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It's new techno! It's old hip hop! The world catches up with Kurtis Mantronik by MIREILLE SILCOTT
So, no, electronica isn't too smart for America. Kurtis Mantronik was using an SP1200 long before the the Orbital brothers let go of bleach 'n' tear punk. Americans just aren't smart enough to remember it. Americans now look to the insipid pop hoppers like the Sneaker Pimps for the programmed sound of the new, when their own people set down better bleeps over 15 years ago with a style now usually called electro funk--a style which borrowed from Kraftwerk to make breaking street beats. "I called what I was making hip hop," says Kurtis Mantronik, who as Mantronix took a single drum machine onstage at New York's Roxy to play live technological music for breakdancers as early as 1983. "Someone once said to me that the types of records that I made back in the '80s, like 'Bass Machine,' weren't made for their time but for a few years later. I never realized that until now, because everyone is asking me to do new productions that sound exactly like my old ones." The recent anglo resurrection of electro funk's scraping 808 drum patterns and minimal beats and the smacking similarity between this and tunes released on modern electronic labels like Warp or 430 West have made some wonder why early hip hop's influence on today's electronica hasn't been more widely noticed. "Segregation on charts has tons to do with it," says Mantronik. "R&B separated from pop, pop from dance. This allows for much hype given to slight variations of basically the same music. Like, why is speeded-up hip hop suddenly called drum & bass?" Drum & bass enthusiasts could floor Mantronik with answers, but let's leave the man be. He's just gotten back into production, following an absence lasting through the '90s. After breakdancing/electro fell out in the mid '80s, Mantronik went on to produce some crap rap, some beautiful R&B with Joyce Simms (including classic "Come Into My Life"), and then stopped studio work altogether. "I didn't like where music was going," says Mantronik, now 31. "Also, I felt my label [Sleeping Bag] was not getting my stuff out to enough people to make it a happening sound." Mantronik signed to New York's Oxygen Music last year. His first project was "retuning" his old tracks, giving them more bottom and clearer sound. "A good starter project," he shrugs. "Like, I'm still trying to get with the new things producers do, like using different fictitious artist names for different albums. I really don't see why I should use any name but Mantronik, though. It just works." Kurtis Mantronik spins at Megabyte this Saturday, June 12. Other guests include Hardfloor, David Homes and Darren Price. $25 adv/$30 door. Info: 981-8488 Do you like Mantronik? Everyone from British electro revivers Jedi Knights to the Beastie Boys say they love Kurtis Mantronik's music, as will any beat-follower with fresh scruples. But do people really know his sounds? This past Sunday at DNA Records, the Mirror blindfolded five local music bigwigs and asked them to identify four of Mantronik's records. Here's what they thought: Mantronix "Bass Machine Retuned" (Original tuning) (Oxygen Music) Record played at 45 instead of 33 Tiga Sontag (owner, DNA Records): Is this Jedi Knights? It's not bad. Gavin McInnes (editor, Vice): It's a remix of Afrika Bambaata's "Funk Monster." [ed's note: no song of that name exists] Mark Dillon (DNA shopper): Some guy down in Italy somewhere must've made this. Willo Perron (On The Real promoter): Or some Euro guy trying to do electro. Plan-B (hip hop journalist): Sounds like something Tiga's working on. Mantronix "Bass Machine Retuned" (Original tuning) (Oxygen Music) Record at proper RPM Plan-B: I could get with this, it's got handclaps--got to be old. Tiga: It's definitely better than the first one. Is this Jedi Knights? Gavin: Oooh... Marc Almond and Nina Hagen? Mantronix featuring MC Tee "Simple SimonYou Gotta Regard" (Capital) Plan-B: Maybe Whodini... ugh... I wouldn't give it two listens. Mark: Vanilla Ice? I'd leave it on someone's answering machine as a joke. Tiga: This is slamming. Something like Whodini or Mantronix. Gavin: Er... NWA? Billy Idol? Future Sound of London "We Have Explosive" (Kurtis Mantronik Remix) (Astralwerks) Plan-B: This is for glow stick kids. Tiga: Its the Future Sound of London doing what they do worst. Really? Tiga: Yeah, um, er, is it Future Sound of London? It's the Mantronik remix of... Tiga: Oh. Wait! Mantronik's coming! That's what this is all about? God we're dumb, only took an hour to get the pattern. Willo: Okay, I got the next record, it's Mantronix!! Tiga: I guess you're going to line us up and shoot us now... Thanks to Mateo at DNA and everyone at Disquivel. |
"Is electronica too clever for America?" This is a question recently posed by British journalist Emma Warren. Maybe Emma should take a look around her native land and answer her own query. Perhaps she should have a peek at the records many London DJs are using as proof that they were spiritually born long before Acid '88. Records made by Americans like Mantronix, Chuck Chill Out, Bambaata, Marley Marl. Dumb ol' Yanks who were pretty darned clever in the early '80s.