The Pamplemousse Project is the culmination of nearly half a decade’s work from Birmingham producers Spider Pryor-Williams and Chris Smith.
Born across the table of a Parisian restaurant in 2008, The Pamplemousse Project’s blend of live strings, percussion and electronica has been heralded as a cross between Zero 7, The XX and Massive Attack. Not a bad endorsement, and as their eponymous debut EP is bouncing around behind closed industry doors, many pundits have cited it as 2011’s big summer soundtrack.
“I call it chillout,” says Spider, “mainly because that’s what it makes me want to do, but it’s really hard to classify. All I know is that I wanted to create something that I would go out and buy. It took us a long time to get right, but I feel we have. I’d buy our Pamplemousse EP.”
Starting off working for Ministry Of Sound, Spider Pryor-Williams achieved his first major production success remixing Paul Thomas and Funkagenda’s ‘Space’ in 2004 for Mark Knight’s Toolroom Records. The previous year he’d collaborated with Funkagenda to produce ‘Aranjah’ for Birmingham based label, Groovedigital. However, the rising profile of the UK’s club scene made him refocus on more live based arrangements.
“I love House music, but the clubs were becoming too much about being seen at the club and not about the music,” says Spider. “With The Pamplemousse Project we wanted to create something that could be performed live, with a tight group of classically trained musicians. Its still Electronica, or Dance music, just with a more traditional soul.”
The Birmingham Review was invited into the studio to hear the final cut of The Pamplemousse Project EP last month, which includes tracks ‘Horizon’, ‘Nemesis pt1’, ‘Nemesis pt2’ and ‘Serendipity’ from their forthcoming album. We liked it a lot, but we want to know what you think. Could this be your 2011 summer soundtrack?
Listen to The Pamplemousse Project’s debut EP on Soundcloud at www.soundcloud.com/the-pamplemousse-project