originally published at Exclaim! here

PURPLE PENGUIN
Variety's Rhythm 

By Prasad Bidaye 

    Purple Penguin's Ben Dubuisson is constantly surrounded
by rhythm. He plays drums, DJs and sells funk and hip-hop
records from his store in Bristol, England. He also spends long
hours in the studio, digging through old vinyl for drum breaks
and beats that are sure to kick. 

    "I enjoy rhythm," admits Dubuisson, on the phone from the
Purple Penguin shop. "It's one of the things that excites me about any music.
Whenever I'm working on a track, it usually starts off with the groove, and the other
stuff that enhances it comes later. I don't know if other people work like that, but it's
certainly the way I look at it." 

    Dubuisson's love for rhythm is also what makes the funky shuffles all over Purple
Penguin's debut, De-Tuned, so distinct from the excess of trip-hop records coming out
in the scene. His beats shuffle and swing in the spirit of early break-beat music,
rocking hip-hop grooves into light, ambient modes. The song structures are loose and
lyric-less, but full of melancholic vibes that float in and out over the groove. The
abstract sensibility, Dubuisson says, is less influenced by the downtempo genre that
his tracks are often lumped in with, and comes directly from the underground scene he
and DJ partner Scott Hendy witnessed in Bristol during the early '80s. 

    "I'd often go out," he recalls, "to hear punk bands, reggae bands and DJs messing
around with loads of dub, indie sound and funk, all in one club. It was really an exciting
time. The barriers were far less defined, and you didn't go to a club just to listen to one
type of music. It's unusual to find someone really mixing it up in England anymore, but
Scott and I still tend to do that. We play funk, hip-hop, drum & bass, hard beats and
anything else with a groove. We also use three turntables so Scott can scratch, cut
and do anything else to make the records sound different. We don't emphasise so
much on the tempo, as much on the sounds that make the music soulful and free." 

    Dubuisson recently finished recording the next Purple Penguin album, and he hints
that the beats are more original and that the songs dig deeper into that old school,
free-form vibe. The disc, titled Question, will also feature his collaborations with
reggae, soul and indie rock artists from the likes of Rudy Lee, Andrea Blythe and
Santa Cruz. But before it gets released this spring, Purple Penguin is going out on its
first European tour, with a line-up that Dubuisson confidently feels will challenge the
stereotypes of live dance music. 

    "It's going to be fully live with drums, bass and everything," he says. "I'm really
looking forward to it because we're going to develop the songs with strong grooves
and make room for improvisation. That way we don't have to worry about computers
crashing or having to pack up machinery. We're just going to get out there and play. 

    "In England, people are really up for checking live stuff out again. The club scene's
gotten very commercial and tired, and people are looking for smaller and different
things to do. They're sick of dance bands who turn up with a DAT onstage and then
just stand there twiddling the knobs. And if it's downtempo stuff with everything
sequenced, it's really hard to get the crowd excited. That's why for us, it's more
important to get our energy across and do more than just copy the record." 

    Catch Purple Penguin's DJ sets at the Exclaim! party, April 4 at the Concert Hall in
Toronto, April X at some venue in Montreal and April X at another venue in Ottawa. 

                                          

originally published at Exclaim! here