Kurtis Mantronik was the leader, DJ, and keyboardist of the influential 1980s hip hop and electro-funk group Mantronix.
17 Facts About Kurtis Mantronik
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Kurtis Mantronik was born in Jamaica to a Syrian father and a Jamaican mother.
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Kurtis Mantronik emigrated to Sherwood Park, Alberta Canada with his family at the age of 7, before eventually settling in New York City.
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Kurtis Mantronik used a polyrhythmic style, similar to West African log drumming, but instead of acoustic drums, the rhythm would be carried by the combination of electronic drums, synthesizer, vocoder, [or] synthesized voice over a bass line completely played on the synth.
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Kurtis Mantronik's backing track for the song featured key trap elements, including Roland TR-808 bass, hi-hats, triplet snares and pitching down.
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Kurtis Mantronik met Wilson, a fellow Sleeping Bag Records label mate, while doing production for Wilson's aborted solo project.
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The group disbanded shortly after a European tour and promotion related to the release of the album, and Kurtis Mantronik left the music industry altogether for seven years.
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Kurtis Mantronik dropped out of the music industry after the breakup of Mantronix in 1991.
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Kurtis Mantronik moved from New York to the UK in the early 2000s, after releasing his well-received solo album, I Sing the Body Electro, in 1998, on New York indie label Oxygen Music Works.
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Kurtis Mantronik was most recently signed to London-based record label Street DNA, a sister label of the StreetSounds label, which released his newest studio album, Journey to Utopia, in late 2014.
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The somewhat reclusive Kurtis Mantronik opened Facebook, Twitter, and SoundCloud pages in connection with the promotion of the album.
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Since 1998, Kurtis Mantronik has produced and remixed tracks for pop, electronic dance music artists and groups such as Kylie Minogue, Junior Senior, Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, Victoria Beckham, Michael Gray, Liberty X, and Mim.
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Kurtis Mantronik remixed classical composer Steve Reich's Drumming for release on the Reich Remixed album in 1999, and he was enlisted for two remixes of the title track of the Shirley Bassey remix album Diamonds Are Forever in 2000.
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Kurtis Mantronik remains active in pop oriented electronic music, such as house and big beat.
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Kurtis Mantronik reformed the group Mantronix and made Bronx, New York rapper Bruse Wane a member of the group.
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Kurtis Mantronik produced and released three hip-hop songs that featured Bruse Wane as the main vocalist.
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Kurtis Mantronik produced, directed and edited three music videos for all three releases, which all appear on his official Mantronix YouTube channel.