chapter of their odyssey.
Featuring tracks penned solely by the duo, the album is, as expected, yet another lesson in pioneering production and dance-floor savvy. Their soulful side is given room to breath with a collection of collaborations that reveal a far-reaching funk radar. “ This album is the result of three years of our ongoing experiments in electronic music production” Andy divulges from his studio seat. From obscure prog. rock samples to bona-fide mega-star vocalists the Plump DJs are once again about to change the face of dance music with a stunning step-up that will leave no one in any doubt as to their astonishing ability to stay out in-front, inspiring without fear of baffling their audience. The Plump DJs have only ever known one direction and that's up.