Mantronix

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Mantronix Means Music

"Live and learn while you yearn for the money."

There are those artists that make one-hit wonders, barely making a dent in the books. There are those who have a significant effect on a genre, such that they take the genre in a whole new direction. And then there are acts like Mantronix who are paid homage to even by today's contemporary musicians.

Selling Records, Making Records

It all started in 1984, when Kurtis Mantronik, a working behind the counter at a Manhattan record store, met Touré Embden (a.k.a. MC Tee), an emcee and regular patron of the store. The two quickly clicked and decided to make Fresh is the Word, a demo that they sent to Sleeping Bag Records. Sleeping Bag apparently liked the unique (at the time) sound promised by the demo title, and Mantronix soon signed with company.

Fresh is the Word was released as a single in 1984, and it was a favorite both on the charts and in the club circuits. It was featured once again when Mantronix released its first record, Mantronix: The Album. Music critics and club lovers everywhere loved it. Their second album, Music Madness, was just as popular, bringing Mantronix's brew of synth, electronica and hip-hop into the public eye.

Success after success followed Mantronix. They released "Ladies" and "Basslines" which became huge club hits, and after their first two albums did so well, they got a recording deal from Capitol as well as scored one of the extremely rare 7-digit contracts for hip-hop groups at the time. A year after the contract was signed, the pair released In Full Effect, MC Tee's last album before leaving to join the United States Air Force.

Move Yah On

A couple of years after MC Tee left, Mantronik reformed the group with his cousin D.J. D and Bryce "Luvah" Wilson, an artist from Sleeping Bag whose project at the time had gotten shut down. The teamup created This Should Move Yah, Mantronix's 1990 album, the first without MC Tee. The album, described as slightly more mainstream, was a success with both the critics and the sales. It was a chart topper and radio favorite on both sides of the Atlantic.

Gospel singer Jade Trini came into the picture when D.J. D left soon after Move Yah. She and soul singer Angie Stone were the new factors in the equation for Mantronix's 1991 album, The Incredible Sound Machine. This new Mantronix album moved away from hip-hop and closer to the dance and R&B genres, a mix that old Mantronix fans didn't seem to receive well. It flopped on all counts; Mantronix disbanded soon after, but Kurtis Mantronik remained an important influence on beat makers and electronic music producers world wide, being recruited to remix the likes of Future Sound of London, EPMD and Doctor Ocrtagon.

Despite its short lifetime, the group managed to release albums that are still sampled and reworked by artists today. Acts like the Beastie Boys and Beck have numerous homages to the Mantronix sound.

Did You Know That...

...Mantronik had once wanted to be in a band? No band, however, would have him, so he bought himself a drum machine and a bass machine. He eventually learned how to create his own synthesized tracks.
...Mantronik himself worked to produce other albums? He got into the A&R Department at Sleeping Bag, which had him handling other artists' work.
...In Full Effect was a pioneer album? It was one of the first to be mastered using digital audio tapes (DAT) instead of the old reel-to-tape technique.

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