Ben Thackeray
- I guess I first decided to become a sound engineer after a meeting with a friend of mine when he was half way through the first year of his sound engineering course at LIPA, Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts. I asked him how the course was going and he said good, and that he didn’t understand why I wasn’t on a similar course. The idea had just never occurred to me before. But as soon as I thought about it, it seemed like something I could do. My father has been a guitar teacher all his life and I knew I wanted a career that was music-based and this seemed like a good idea. So I started looking at courses and enrolled at Alchemea. I started the course knowing literally nothing and I had no idea if this was something I would be good at. But I knew from my music lessons as a child that I had a good ear, and I came out the other end basically knowing how a studio worked.
I landed my first job as assistant engineer at the old Mark Angelo’s studios in Farringdon. I worked there for nothing but it was here that I really learned how a studio operated and all the stuff I’d learned at college began to make sense.
My next break came six months later when I was offered a position as runner at Mayfair Studios. Although it was a backwards step from the assisting role I held at Mark Angelo’s, Mayfair was definitely a bigger studio and I wanted the challenge of working on some bigger sessions. I soon started assisting and the experience I gained at Mark’s holding me in good stead. I also had a good teacher in John Hudson.
It was here that I started working with producers like Nigel Godrich, Jim Abbiss, Ken Nelson and Tony Hoffer. It was a great place to learn as there was a good mixture of recording and mixing sessions with such bands as Radiohead, Coldplay, Supergrass and B.R.M.C and for a few years the Neve room virtually became my home.
During this time I also assisted for Tom Elmhirst (Sugababes, Goldfrapp), and it was from him that I really learned how to use Pro Tools. Mayfair had no qualms about their assistants engineering and so I often found myself thrown into sessions and left to get on with it. So it was at Mayfair that I started making my first steps towards becoming a fully-fledged sound engineer.
After five years at Mayfair I felt that things had run their course and I decided to leave and become freelance. One of the people I went to see about work was Nick Young at Miloco. We had a good chat and I did my first session for him a few days later. It was interesting working at a different studio and with different producers and engineers, seeing the way they did things. One of these people was Steve Dub (Chemical Brothers, Roots Manuva, Clor) and we built a good working relationship that continues to this day. Miloco have always looked after me and started managing me a few years ago and I started engineering full time about three years ago. Since then I've been lucky to work with some great artists such as The Spinto Band, Charles Campbell-Jones, Engineers, The Fields and Malakai. And now I'm really excited to be part of Interface. It's going to interesting to see where things go from here.
- Recording and Mixing Engineer
- Ben's extensive knowledge of studio operations and Protools combined with an unflappable demeanour, makes him the perfect engineer to have at your side in any studio. His fast growing reputation is centred on an ability to add a special dynamic to any project, with bands and producers such as The Fields, Engineers, Steve Dub and Howie B regularly requiring his services.
Steve Dub
- I first met Steve when I started working at Miloco four years ago after leaving Mayfair Studios. We got on well and Steve started asking for me to be on his sessions. I used to do all the Protools work as Steve mainly uses Logic. We worked in that capacity on all sorts of projects including The Chemical Brothers, Roots Manuva and The Prodigy.
Steve first asked me to engineer for him when he started producing albums with Segs (The Ruts/Alabama 3) and the first record we worked on together was the Dangermen album. Since then we've engineered together on The Sunshine Underground album and more recently the new Malakai record.
Charles Campbell-Jones
- I first met Charles in the summer of 2005 and he was already half way recording his first record "Wasting the Duke". He'd sent me a CD of a few tracks a week or so before and I thought his songs were brilliant. We got on well straight away and I was really pleased when Charles wanted me to help him finish the rest of the album. He was financing the project himself so time and money were tight but it was still one of the most enjoyable records I've ever worked on.
We're now half way through working on Charles's second album and I'm even more excited about the way it's been working out. Charles has been in Australia for the last couple of months and has been doing some overdubs but I'm looking forward to hearing what he has done and finishing it.
Robert Hoile
- Arkham started out as a side project with Robert Hoile who I met when we worked together at Mayfair Studios. Bob left when he was offered a job working for Gronland records home of Neu!, Roedelius, Merz, and Half Cousin amongst others. Bob managed to talk his boss Rene into letting him do a couple of remixes and he called me in to help and so Arkham was born.
It still exists at the minute as a side project until we've got more time to spend on it and there's been talk between us about doing an Arkham album but it's always good working with Bob because he's a mate and because we always think the same way about how things should be.
