RiL071 No Smoke - Koro Koro
/Warriors Dance was a London based label with it's own style. It was very different from the great northern labels Warp and Network . In it's all too brief history it put out some great moments from Bang The Party, Addis Posse and of course No Smoke as well as Juan Atkins' Cybertron. Warriors Dance was run out of West London by Tony Thorpe but it was DJ Kid Batchelor who was their ambassador in the clubs. Kid Batchelor was one of the biggest DJs in London in 1990, best remembered for his residency at Confusion. At this time the crowds were much more mixed at house clubs than now and the Warriors crew represented what was called 'black music' at the time. Kid Batchelor was a superb DJ, I checked him a few times in London and we invited him to Basics probably 3-4 times. I remember nervously playing him 'Space Groover' (2020Vision 001) at a friends flat. I waited for his reaction,"where's the vocal?' was all he said. I didn't take offence - I thought it was funny, although I don't know why. Kid was one of the first UK DJs to travel internationally. He got really big in Italy early on. The Warriors sound was picked up on in NYC by Francois K, who also included 'Koro Koro' in his collection of classics for Azuli. They put out a great selection of tracks in rapid succession from 1988-1992.