“I Sing the Body Electro” (a coy play on the title of a Walt Whitman poem and a groundbreaking Weather Report album from the ‘70s) is Mantronik’s attempt to bridge the beat culture of the ‘80s with that of the ‘90s. Reflecting the diversity of sound in contemporary dance music, the selections on this album touch on everything from hip-hop to electro to rock to drum and bass. His renown complex and imaginative rhythm programming are best appreciated on such “beat-head” tracks as “Bass Machine Re-tuned,” “Original Electro,” “On the Beatbox,” and a follow-up to the classic “King of the Beat,” “King of the Beat V.3.0.” Hip-hop aficionados will vibe with “Mad,” “Cow Bites Man,” and a revisit to the old-skool with “Push Yer Hands Up” (can you spot the samples?). All three rap tracks feature the incendiary delivery of NY, NY B-girl and new Mantronik protegee, Traylude. And “Seek and Destroy,” “Baby, You Blow My Mind” and “Hush” show an artist at peak creative form, concocting genre-fusion gems and rhythm experiments that should help perpetuate the Mantronik legend well into the new millenium. In spite of the variety of flavors found in this project, there is still an unifying Mantronik sound - a sound that is precise, complex, and above all, funky. The first single, “Mad,” with remix collaborations by UK’s Geek (Columbia/Sony-UK) and The Quest Project (Island-UK), is a hard-hitting rap meets drum and bass meets techno package that is currently enjoying an enormous industry and press buzz in UK and Germany.