Producers thread
 

Has there really not been a producers thread? Surprised.

Right, so, before we start, I know what you lot are like, so I'll just say this: Steve Albini records sound like utter shit.

I contend this may well be one of the best-produced singles of the last 10 years.

Holgar Czukay (ok, editor, but you know what I mean) is genuinely amazing. Sometimes.

I heard Jim O'Rourke's new record the other day - really, really lovely sound to it. He can go on the list of good producers.

Throwing this out there. Yes?

This is difficult. I'll go with Tony Visconti.

The ones I grew up listening to. Endino + Albini. I like that dirty sorta sound.

Jimmy Page has done some interesting stuff.

Tom Smith.

i am a big joe meek lee hazelwood and phil spector fan.

Flood
Lustmord

Dan the Automator

Still Dre is totally minimalist. So is drop its like its hot. Snip an interesting fragment of a song and Loop it.

Still Dre is a great song. Except the line "Bar-b Ques every day".

Youth

Yeah, O'Rourke is one of my favorites, his work with Stereolab and Gastr Del Sol is amazing. Didn't he produce that last Brainaic EP too? Great stuff.

My absolute favorite producer is Scott Colburn; he's almost like a 4th member of Sun City Girls at times (as well as producing lots of their side projects and whatnot); he produced every one of their albums between 1993 and 2007. He also produced lots Cerberus Shoal, Climax Golden Twins (which he's a member of), Burmese, he remastered tons of old Captain Beefheart recordings for the "Grow fins" box set, he produces most Sublime Frequencies stuff.. some Keith Rowe and AMM stuff... and he produces, like, 60 albums a year, if not more. Dude's an insane workaholic, here's his resume: http://www.gravelvoice.com/credits/ ... also, a supernice guy, too, me and him have chatted before about SS and CGT!

Another favorite producer is Alex Newport. He's produced Ikara Colt, Polysics, his bands Theory of Ruin and Fudge Tunnel, and plenty more.

Brian Paulson's production on Spiderland is unbelievable, he also produced some U.S. Maple stuff that is probably my favorite record production ever. Mike Thorne's production on the first 3 Wire albums is some of the greatest of all time, too.

Bob Weston is incredible -- his work with Mission of Burma, Fiery Furnaces (who I'm not really a fan of, but the production is immaculate), Magic Band (he produced "back to the front", the Captain Beefheartless Magic Band album where they did new versions of old songs, and it sounds incredible), Shuttlecock, Polvo, Six Finger Satellite, Thinking Fellers Union Local # 282 (their best work "Admonishing the Bishops") and Rodan ("Rusty" sounds AMAZING!).

Zappa, another obvious one; Beefheart produced his last 3 albums (Shiny Beast, Doc at the Radar Station, and Ice Cream for Crow) and they sound INCREDIBLE... especially when you consider all that's going on, like in a song like "When I SEE Mommy, I feel like a Mummy" and SUCTION PRINTS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8jfnyOyqX8

Listen to that song; all the horns, the drums, two guitars, bass, synth (yep, synth), and sounds of unknown origin. Fucking awesome.

As for Albini, I am a fan of his, obviously, and a huge fan of a lot of the bands he works with, like Space Streakings and Shakuhaichi Surprise -- but, le'ts face it, his dry recording style doesn't really work with alot of bands (see the Melt Banana albums produced by him versus the ones NOT produced by him for a great example). He gets a great drum sound; unfortunately, with faster/more energetic bands, the drums often feel lumbering and struggling to keep up because they are SO powerful and overwhelming. His work on Jesus Lizard's stuff is absolutely incredible, as well as At aCtion Park and Terraform -- I think he works really well with miinmal, slower bands. I just can't see him doing good production on, like, a 250bpm punk album for example...

Finally, gotta give props to DAVE FRIDMANN, his work with Number Girl and Zazen Boys is un-fucking-with-able. He's worked with a lot of bands I don't like, but his production is always amazing (doesn't he always produce Flaming Lips albums, too? They're up there with Tortoise and Stereolab as always having consistently great production, and there's always tons of shit going on....).

not counting some other people mentioned:

Diplo
Switch
Goodmanson
Fridmann deserves another mention haha

fuck, Godrich too.

