ABOUT US

Ben (Bass) AND David (Drums, Riddim Maker)

Jamaican Reggae lovers since always, David (Drums, Riddim Maker) and Ben (Bass), based in Marseille (France), they are musicians of the New Roots / Dancehall movement since more than 20 years. They started to work together in 2008 in several formations. Both eager to go incessantly to purely Jamaican music, without compromise or crossbreeding, in 2014 they decided to found their own group:“Stargate Backing Band”.

Two simple objectives :
∗ the work of “Backing”: accompany on stage different singers using their compact and solid duo;
∗ the work of “Riddim Maker”: compose, record and produce their own Riddims, instrumental versions on which they collaborate with various singers.

In 2018 they founded the label “Stargate Productions”, an essential step in musical self-production aiming at obtaining more freedom in all their artistic choices and partnerships. The visual universe and the graphic identity, inseparable from their approach and vision, are also realized by Stargate Productions.

The same year, they record their first project, the B.U RIDDIM. A title that is a declaration of intent: pronounced ‘be you’ like ‘be you, do not cheat, be yourself’. It simultaneously symbolizes their desire for accomplishment and realization through their first production. The album was mixed by Denis Thery at Studio K and mastered by Olivier Planchard at Middle Side Mastering, both privileged partners of Stargate Productions.
The B.U Riddim album is available from September 2019 on all digital platforms, distributed by DIBYS-MUSIC, and also on this website in CD digipack format. This ‘One Riddim Album’ brings together 17 international singers including big reggae names such as Luciano “the Messenjah”, Jah Mason, Exco Levi or Denham Smith aka Chilli. But there are also new talents to discover such as Darrio, Kenny Smyth, Jah Torius, Jahlani Muziq (Luciano’s young protégé) from Jamaïca or Makkan J from Senegal.

In 2019, “Stargate Productions” produces the video clip for “True to the music” by Luciano “the Messenjah” the “flagship” artist of the project B.U Riddim. This track is a hymn to the melodies and groove of reggae music, Jamaica’s real heartbeat, its mysticism and fostering of positive sentiment across the world since its inception. This video was directed by Romain “Sherkahn” Chiffre and features the famous dancer-choreographer Orville “Xpressionz” Hall, artistic director of the Xpressionz theater and judge of Jamaica’s number one dance TV series “Dancin’Dynamites”. In the video , Hall embodies the role of an elder in a comedy that immerses us in the everyday conflicts of the protagonists George and Esmeralda. Both entertaining and captivating, these two octogenarians, immobile and inseparable, rediscover their youth, kinship and love for dancing while listening to the“True to the music” track.