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Chris Cummings (Mantler) is a Canadian musician from Toronto, Ontario.

Originally a home-recording project, Mantler (Chris A. Cummings) has in recent years become a regular live act in and around Toronto. Usually a solo performer with only a Wurlitzer and Hammond Auto-Vari 64 drum machine as backing, Mantler has impressed audiences with his impassioned renderings of songs drawn from a vast array of musical styles. Playing an electric piano rescued from the garbage and singing songs inspired by the varied likes of Curtis Mayfield, Antonio Carlos Jobim and the Beach Boys, Mantler’s live performances have made him many fans among Toronto’s music community.

Structured around the rhythms and melodies of 70s soul, disco and rhythm & blues, Mantler’s songs began as looser affairs – two of the six songs on 2000’s DOIN’ IT ALL (on James Duncan’s US-based Le Systeme label) are over ten minutes long – but became shorter and tighter beginning with 2002’s SADISFACTION, the first Mantler album to be released by Germany's Tomlab Records. By 2004’s LANDAU, the majority of the songs came in at under three minutes, filled out with as many chord changes as possible. LANDAU marked Mantler’s first usage of programmed beats and interlocking parts, and was also the first Mantler album to be completely produced by longtime associate Zack G. In recent live solo performances, the lushness of the recorded albums is stripped away to showcase the stark simplicity of the songs as songs, without countermelodies or drum parts.

Mantler's new album MONODY was released in April 2010 on Blocks Recording Club (Canada), Tomlab (US/Worldwide), and Tin Angel (UK).