ELECTRO DEMI-GOD KURTIS MANTRONIK IS BACK WITH A STORMING MEW TRACK

He gave the world absolutely blinding electro-fuelled tracks like Bassline and Got To Have Your Love, and was cheif knob twiddler on Joyce Sims'seminal Come Into My life. Now Kurtis Mantronik, the undisputed king of the chemical breakbeat, is back with a blistering new single and loads more funky tricks up his sleeves. After taking a well-earned break from the music biz in the mid-'90s, for the last three years Kurtis has also been sneakily bolstering his reputation as an international turntable artist. "I always wanted to be a DJ," confesses the easy-going Jamacian-born Us-bred producer, incredibly still only 27- he started making records at just 17. "But I had no records. Then I started producing them instead-plus you've got to remember that DJ culture then wasn't as big as it is now. I first started DJing properly around three years ago, at a small place in New York, then I did a Marlboro tour of Germany in 1988".

Despite the rubbish weather and lousy motorway services, these days Kurtis is particulary fond of Blighty, DJing everywhere from Brighton to London's Scala club. So what's a typical Mantronix set like then? "It usually starts off with some old classic electro, but I don't stay on that for too long, it's too nostalgic, "he says. "Then I'll maybe move onto a bit of drum'n'bass and some big beat, then club music and house. I like to see people moving on the floor, not just standing around aimlessly!"

While he's nifty with a needle, Kurtis stresses he isn't really into overblown scratching. "I try to keep it very simple and minimal. When DJs scratch too much it's just really annoying," moans the man who admits the last club he went to was glitzy celeb-hangout Chinawhites.

With the single Come To Me due out in the autumn on PIAS, Kurtis says the sound on forthcoming album F-king Dynamite has a harder rap edge but is "still basically the same" as it was first time around. You won''t hear us complaining mate.

Source: International DJ: issue September