So far its just been Gronland artists that we've worked with but I really like the last few remixes we've done including the Merz and Dextro remixes.
Malakai EP, Malakai
- Eng/Protools
- Island
- A few songs from the forthcoming album.The albums going to be even better!
- www.malakai.info
- iTunes
- http://www.thebeatsurrender.co.uk/daily/recordbox/ep-1-malakai/
- Malakai - EP 1
Malakai are a duo from the South East of the UK who make fantastic music based upon live instrumentation and clever use of samples in the studio…they could be Bristol’s answer to The Avalanches (where are they by the way) listening to the tracks on EP 1.
I didn’t get to hear their Fading World single which was ultra limited and i’m a little bit gutted about that because putting the intro and the skit aside on here you are left with four very varied, but absolute quality tracks. The Battle is a Western inspired track complete with Mexican stand off and a saloon bar full of prostitutes draped around the gunslingers neck while he plays cards against the local lawman.
Moonsurfing is closer to Spanish Guitar in style, then luckily for me they include the full album version of Fading World which is beautifully crafted and comes with strings that could turn a grown man weak at the knees. The ginal track is a really fantastic reggae track, a song that really deserved a summer of sunshine to match it’s vibes, the weather may have let us down but Malakai produced the soundtrack anyway.
I’m expecting really big things of these guys and am really anticipating the album when it hits.
Steve Dub
- I first met Steve when I started working at Miloco four years ago after leaving Mayfair Studios. We got on well and Steve started asking for me to be on his sessions. I used to do all the Protools work as Steve mainly uses Logic. We worked in that capacity on all sorts of projects including The Chemical Brothers, Roots Manuva and The Prodigy.
Steve first asked me to engineer for him when he started producing albums with Segs (The Ruts/Alabama 3) and the first record we worked on together was the Dangermen album. Since then we've engineered together on The Sunshine Underground album and more recently the new Malakai record.
Hearts and Minds (Remix), Dextro
- Prod/Mix
- Gronland
- This remix was released recently on the "Hearts and Minds EP" Other remixes were by Alias and Chris Clark. We mixed this Bob's bedroom.
- www.dextro.co.uk
- iTunes
- http://www.drownedinsound.com/articles/1993090
- Dextro: Hearts And Minds
Out: 30/04/2007
Label: Gronland
This is an impressive debut from the Scottish recording act Dextro. Hearts and Minds is a brooding layered and beautiful piece if ambient music that evolves likes a post rock epic with electronic production, very melodic and very cool. The remixes are worked by the up and coming act Arkham who produces a krautrock, beat driven journey that pays respect to the original. Alias (Anticon) offers and mellow remix with added glockenspiel, singing and downtempo beats, nice. The Chris Clark remix (Warp) is a tear up electro techno effort that carries little of the original and wipes out everything before it, all good!
- Hearts and Minds (Arkham Remix)
- iTunes
Robert Hoile
- Arkham started out as a side project with Robert Hoile who I met when we worked together at Mayfair Studios. Bob left when he was offered a job working for Gronland records home of Neu!, Roedelius, Merz, and Half Cousin amongst others. Bob managed to talk his boss Rene into letting him do a couple of remixes and he called me in to help and so Arkham was born.
It still exists at the minute as a side project until we've got more time to spend on it and there's been talk between us about doing an Arkham album but it's always good working with Bob because he's a mate and because we always think the same way about how things should be.
So far its just been Gronland artists that we've worked with but I really like the last few remixes we've done including the Merz and Dextro remixes.
Forthcoming Album, Charles Campbell-Jones
- Prod/Eng/Mix
- Bronzerat
- www.myspace.com/charlescampbelljones
Charles Campbell-Jones
- I first met Charles in the summer of 2005 and he was already half way recording his first record "Wasting the Duke". He'd sent me a CD of a few tracks a week or so before and I thought his songs were brilliant. We got on well straight away and I was really pleased when Charles wanted me to help him finish the rest of the album. He was financing the project himself so time and money were tight but it was still one of the most enjoyable records I've ever worked on.
We're now half way through working on Charles's second album and I'm even more excited about the way it's been working out. Charles has been in Australia for the last couple of months and has been doing some overdubs but I'm looking forward to hearing what he has done and finishing it.
Most Mathematicians (Single), Charles Campbell-Jones
- Prod/Eng/Mix
- Bronzerat
- This song was released as a download only earlier this year. Its the first track from Charles' second album which I'm looking forward to finishing when Charles returns from Australia later this year.
