Ohh this is rather exciting a new Plumps album , lets have a listen shall we…

1. BEST BELIEVE US

This works well as a short intro, and sets the tone for the album. Lush 80’s synths, that conjure up images of a ‘Logan’s Run’ type retro future, give way to highly dramatic toms fills, glitchey bleeps and a fat down tempo beat. Bright chords continue the futuristic feel with subtle yet hooky vocal elements giving ‘Headthrash’ just the introduction it needs!

The plumps are back! woohoo!

2 SYSTEM ADDICT

Well we all know the score here, this track has been a staple of pretty much everyone’s record box in some way or another since it started doing the rounds early this year, and rightly so, it still send shivers up ones spine, fusing breaks, house, electro, dance floor energy, and hands in the air breakdowns! But fear not, the album may have started on a high point, with this track, but there is still room to go up

3 SHIFTING GEARS

Super funky 70’s style disco samples open up in to a grimy wobbling bass line that will make even the baddest of bad boy push to the dance floor! This track is the first (but not only) on the album to use a full blown vocal, this time courtesy of the highly talented us vocalist ‘Niara’. If there is one track on the album that has the potential to filter over the mainstream this has to be it.
As ‘Shifting Gears’ roles out, the vibe of the track is perfect for summer, effortlessly laid back but still danceable. Then, when this third track of the album breaks down, and chops up, the rapping skills of Raphael Lamotta perfectly compliment Niara’s hook and give a healthy dose of energy. According to the press release this one will be a single, and personally I cant wait, proper nice funky refreshing vibes. Perfect for a long hot summer!

4 SNAKE EYES

A stark contrast from the smoothed out funky vibes of ‘Shifting Gears’, ‘Snake Eyes’ brings the album to a tougher dance floor, with has hard as nails beats and some of the most pounding fills you will hear in breaks at the moment. The dirty bass line and hypnotic ‘All these eyes, all these faces’ chant give ‘Snake Eyes’ all the mussel of a Russian Tank but with the energy of a supercharged Ferrari. Clearly this track will be mimicked for years to come and undoubtedly will become a valued tool for the DJ’s amongst us.

5 HES GOT BEEF

Track 5 Opens up with the vocal “Im gonna walk right over to him…. *and put him… in the something*” ….. well you cant tell the last bit really, but dance musics always been about indistinguishable vocals hasn’t it!.
Moving on ….
He’s got beef is a down tempo’ish’ number coming in around 110 bpm but has some seriously pounding beats, a big dirty bass line, and an acid line to make you body move. As this track breaks down and builds up, the Plumps show off there talent at making a track that quite simply makes you feel good, not matter what genre BPM or ’scene’ its for!. He’s got beef combines elements of breaks, big-beat and hip hop to create something seriously unique, not just a great album track!

6 INTERMISSION

Ah … the 80’s / early 90’s is back! … I often think the Plumps would have even wider success if they dressed in bright day glow shell suites and wore over size Timmy mallet shades during here DJ sets, … or maybe not …
Intermission has a very summery feel and does exactly what it say on the tin, splits the album up perfectly with a blissed out trip to a nicer place , sort of like watching the sun go down at a festival, the day is gone and it was good, but the night comes and brings so much more!

7. THEME X

Discotastic! THEME X is an unashamed nod to the stylings of Prince, the 80’s, and the funk roots of the Plumps. Disco loops, demented resonant squeaky synths, and hoooky vocals make for a great party starter that will surly become a weapon of choice for warm-up jocks and the funkier of the breaks and house community, lets hope for a 12” mix of this one.

8. S.N.A.F.U

Well I think this track wins the prize for the silliest name but ‘Snaf You’ as I will call it from now on is a great number, which really harks back to the birth of nuskool, super tight energetic ‘real’ breakbeats are re-enforced with an underlying bass stab at the start of each bar, and make a solid energetic bed for an array of crazed synth stylings, complimented by a lead line that feels like a cross between a 70’s Hollywood car chase and an acid monster from the planet rush!

9 BEAT MYSELF UP

The vocoded vocal “I let my self down, then I beat my self up” opens up a stomper of a track. Which further still guilds the Plumps skill with synthesis. Smooth moments and energetic outbursts are complimented by the vocoded vocal, which very is singalongable, but without getting too cheesy. In this track I hear Gary Newman, Daft Punk and a host of others referenced, showing of the diversity of the Plumps taste, and just how well they can put a piece of music together, be it for home listening or for the floor!

10 DISCO UNUSUAL

Track 10 rises the tempo a bit and opens up with percussive bell sounds, tight beats, and smooth rising synths. Lush cords take over as the track progresses and then drops back into a thumping stripped back roller, that will work wonders on the later night dance floor. Slightly tripped out, this ones a grower.

11 VICTIM

Glitched up elements, less BPM, and slow eerie synths give an interesting bed to this vocal collaboration with Sharlene Hector. Hectors vocal styling may not be to everyone’s taste, but they are certainly contemporary, and as a result this track is some what of a departure for the Plumps we all know, but this is no bad thing. Victim is a strong album track that wouldn’t sound out of place on a film sound track or a telly ad!

12 ROCKET SOUL

……. ahhh this tack!…. I hear you say.
Lush, and clearly a high pint of the album this track makes me what to put my laptop down get up and boogie round my living room….

hold on……

thats better… I digress…

The Plumps really know how to pull off these epic, euphoric energetic enigmatic numbers ( notice lots of e’s in there), and as such ‘Rocket Soul’ really has the Plumps signature sound. Opening up with super blissful synth strings then going into a flurry of energetic pulses ‘Rocket Soul’ drops and the dance floor goes mad.

THIS is what dance music SHOULD be like! Ups, downs, and rounds and rounds.
All in all the best track on the album and has already been causing quite a stir form just a few plays out and a certain youtube vid that has been flying round, if you buy this album for just one track, make it this one. Oh and lets have a single of this one please Mr. & Mrs Finger Lickin’ !

13 TORQUE OF THE DEVIL

So we have a new version of ‘TOTD’ for the album, and … wait for it …. its a love song!

What what what!?!?

The Plumps latest single has been transformed into a lush 80’s esq pop/dance crossover, and you may not like it… but you should!
I can totally understand why Finger Lickin’ / the Plumps decided to release Torque as a a club tack before the release of the album. These are like two different songs. Its not just the fact that ‘Passenger’s’ new vocal throughout has given the melody a whole new direction but the arrangement, structure and production of this album version is totally different to the track we’ve been hearing on the dance floor. A very bold move, but extremely well executed. Personally I love it, this new version makes me smile, but then I always was a bit partial to a little Duran Duran.

14 LOST IN SPACE

So this is is the end of the album, and what a curious place to finish, a down beat ’smooved’ out number that will be a hit with the non-breaks ladies in your life. Once again with a full vocal, and the addition quirky Space docking samples. This final track of the album winds proceedings down seriously, and is an even bigger departure from the pumps usual sound than we heard in ‘Victim’. None the less its still great to hear the kings of breaks flex there musical muscles, and what fine muscles they have.

Overall ‘Headthrash’ is a cracking piece of work which, over the space of an hour, manages to explore the roots and diversity of breaks. A genre heavily defined in its youth by the Plumps. Yet this album still has everything you would expect form a mainstream artist album, the ‘big tracks’, the ‘downbeat numbers’, a love song! And even one for the ladies, however the Plumps have archived this without sound too formulaic, and really show why they are still undisputed kings of the scene, ‘Headthrash’ is some of there best work since a plump night out!

You have to buy this album!