RZA

El Producto
Giulio "Ragno" Favero
Cambuzat

I second this.
early RZA is just incredibly talented and creative. he build a complete sound on its own.
despite that I absolutely dont like what dr dre did. he build a sound on its own too, which isnt anywhere as versatile as RZAs and I absolutely doesnt like his PRoducers attitude towards letting beats made by others where he just twiddles around a little bit with EQ at the end to brand it as a Dre Beat, plus he just collects all the credits for them. it smells like the producer status in hollywood (he is the one who got the money, he is the one who decides, he is the one who will get the credits, but he doesnt do the work)


orourke is also one of my favourites, if not my absolute favourite. he seems to be able to produce everything he wants, not just a particular style. everything he doesn is just so well structured and clean (in a good way) also the SY albums he produced are still the best sounding ones they ever did. the mans a walking ear

Daniel Le Noise definately deserves some acknowledgement on this page.

Hey SonicPark, everyone keeps telling me to check out 'Unconditionally Guaranteed', I'm sure Ive heard a couple of songs from it. Just out of interest, what would you say the production is like on this record? I've read bits and bobs on it like.

....Unconditionally Guaranteed? That album's horrible! The Beefheart album? Who told you to check it out? I've never known anyone to like that album, haha.

can some of you enjoy a record just for its production? (I can't)

lol yeah a few ppl have told me about it now, I'll take yr word and unconditionally disregard it.

I think this is often the case with Musique Concréte (Parmegiani) or Sound Art in general. Someone like Chris Watson is, for me, a genius not necessarily because of the content (which is, admittedly, amazing and he's very lucky to have access to it) but because he has this exquisite tactility and subtlety with a mic.

Phil Spector (The Ronettes)
Martin Hannett (Joy Division)
George Martin (The Beatles)
The Bomb Squad (Public Enemy)
Brian Eno (Bowie)
John Cale (Nico, The Stooges)
Ed Bahlman (ESG)
El-P (Mr Lif , Cannibal Ox)
David Briggs (Royal Trux, Neil Young)
Steve Albini (Low, Pussy Galore, Electrelane)
Amy Linton (the Aislers Set)

These are some of the ones I like.

I don't think you always have to like a record to appreciate the way it's been produced, for the same reasons why sometimes you might happen to like the songs but not the way they are produced.

That's the other way of thinking about it, certainly - I was trying to get at the idea that sometimes production is the most significant 'content' to a record. And that's true, for different reasons, of what you're saying above. That Metallica album - all I can find to like about that is the production (terrible, but charmingly so).

I really like Wharton Tiers
http://www.whartontiers.com/fun_city/fun-city-clients

YES to Wharton

dunno why, but I always think about music from the last decade or so when threads like this come out, but there are so many amazing "well produced" albums from the 60-70-80s too...

I like the first EP and album by Das Damen a lot.

Bob Weston because of Mission of Burma/Polvo. Exploded Drawing is one of the best sounding albums of the 90s, as is Obliterati for the subsequent decade.

Tony Visconti's work in the 70s with Bowie and that crowd was awesome.

I like Steve Albini, but there's this post-punk coldness in everything he does. When I'm not in the mood for it, it really turns me off. His recordings seem to reflect his personality.

When you listen to things Visconti produced by contrast there seems to be the complete opposite. The recordings sound warm and loving, something you can snuggle up to and feel safe in. T. Rex Electric Warrior is a prime example of this.

When Bowie and Visconti parted for the first time, one of Bowie's coldest works emerged- Hunky Dory. And I can't help but find their reunion album Low to be one of Bowie's warmest and most comforting albums, despite the subject matter.

i think albini is great when producing the right bands, e.g. the jesus lizard, zeni geva, low

I think Albini is a poor producer precisely because of that 'when he's good, he's good' thing. He did a shit job of Melt Banana, MoAM, Stooges... bands with relatively simple sounds who don't really need much. JL have a simple sound, but one to which Albini is sympathetic. That Tzadik record of Melt Banana (MxBx 10,000...) is a good example of how to produce them, and Charlie another (in a different way). In fact, making a band who seem responsive to such variation in production sound like utter shit is precisely my problem with Albini.

Unlike, say, Rick Rubin, whose production work made Reign in Blood, Licensed to Ill, Nation of Millions, The Black Album, those last Johnny Cash albums [etc] all sound great in very different ways. Ok, there's probably some shite in his discography, but I'd imagine it's shite because of the musical content (Mel C) rather than the producer.

That'll be my last 'Albini is actually shit' post for the time being (or until someone else annoys me by ignoring the fact that Albini is utterly dogshit).

I guess this is the part where someone comes and claims albini's not a producer, he's an engineer and all that shite.

Personally I don't really pay attention to production. I don't know the first thing about it, and I kind of like loud shit-fi sounds.

Andy Warhol

Just for the sake of adding a name here, I'll say Billy Anderson, for all the heavy shit he's done.