- www.myspace.com/charlescampbelljones
- http://www.organart.demon.co.uk/neworgan195.htm
- SINGLE OF THE WEEK
CHARLES CAMPBELL JONES – Most Mathematicians (Bronze Rat) - Charles Campbell Jones has a ‘problem’, you see last year Charles released the finest song of 2006 in the shape of the progtastic Stars. An epic song with the power to grab you and take you right up there, a melodic sky touching tour de force and absolute treasure, the yardstick by which everything he does must now be judged. And there’s the “problem”, Stars is just so so magical, Stars took us there instantly, and takes us there again every time we play it (and we play it lots), Stars is just too damn good! Everything else Charles Campbell Jones does is in the shadow of Stars. Most Mathematicians is subtle, Most Mathematicians takes it’s own sweet time to take you where you want to go, it does though, Most Mathematicians is every bit as good as Stars only it takes a little time to realise that. When you take the time to look and see (and see all the dirt on the floor) and you’re soaking in sweat without ever noticing how hot you were getting (and your shirt is soaked through). Let's cut to the chase with some hyperbole, see if you sit up and take notice because with songs this good Charles Campbell Jones really should be all over the mainstream radio and on your late night music TV and selling albums in millions and winning Brit awards, he should be a household name. Most Mathematicians just went on a downbeat and sent that knowing shiver down my spine. Look, he’s the new Jeff Buckley, only he’s better – is that enough over-the top hyperbole for you? Here they come, here comes that buzz and that bus that takes you home and those subtle strings and those understated choirs of mellotron-like sky touching moments are here and he’s done it again. www.bronzerat.co.uk
Charles Campbell-Jones
- I first met Charles in the summer of 2005 and he was already half way recording his first record "Wasting the Duke". He'd sent me a CD of a few tracks a week or so before and I thought his songs were brilliant. We got on well straight away and I was really pleased when Charles wanted me to help him finish the rest of the album. He was financing the project himself so time and money were tight but it was still one of the most enjoyable records I've ever worked on.
We're now half way through working on Charles's second album and I'm even more excited about the way it's been working out. Charles has been in Australia for the last couple of months and has been doing some overdubs but I'm looking forward to hearing what he has done and finishing it.
Charming The Flames (B-Sides), Fields
- Eng/Mix
- Atlantic
- We did these B-sides earlier this year in The Garden and the session was so productive we ended up recording 7 songs in 7 days! These tracks are quite acoustic lead but some of the others that we worked on were more involved.
- www.fieldsband.com
- iTunes
- http://www.discover.drownedinsound.com/articles/1791749
- Fields: Charming The Flames
Out: 26/03/2007
Label: Black Lab
It’s easy to understand the kerfuffle that made Fields a major-label interest in 2006 – of all the bands with the potential to ‘do a Snow Patrol’ over the past few months, this London five-piece’s FM-friendly distillation of folk and college rock influences has perhaps looked most likely.
But ‘Charming The Flames’ finds Fields in something of a quandary, throwing streamlined rock shapes that should land them squarely in Top Ten territory, but failing to pack in the kind of heavyweight hooks needed to seal the deal. If you’ve heard them before, you’ll know the drill – the A-side is a blustering slice of widescreen rock with a post-shoegaze sensibility, all vague, sky-kissing sentiments and even vaguer intimations of a sensitive nature at work, like a choir of annoying teenagers boasting about the anti-depressants they were never really on.
The B-sides fare a little better. ‘Cold Hearted Machinery’ is an eerie, folk-tinged shuffle, while a cover of My Bloody Valentine’s ‘When You Sleep’ proves engagingly sweet, even if it inevitably lacks the disorienting, druggy swirl of the original.
After which, there’s not much left to say. If you want to see some skinny white kids’ woolly introspection propelled skywards for the umpteenth time this millennium, buy this record. If not, I’m sure you’ll join me in extending it a hearty ‘meh’.
- Charming The Flames (Acoustic)
- iTunes
- Cold Hearted Machinery
- iTunes
The Police And The Private (Howie B Remix), Metric
- Protools
- Drowned in Sound
- Did this in one day with Howie first thing this year. Just protools duties on this one.
- www.ilovemetric.com
- iTunes
Forthcoming Album, Engineers
- Protools/Mix
- Echo
- Some records are just brilliant to work on, for all sorts of reasons, and this was definitely one of those. The lads are great and it was brilliant to work with Ken Thomas. I hope it is released soon.
