Mentallo and the Fixer, named after a pair of comic book characters whose origins have long since faded into obscurity, is the industrial brainchild of two brothers from Texas: Gary and Dwayne Dassing. As is true with most of us, the Dassings were raised on rock, and so their first instruments were the guitar (Dwayne) and drums (Gary). However, this direction was changed when there arose a number of new wave bands whose music was heavily saturated with synthesizers. Dwayne specifically cites the Cars, early Orchestral Manouevres in the Dark, and especially Gary Numan, whose work in the early to mid eighties personified all that was good about electropop.
Around 1984, the brothers began acquiring synthesizers, eventually discovering the sequencer and all its inherent possibilities. They began to experiment with these instruments, and learned recording techniques, with their earliest "samples" coming from tapes rather than electronic equipment.
In 1988, the brothers added vocalist Rich Mendez to their roster, and adopted the name Benestrophe. They made two tapes using only a 12-channel mixer and a $100 stereo TEAC tape deck (incidentally the same equipment used for the first Mentallo release), and surprised even themselves with its sound quality. Much of these tapes are now available on Benestrophe's Sensory Deprivation CD and Auric Fires (RAS DVA).
