Man Recordings hasnt put out any guitar based music yet, but in terms of energy and power , some of the Man Rec tracks could easily match the level of some heavy metal tunes. One of our favourite metal groups is Suicidal Tendencies, and whenever we get pissed off about some blogs posting our tracks in 320kps without any permission, we have to let off steam banging out Melvins, Pantera, Slayer, Metallica – or Suicidal in the Man Rec office.

Btw just last week this dude yawnone@gmail.com from Geneva posted three tracks of my new EP in finest 320 kps MP3 quality on his shitty “A Sound A Day Keeps Melancholy Away” blog – I understandably wasnt very amused. After I asked him to remove the tracks – as labels like ours depend on selling their music – he didnt even bother to apologise. If you know this dude or come across him, please give him a pop.

Besides “Planet Rock”, “Bassline” by Mantronix is probably the 2nd most important song in the genealogy of the Man Recordings sound. “Bassline” includes, in it´s minimalist essence, the three elements our label is all about: Bass, Beats and Raps. In music history, “Bassline” is one of the first tracks to use a Roland 303 as bassline generator (though the video above shows a TR-909) and is not only considered a mile stone in new school rap, being released in the same year like Run DMC´s “King Of Rock” and LL Cool J´s “Radio”, but also one of the main tracks to sow the seeds out of which Detroit Techno grew.

Grandmixer D.ST is from the early 1980s generation of NY scratch DJs. His debut public appearance was as DJ in the amphitheatre scene of the movie “Wild Style”, shortly after D.ST hit the jackpot as being the guy responsible for the turntable parts in Herbie Hancock´s “Rockit”. Another D.ST´s highlight was the track “D.ST Cuts It Up”, which was featured on the – ESSENTIAL – 1984 Celluloid compilation “Street Music Material”. The compilation was produced by Material and contains tracks by Fab Five Freddy, Phase 2´s legendary “The Roxy”, The Clash (!) feat. Futura 2000 and with “The Smurf” probably the 1st electro funk track featuring a live hard rock guitar. Check D.ST´s video and try to track down “Street Music Material”, this is timeless electro funk. Some of the tracks have lately been released on the “Celluloid Years” compilation, but nothing beats the original album vinyl. Oh and the cover artwork is by Futura 2000. After listening to “D.ST Cuts It Up” again I have to ask myself: Why on earth is no one doing music like this anymore today? Why is everyone only looking to the block party prime years of hip hop and completely fading out on the shit that Celluloid Records released from 1983-1985?