- www.engineersweb.net
Uncle Dysfunktional, The Happy Mondays
- Protools
- Sanctuary
- Spent two weeks mixing this record in the Garden last summer with Howie B and Sunny Levine.
- www.myspace.com/happymondaysmusic
- http://www.subba-cultcha.com/article_album.php?id=5421
- Surprisingly impressive first long player in fifteen years from Manc legends.
My hopes weren’t high for Happy Mondays first new album for more than a decade and a half. After 1992’s poorly received Yes Please, reports of lacklustre recent gigs and THAT documentary a few years back suggested this was a band only too happy to trade on past glories. So it’s a joy to report that from the opening track “Jellybean” on the Mondays are back - and back good.
Don’t know if it’s the fact that Shaun’s cleaned up (comparatively) or what but going by “Jellybean”’s refrain “it’s good to feel my ass against the grass” and Ryder singing from a female perspective - albeit with his usual dirty old mans mind it’s just good to have them with us again. It’s their usual mix of punk attitude, lolloping funk grooves and Mancunian street urchin vocals and all the better for it.
“Angels And Whores” hints at the suggested new rock direction before getting down with a country banjo motif and an “I’m a drug addicted alcoholic” sample - all finished off with the sort of multi-tracked backing vox that Kasabian have been looking after for them in their absence. “Deviants” has a more laid-back feel all together with Ryder and unnamed guest vocalist spitting out filthy lyrics over a funky horn and wah-wah concoction.
Shauns vocals on “Rats With Wings” almost veer over into parody but he’s more comedic than parodic on the oh so Mondays titled “Cuntry Disco” which showcases gospel backing singing, slide guitars and Ryder on easily the best form he’s been in since that first Black Grape album. There’s even some frankly disturbing cock-a-doodle-do’ing!
“Anti Warhole On The Dancefloor” is HM going vaguely political but being them they soon get bored of any attempt at preaching and decide the best way to get their point across is with a shuffling electro clunker about shaking your beat to the ‘bongo’. “Rush Rush” pays unsure homage to Wire’s “Eardrum Buzz” and “Dr Dick” contains some amusing couplets - ‘I can do tricks/I’m a dog with two dicks’ - within it’s textbook Madchester squiggles.
Title track “Unkle Dysfunktional” sounds like a potential future single - although how much of a market there is for buying this stuff now it’s hard to tell. Probably not as much as there is live demand. And I’m unsure as to what the obsession with air stewardesses is all about. Apart from the obvious I guess.
It’s hard to comment just from listening what exactly Bez contributes to the whole enterprise but I’m sure whatever is it’s immense. There’s one or two fillers hiding amongst the gems but whatever! Good to have ‘em back.
- http://www.nme.com/reviews/happy-mondays/8760
- Uncle Dysfunktional
Happy Mondays' first album since 1992's
'...Yes Please!' is the sound of a damaged former addict being ushered into a studio for one last shot at the big time - before falling on his arse. Most of the burbling that makes up this record is painful, like watching a Russian dancing bear in a wig crying at a foam party. The opening pair of 'Jellybean' and 'Angels And Whores' are reminiscent of the brilliant old Mondays, albeit heavily sedated and struggling for breath. But as 'Deviants' rears its ugly head, the record begins a slow decline into the most putrid of doldrums. It really shouldn't end like this, but here's hoping this is the Mondays' final act and we're left to remember the good times instead.
Alex Miller
Writing Session, Whitey
- Eng
- Pure Groove Music
Lets See What Develops & Road To Newark, The Spinto Band
- Mix
- Radiate
- I mixed these two tracks down The Garden last year and it was the first time I'd come across this band. Bought the album and it became one of my favourites of last year.
- www.spintoband.com
- Road To Newark
- Lets See What Develops
Broken Hearted, Primetime, Dead 60's
- Eng
- Deltasonic
- www.dead60s.com
Steve Dub
- I first met Steve when I started working at Miloco four years ago after leaving Mayfair Studios. We got on well and Steve started asking for me to be on his sessions. I used to do all the Protools work as Steve mainly uses Logic. We worked in that capacity on all sorts of projects including The Chemical Brothers, Roots Manuva and The Prodigy.
Steve first asked me to engineer for him when he started producing albums with Segs (The Ruts/Alabama 3) and the first record we worked on together was the Dangermen album. Since then we've engineered together on The Sunshine Underground album and more recently the new Malakai record.
It's Different For Girls & Suzie (B-Sides), Boy Kill Boy
- Eng/Mix
- Mercury
- These tracks were recorded and mixed over a couple of days last year at Hoxton Square.
