Mantis Music Ltd.

Derby, a small east midlands city, might not be the first place that springs to mind when thinking of centres of world famous musical output. It does however make its presence known, through Mantis Recordings, a forward thinking music Production Company with a roster of internationally renowned artists.

Martin Iveson moved to Derby from the north east of England in 1991 to take a position as in-house musician for the then fledgling video games company Core Design. As a music obsessive and DJ, he frequented the record shops and clubs of the city, which meant it, was only a matter of time before he met local face around town Andy Mac. Their love of a wide spectrum of music led to many an after party tete-a-tete, with them coming to the conclusion that they should start releasing some of the music they and their friends were producing. Andy Mac became manager of one of the city's independent record shops, and built up the requisite knowledge of the mechanisms of the music industry machine. While Martin continued to work at Core Design, all the time acquiring essential studio expertise. Everything started to fall into place, so they started working on the first Mantis release, and in 1996 released the first 12" by Atjazz (Martins artist name to this day) 'Story'.

There was a very encouraging reaction to 'Story', with it's head nodding, hip swaying sounds becoming a favourite with not only the DJs of Ibiza's Cafe del Mar, but the more chilled club sessions of the slightly less sun kissed East Midlands. Martin felt inspired to write more music and set up a home studio to start work on his debut album 'That Something'. Both Martin's and Andy Mac's day-jobs meant they couldn't commit the time to give the album the release it deserved on Mantis, so when fellow East Midland label DiY offered to release it on their Diversions label, They jumped at the chance. The album was a great success and went on to be licensed in Italy by Irma Records and Japan by Sony.

After this mini hiatus for the label, Mantis Recordings and Atjazz bounced back into action with 'Fifth Quarter'. This EP demonstrated the labels love of house music, and set the ball rolling for a string of releases based around a framework of local artists.

'Rhythm Plate' are a deep house duo from the north Derbyshire spa town of Matlock. The town and surrounding area of the Peak District National Park has produced several world class house artists, due in no small part to it being the location of free parties each weekend, where, liberated from the licensing and commercial restrictions of the surrounding cities nightclubs, people were free to carry on dancing way into the next morning, or on some occasions into the next week. Their debut single 'Prospect Drive' was released in 1999 and further cemented Mantis as a label to watch. Brooks, another free party child and Derby native, released the next 12". His 'Pink Cigarettes' was seized upon by many underground DJ's and was used as the opening track on Deep Dish's mix album for the world-touring clubnight Renaissance. Andy Mac and Brooks met Atlanta based singer Kimbu Kimra while at the Midem music conference in the south of France. She came to Derby, and with Atjazz and Rhythm Plate, wrote the track 'Raise the Dead'. The record was another underground hit and is considered by many people to be a house music classic. Mantis Recordings seemed to be getting into a habit of finding and encouraging artists who were writing material that others were afraid to release.

Martin started work on his second album, this time to be released on Mantis. The first song 'Harmony' with talented Nottingham singer Dawne B. Stewart was released as a limited sampler 12". The feedback was fantastic, with the song being praised and played by a wide spectrum of DJ's. 'Harmony' became the blueprint for the album. Writing alongside local jazz musician Pete Wraight, shaped the sound further, and the full-length album 'Labfunk', confirmed Atjazz's status as a world-class producer.

All this time Martin continued to work on the music and sound effects for world-class computer and console games for the Eidos developer Core Design Ltd, most notably the Tomb Raider series. For the sixth variation of that story 'Angel Of Darkness', Martin composed the music alongside colleague Peter Connelly, which was then performed and recorded with The London Symphony Orchestra at the legendary Abbey Road studios. Pete Wraight again played a key role with the arrangement and scoring of the soundtrack.

Meanwhile, Brooks was finding his own musical direction. His release 'Clix' gave just a taster of his talents and what was to come. It became clear as work progressed on his album for Mantis, that he was capable of writing wonderfully individual music with equally characteristic lyrics. He joined forces with the wonderful singer Dani Siciliano for two songs, including the title track for his debut album. Mantis released the Brooks album, 'You, Me & Us' in 2002 to a flood of glowing reviews. The New York Times suggested that he "re-imagines disco in his own image". His mixture of dissident electronica versus humorous pop music seemed to strike a chord with many music fans.

Another string to the musical bow of Mantis Recordings is that they were approached to release the music of respected New Orleans Jazz pianist Phil Parnell. Mantis became aware of Phil via his work with Matthew Herbert (Accidental Records) and Pete Wraight. He remixed the Atjazz track 'It￾fs Complete' and was working on an album in a more electronic vein to his previous, more traditional jazz outings. It was definitely an opportunity Mantis couldn't miss. The resulting album 'Do Your Living In The Night' is both curious and clever, like one of the missing pieces of the electronic music jigsaw.

Another east midland's songwriter, who'd come to the attention of Mantis Recordings as early as 2000 was Ross Hillard, otherwise known as Magic Number. He began working with Martin 'Atjazz' on material for an album and his two releases on Mantis, That Day and Sorry show his considerable songwriting talent. This linked with Martin's production skills, meant that Magic Number was shaping up to be a very exciting project indeed. The main vocalist for Magic Number is the very gifted Jane Hamilton. She has worked with the Berlin based Sonar Kollektiv act, Slope and features on their album 'M'. Other vocalists include Clara Hill, also a Sonar Kollektiv artist, and Dawne B Stewart, who, of course sang for on the classic Mantis release 'Harmony'.
The album That Day wa released in summer 2004 on Germany's Stereo Deluxe.

Overseeing all of this activity was the ubiquitous Andy Mac. As well as keeping busy with Mantis releases, he had also moved towards managing several artists. From conception to release, he guided the Dani Sicilano album 'Likes' securing her a deal with Germany's very well respected !K7 imprint.
And of course in his A&R capacity he also revealed new talent including the Ludlow based songwriting duo The Collectors. There are also other innovative artists and projects in the pipeline, but Andy remains cautious not to give too much away just yet.

One act that Mantis is definitely willing to shout the praises of loud and clear is quirky Hip-Hop artist 'Clyde'. Another Derby based act, his first single was quite appropriately titled 'Serve it up'. In keeping with Mantis Recordings tradition of finding a local artist and giving them an international vibe, the track features Californian rapper Capitol A. He's worked with Philadelphia's King Britt and The Roots, and has also displayed his lyrical flow with Germanys Jazzanova. The debut album 'Hyper-reality' is well on the way to completion, Capitol A. once more stepping to the mic on several tracks. Clive himself has flexed his own vocal stylings on the album, which has led to him co-writing and singing tracks for Brooks on his bold and exciting second album Red Tape, which Mantis licensed to Matthew Herbert's Soundslike label.

Martin has now joined Andy Mac and the Mantis team in a full time capacity. Ever inspiring in his drive to push things forward with every aspect of the company, he will continue to steer the musical course of both the labels output, and that of further computer game projects. Martin maintains his links with Core Design, as they outsource work to the Mantis studios. He is also working on titles for Circle Studio, including 'Without Warning' for Playstation2 and X Box. With an ever growing roster of talented artists joining the Mantis team, this diversity and quality of gifted individuals can only add strength to the Mantis line-up.

Mantis Recordings fully intend to continue releasing music with diversity and quality, giving the artists the freedom to experiment and always looking forward to the next release with the same enthusiasm as the first.

www.mantis-recordings.com