Stanton Warriors

by John Bush
 
Stanton Warriors, a pair of studio engineers turned producers and remixers, energized the British garage scene with powerful, genre-spanning tracks and hyper-active mix dates. Dominic B. and Mark Yardley met while working at the seminal garage label Tuff Jam, Dominic in the A&R department and Yardley as a studio hand. Both were natives of the southwest (Bristol and greater Devon, respectively) and increasingly sick of contributing great work to other artists, so they pooled resources and recorded a pair of singles (&What You Gonna Do,& &Determined&) fusing the freedom and flair of 2-step with the renegade intelligence of nu-breaks. Yardley and Dominic then set their sights on remixing, dealing with offers from all over (Basement Jaxx, Missy Elliot, DJ Skribble, Azzido da Bass, Artful Dodger) and hitting with another single, &Da Virus.& Signed to XL in early 2001, Stanton Warriors released their full-length debut (The Stanton Session) later that year.