- www.boykillboy.com
- iTunes
Postcard From A Dark Star (Remix), Merz
- Prod/Mix
- Gronland
- I really liked the original of this track so I was excited when we got the opportunity to remix this track. This was mixed in the Neve Room.
- www.merz.co.uk
- iTunes
- http://www.klicktrack.com/shop/release.jsp?r=18792&tn=5&cp=50
- Since his much hailed return late in 2005 with his acclaimed second album 'Loveheart', Merz hasn’t stopped to let the grass grow under his feet. No siree. The accolades and attention have continued to pour in, from iTunes declaring 'Dangerous Heady Love Scheme' as their Single of the Week in November, Guardian Guide tipping 'Postcard From A Dark Star' as Single of the Week in January, NME gulping that "Merz's laments have acquired a genuine depth" and The Mirror crowing about "transcendentally sweet and dreamy splendour from master crafstman Conrad Lambert".
After his five years in exile, it's all looking very upbeat, indeed for Conrad 'Merz' Lambert. Which brings us happily to Merz’s 'Silver Tree EP'. Featuring two of the most ravishing cuts from the Loveheart album, 'Verily' and 'Warm Cigarette Room', there is also a lush live version of 'Dangerous Heady Love Scheme' and a remix of the acclaimed track 'Postcard From A Dark Star' by Arkham.
- Postcard From A Darkstar (Arkham Remix)
- iTunes
Robert Hoile
- Arkham started out as a side project with Robert Hoile who I met when we worked together at Mayfair Studios. Bob left when he was offered a job working for Gronland records home of Neu!, Roedelius, Merz, and Half Cousin amongst others. Bob managed to talk his boss Rene into letting him do a couple of remixes and he called me in to help and so Arkham was born.
It still exists at the minute as a side project until we've got more time to spend on it and there's been talk between us about doing an Arkham album but it's always good working with Bob because he's a mate and because we always think the same way about how things should be.
So far its just been Gronland artists that we've worked with but I really like the last few remixes we've done including the Merz and Dextro remixes.
Tracks for Film Soundtrack, Rich File
- Eng
- Tough Monkey
Marie Antoinette (Soundtrack), Kevin Shields
- Eng
- Rocket Girl
- mybloodyvalentine2.tripod.com/
- iTunes
Day One, Bloc Party
- Eng
- Wichita
- www.blocparty.com
Steve Dub
- I first met Steve when I started working at Miloco four years ago after leaving Mayfair Studios. We got on well and Steve started asking for me to be on his sessions. I used to do all the Protools work as Steve mainly uses Logic. We worked in that capacity on all sorts of projects including The Chemical Brothers, Roots Manuva and The Prodigy.
Steve first asked me to engineer for him when he started producing albums with Segs (The Ruts/Alabama 3) and the first record we worked on together was the Dangermen album. Since then we've engineered together on The Sunshine Underground album and more recently the new Malakai record.
Wasting The Duke (Album), Charles Campbell-Jones
- Eng/Mix
- Artist
- Working on this album was a real joy. When I met Charles he already had a lot of this album recorded but we got on really well and it was a pleasure to finish the recording and mix this record.
- www.myspace.com/charlescampbelljones
- http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/gfx/15kitt.pdf
- Charles Campbell Jones
Wasting The Duke
Bronzerat Records
Have you ever tried to quit something but couldn’t? This is the sensation that I get from Jones’ debut album. Each time, I listen to it again; all I want to do is listen to it over again because there is some new sound or word that I missed the first time around.
Wasting The Duke is an unorthodox, yet rooted journey through metal and blues coupled with brilliant lyrics and emotional sensationalism. Jones’ work has been compared to Kate Bush and Roxy Music, but it stops there, as Jones captivates each song with a pure release. Each movement and sound is precise. With over twenty musicians involved with the recording of this album it is diverse, eclectic yet accessible and real. Songs to watch out for include: Stars and December.
Elizabeth Shev
- Winter Palace
- Stars
- December
Charles Campbell-Jones
- I first met Charles in the summer of 2005 and he was already half way recording his first record "Wasting the Duke". He'd sent me a CD of a few tracks a week or so before and I thought his songs were brilliant. We got on well straight away and I was really pleased when Charles wanted me to help him finish the rest of the album. He was financing the project himself so time and money were tight but it was still one of the most enjoyable records I've ever worked on.
We're now half way through working on Charles's second album and I'm even more excited about the way it's been working out. Charles has been in Australia for the last couple of months and has been doing some overdubs but I'm looking forward to hearing what he has done and finishing it.
