Maurice Fulton
Baltimore-born, Sheffield-based and famously press-shy: Maurice Fulton’s path from the Basement Boys to MU, Syclops and Boof.
- Baltimore-born DJ and producer, based in Sheffield, England.
- Worked with the Baltimore production team the Basement Boys before going his own way.
- Behind MU, Syclops and Boof; runs the label BubbleTease Communications.
Maurice Fulton is famously press-shy, and his records are hard to file: disco, house, funk, electropunk and jazz, sometimes in the same track. The Baltimore-born producer has spent about three decades developing that eccentric sound, most of the recent ones from Sheffield, England.
Funk, Baltimore and Dr. Scratch
Funk came first. Fulton has named Funkadelic as his way into music; the first album he bought was Let’s Take It to the Stage. He started DJing in Baltimore in the early 1980s as Dr. Scratch, on basic Fisher turntables with no pitch control.
Production came through the Basement Boys, the Baltimore team behind Crystal Waters’ “Gypsy Woman”. Fulton worked with them but felt he was losing creativity making only gospel house. Still, he has said that listening to them taught him “to derange music in a certain way.”
New York and one expensive sample
In the early 1990s he moved to New York, where Masters at Work — of “Work” — and clubs such as Sound Factory Bar and Shelter shaped his ear. Tony Humphries’ nights at Zanzibar in New Jersey mattered even more: “I was a Zanzibar head,” he said at a Red Bull Music Academy lecture in 2006.
A mid-1990s record called “Kong”, on the Basement Boys’ label, used a Jimmy Castor Bunch sample. Castor sued him for $2,000, and Fulton says he has not sampled since. He builds tracks on a computer and hires live musicians for bass and drums.
Sheffield, MU, Syclops and Boof
Fulton moved to Sheffield because of his wife, Mutsumi Kanamori. Her electropunk project MU, produced by Fulton, released albums including Afro Finger and Gel and Out of Breach (Manchester’s Revenge), which carried the minor hit “Paris Hilton”. Fulton runs the label BubbleTease Communications.
In 2008 DFA released I’ve Got My Eye on You by Syclops, a group Fulton produced with the Finnish jazz musicians Hanna Sarkari, Jukka Kantonen and Sven Kortehist. “Most people think Syclops is me, it’s not,” he said. Since Pink Eye (2018) Syclops has been a trio of Fulton, Sarkari and Mim Suleiman; Black Eye followed on BubbleTease in 2024. Boof, his flower-themed alias, is where his jazzy, off-kilter club tracks live.
Producer for others
He produced Kathy Diamond’s album Miss Diamond to You (2008), including “All Woman”, and Mim Suleiman’s Tungi (2010), the first album on Gerd Janson’s Running Back label. His remix credits include The Rapture’s “House of Jealous Lovers”. His advice to young artists at the 2006 lecture was blunt: “Get publishing.”
FAQ
Where is Maurice Fulton from?
He was born in Baltimore, lived in New York in the 1990s and later settled in Sheffield, England.
Is Syclops Maurice Fulton?
Not on his own. Fulton produces Syclops, a group whose 2008 DFA album was made with Finnish jazz musicians. Since 2018 the line-up has been Fulton, Hanna Sarkari and Mim Suleiman.
What is MU?
The electropunk project of Mutsumi Kanamori, Fulton’s wife, produced by Fulton.
