‘Future Warrior’ is the first collaboration between Belgium DJ/Producer D’Stephanie and Philippo Fierens. They first met in the DJ booth at Club Geluk in Antwerp where they shared a mutual interest in reggae, afrobeat, soul and broken beats. It’s these influence’s that are to the fore on the original mix. Phillippo is the singer in his own reggae band ‘Savana Station’ whilst, Winok Seresia joins in on guitar to get that afrobeat going. Add a bit of house and you’ve got a tune that would fit happily in D’Olieslager Stephanie’s DJ box that she’s been hauling around all the main European capitals for the past 13 years.

My favourite electro-house-reggae mix-up is Domu and Volcov’s ‘Souljah’ which came out one of Sonar Kollektiv’s many subsidiary labels, Best Seven. This arm of the Kollectiv’s Berlin-based body has also released some other great tracks in the genre, such as, Joe Dukie and DJ Fitchie’s ‘Midnight Marauders’, Eva Be’s ‘Eve’s Time Tonite’ and Lightning Head’s last album, ‘Studio Don’. All worth looking out for.

However, back to ‘Future Warrior’, Bugz In The Attic fans will know what to expect when they see labels with, ‘Daz-I-Kue Remix’ and ‘Daz-I-Kue Dub’ stamped on them. Neither disappoint on this release and for my ears are stronger than the a-side. Deep, deep bass, funky shuffle and the echo EFX are done to perfection by the knob twiddler.

The “unsung hero of Bugz”, Daz-I-Kue, aka Daz Benjamin, had his first solo 12” released last month called ‘Rokstone (Soon Come)’ with Colonel Red featuring on vocals. As ‘Future Warrior’ is on the reggae/afro tip, ‘Rokstone’ is more of a soulful outing. Mark de Clive-Lowe joins in with “Several Small Fury Bugz Co-Operating In The Attic’ on the b-side remix and it’s deep. How deep? Fathoms matey. And talking of The Bugz, they are just releasing a “mainly soul” compilation on Harmless as part of the ‘Life: Styles’ series (also see 4 Hero & Laurent Garnier’s ‘Life: Styles’).

So a busy time for Daz-I-Kue who’s recently had tracks played at the re-launch of That’s How It Is. He will be joining DJ Stephanie at Warm in Shoreditch for the ‘Future Warrior’ launch. So if you’re not decanting to live in a field for the weekend, this looks the gig in town to go to. Expect the temperature to be hotter than just warm. The Warm team are also running joint Sonar Kollektiv’e gigs throughout the summer at the Big Chill bar so keep an eye on their web site for further information.

Reviewed: D’Stephanie feat. Philippo — ‘Future Warrior’ (Sonar Kollektiv Cat. No. SK057)

Links:
DJ Stephanie www.DJ-stephanie.com
Daz-I-Kue
Sonar Kollektiv
Daz-I-Kue – ‘Rokstone (Soon Come)’ Bitasweet Records
Harmless - Life: Styles
That’s How It Is! – THIS! 2 @ Bar Rumba, Shaftesbury Avenue, London.
WARM Last Saturday of Every Month 8pm ‘til 2am Free B4 9pm / £6 after. The Medicine, 89 Great Eastern St. London EC2A 3HX www.medicinebar.net
Big Chill www.bigchill.net