After years in the wilderness, the legendary Kurtis Mantronik has re-emerged. Apart from a forthcoming new album of his own, ‘I Sing The Body Electro’, Mantronik has mixed a house version of EPMD’s ‘I Shot The Sheriff’-sampling rap classic ‘Strictly Business’ which recently topped the Cool Cuts chart. Mantronik originally emerged in the mid-Eighties as one of the architects of modern dance music through hits with his own group Mantronix and singer Joyce Simms. In 1990 he had a UK number one with ‘Got To Have Your Love’.

Explaining his absence from the music scene, Mantronik says, "I was going through a period of not exactly burnout but I just felt I didn’t have anything to contribute. What I was hearing didn’t inspire me and I was having problems with my old record company."

The new album brings the producer’s story up to date. "It’s a revisit of some sorts to the stuff I was doing in the past, with parts of old tracks like ‘Bassline’ and ‘King Of The Beats’ reworked," he says. "Then it’s also a continuation of what I’m doing with new tracks." This will be followed by a Mantronix album which will be in a more R&B/pop style. "I’m investigating ways of doing something a little different from what’s out there at the moment," he says.

It was Priority Records that approached Mantronik with the idea of the EMPD remix. "Ten years ago when I was head of A&R at Sleeping Bag we signed EPMD," he says. "It wasn’t my idea to do this remix though. A friend that used to work at Sleeping Bag works at Priority and he asked me to do a remix with a house beat. I wouldn’t have thought of doing it myself. I’m not putting it down but it wasn’t my idea."

‘Strictly Business’ by EPMD vs Mantronik is out today, as is Mantronik’s new single, ‘Mad’ by Mantronik Vs Geek. The album ‘I Sing The Body Electro’ will be released on Oxygen Music Works on September 28.