Stanton Warriors

Anyone who heard Stanton Sessions Volume 1 when it first dropped in 2001 immediately recognized it as a landmark fusion between breakbeat, garage/two-step and the just-emerging grime and dubstep scenes. With in-house MC Moose laying verses over the absurdly danceable mix, British breakbeat duo Stanton Warriors took the hackneyed drum n' bass MC and injected some fun into the stereotype. Hearing Busta Rhymes over a ragga two-step riddim was a goddamn revelation back then.

FINALLY, someone gets the hip-hop and dance music fusion right. There is hope! And "Da Virus" was just the sickest track I had heard for years after that album came out.

Stanton Sessions Vol. 2 saw “Pop Ya Cork” and the Jahmali collaboration with "Blaze" that got the group some MTV airtime. 2006's FabricLive 30 featured their highly-vaunted remix of Claude VonStroke's massive "Who's Afraid of Detroit" as well as the first electronic remix of Spank Rock's "Bump" that I heard (not a small feat given that tune’s ubiquity among remixers).

But with Stanton Sessions Vol. 3, it seems the group who named themselves after a brand of manhole covers finally ran out of steam. The vocals have gotten cheesy, and the overall sound is derivative, not progressive. While the Stanton Warriors standing idly by, the likes of Freq Nasty, glitch-hop/laser-bass outfits like The Glitch Mob and Megasoid, or even Italian electro duo Crookers were busy taking the reins of the hip-hop/electronica fusion into ridiculously dirty new territory.

A blind listening test would undoubtedly reveal that Stanton Sessions Vol. 1 still sounds the freshest after more than seven years on the market. That's not to say that Vol. 3 isn't without its exclamation points, it just leaves you unsure of what the meaning of the entire sentence is. With Vol. 1, they told the whole world they had arrived, now they’re just simply reminding everyone they’re still around.

The exceptions come later in the mix in the form of the Bassbin Twin's mind-numbingly dirty staccato remix of the Warrior’s own "Get Wild," followed by a Stanton remix of a BPA track named "Toe Jam" that features British rap phenom Dizzee Rascal and Talking Heads vet David Byrne.

The rest falls pretty lockstep into standard-fare breakbeat. It's mixed well, the edits and a Capella usage demonstrate an obvious technical mastery, but it just doesn’t excite. In the era where strict-genres are dying quicker than General Motors, you gotta roll with the musical Darwinism or risk becoming stagnant—and potentially irrelevant—with just one release.

—Chris Nelson
12.15.08

Pioneers of the nu skool breaks genre and still going strong, Bristol-based Dominic Butler and Mark Yardley are back with a third volume in their Stanton Sessions series (named after their regular event at London's Fabric club). The program is a nice blend of the familiar (Plump DJs, DJ Icey, Chemical Brothers, Too Short) and the somewhat more obscure (Chromeo, Tony Senghores, D-Lirium). Butler and Yardley show particular affection for offbeat hip-hop: cheeky rappers Yo Majesty open the album with the brilliant "Stanton Warriors Remix" of "Club Action," then quickly cede the stage to the equally impressive Plump DJs (who also team up with Basement Jaxx later in the program). But the finest moment comes courtesy of DJ Deekline and Ed Solo with the utterly stoopid "Handz Up!," a content-free party anthem that delivers its complete lack of intellectual content over an irresistibly complex and layered beat. Part of what makes this track so effective is the fact that it contrasts so nicely with the gospel-ish harmonies of Stanton Warriors' own "Blaze" and the swinging R&B lovers rock of Timebox's "Beggin'." Things bog down just a bit toward the end, but never enough to really dampen the deliriously funky mood. Excellent. ~ Rick Anderson, All Music Guide