S’Express – Mantra For A State Of Mind

A Mantra For A State Of Mind [Parts 1 and 2] (Elevation Mix)
B Special and Golden  
UK 12 inch [RHYTHM KING LEFT 35T]

A Mantra For A State Of Mind (Club Vocal)*
AA1 Groove Mantra*
AA2 Mantra System*  
UK 12 inch [RHYTHM KING LEFT R35T]

A Mantra For A State Of Mind (The Baby Ford Experience)**
B Hey Music Lover (Miller Mash Glass Smash)***
UK 12 inch [RHYTHM KING LEFT X35T]

A Mantra For A State Of Mind
B Special and Golden  
UK 7 inch [RHYTHM KING LEFT 35]

A Mantra For A State Of Mind (The Baby Ford Experience)**
B Mantra System*
B Mystery Groove (featuring Chilo)
Double groove B-side! 
UK 7 inch [RHYTHM KING LEFT 35SP]

1 Mantra For A State Of Mind (7″)
2 Special and Golden
3 Mantra For A State Of Mind [Parts 1 and 2] (Elevation Mix)  
UK CD [RHYTHM KING LEFT 35CD]

REMIXES BY

*     Remix by Mark Moore and William Orbit
**   Remix by Baby Ford
*** Remix by William Orbit from the remixes of Philip Glass with Kurt Munkasci and Daniel Miller

Chart position

UK: 21

Michelle leaves the band to release her own tracks and Linda X joins for this one single.

‘Mantra’ has indeed proved to be one of the favourite tracks of diehard S’Express fans. Johnny Marr says in his autobiography that he played it as his ‘coming up’ track before going out and Primal Scream covered it for a 12″ vinyl Record Store Day release in 2016. Primal Scream’s ‘Mantra’ is a brilliant, slowed down, sludge-rock, psychedelic interpretation. Like a lost track from Screamadelica! (It’s also available as a download with the S’Express ‘Enjoy This Trip’ album).

Everyone seems to have a different fave mix of this track. Mark’s faves are the William Orbit / Mark Moore ‘Club Vocal’ and ‘The Baby Ford Experience’ mix.

‘The Baby Ford Experience’ mix incorporates the bassline and bits of ‘Theme From S-Express’ and gets kind of deep. For added value the ‘Miller Mash Glass Smash’ is included on the 12″.

‘Mantra For A State Of Mind’ (Club Vocal) 12″ has the wonderful ‘Groove Mantra’ and ‘Mantra System’ remixes by Mark Moore and William Orbit.

The 7″ ‘Mantra For A State Of Mind (The Baby Ford Experience)’ had “special edition double groove” printed on the top right corner of the sleeve. It was an edit of the Baby Ford mix on one side with a double groove on the other. Depending on where the needle fell you would hear either ‘Mantra System’ or a short story written by Moore (that was published in City Limits magazine) and read by Chilo. RARE!

A few white labels of ‘Mantra” got out which had a mix that was scrapped called the ‘Direct Mix’. This is similar to the ‘Elevation Mix’ but is mainly instrumental for the last half (and is rather good!). This was going to be the first 12″ release of ‘Mantra’ but somehow ended up in oblivion. On the b-side was the ‘Elevation Mix’. The run out groove says [LEFT 35T A1] and “NAM MYO HO RENGE KYO”. EXTREMELY RARE! Apparently it slipped out on a couple of Australian dance CD compilations!

Artwork on the Club Vocal (12″) and The Baby Ford Experience (12″ plus 7″) by New York fashion illustrator Miss Tobie Giddeo. Miss Tobie is also the sampled voice on ‘Special And Golden’ and ‘Coma’. She is also one of the girls laughing hysterically on ‘Nervous Motion’.