Boy From School (Radio Mix), Hot Chip
- Protools
- EMI
- www.hotchip.co.uk/site
Raise The Alarm (Album), Sunshine Underground
- Eng
- City Rockers
- This was another project with Steve Dub and Segs. We mainly tracked at the Dairy and mixed it in the Neve Room.
- www.tsuarmy.co.uk
- iTunes
- http://www.hecklerspray.com/cd-review-the-sunshine-underground-raise-the-alarm/20064579.php
- CD Review: The Sunshine Underground, Raise The Alarm
August 25th, 2006 at 14:00 by Stuart Heritage
The Sunshine Underground Raise The Alarm ReviewThese days you can't move for spikily angular bands with asymmetrical haircuts and skinny suits, can you? It's bloody annoying - we literally tripped over the bassist from the Automatic on the way to buy some milk this morning.
And, to be honest, most of these bands are so tediously identical that half of their mothers couldn't pick them out of a copy of the NME. What we need is a band who manages to nail the basics - spiky guitars, danceability, yelped vocals - and then write an album full of tunes bigger than a fleet of jumbo jets. Surely they'd instantly make every other opportunist indie band around completely redundant, wouldn't they? Well, The Sunshine Underground is that band, Raise The Alarm is that album and Fearne Cotton's due to start sniffing round them for boyfriend material any second now.
Raise The Alarm by The Sunshine Underground is one of those rare things - a derivative album that manages to add enough quirks and flourishes to make it entirely new sounding. In Raise The Alarm, The Sunshine Underground have managed to rip off all kinds of bands - like Public Image, The Happy Mondays, The Rapture - and make it sound so contemporary that you can't help being utterly amazed by it.
By now you'll be completely familiar with the enormous robot disco funk juggernaut that is Put You In Your Place. Even after weeks and weeks of repeated listening, we still aren't tiring of its bone-crushing insistence. Put You In Your Place is still the most immediate thing that The Sunshine Underground have put on Raise The Alarm, but it doesn't reveal the big picture about the band by any means. Raise The Alarm opener Wake Up proves that The Sunshine Underground can do 'atmospheric' just as well as anyone, as its Jah Wobble bassline and spidery guitar will attest to. And it's a danceable bastard too.
Dead Scene builds on this, and The Sunshine Underground squeeze in a couple of cheeky v signs at the older bands that they're so clearly straining at the leash to streak past, "I hear you wrote the rulebook… you say you've seen this all before," it goes, amidst a groove so tight you could trampoline on it. Then there's Commercial Breakdown, which comes complete with a genuine skyscraper of a tune that could rouse the dead.
For a debut, Raise The Alarm by The Sunshine Underground is phenomenal. Phenomenal but not quite perfect. When The Sunshine Underground let their focus slip, on songs like The Way It Is and Someone's Always Getting In The Way, the result is an indistinct mess. But they're minor quibbles, and can be forgotten in an instant in an album that contains moments like the final few seconds of album closer Raise The Alarm, which is a genuine thrill to listen to.
If The Sunshine Underground can pull off an album of the staggering quality as Raise The Alarm as a debut, we're expecting some giant, genre-busting things from The Sunshine Underground in the future.
- Somebodys Always Getting In The Way
- iTunes
Steve Dub
- I first met Steve when I started working at Miloco four years ago after leaving Mayfair Studios. We got on well and Steve started asking for me to be on his sessions. I used to do all the Protools work as Steve mainly uses Logic. We worked in that capacity on all sorts of projects including The Chemical Brothers, Roots Manuva and The Prodigy.
Steve first asked me to engineer for him when he started producing albums with Segs (The Ruts/Alabama 3) and the first record we worked on together was the Dangermen album. Since then we've engineered together on The Sunshine Underground album and more recently the new Malakai record.
Because I Want You (Remix for Placebo), Bloc Party
- Eng
- Coalition Management
- www.blocparty.com
Steve Dub
- I first met Steve when I started working at Miloco four years ago after leaving Mayfair Studios. We got on well and Steve started asking for me to be on his sessions. I used to do all the Protools work as Steve mainly uses Logic. We worked in that capacity on all sorts of projects including The Chemical Brothers, Roots Manuva and The Prodigy.
Steve first asked me to engineer for him when he started producing albums with Segs (The Ruts/Alabama 3) and the first record we worked on together was the Dangermen album. Since then we've engineered together on The Sunshine Underground album and more recently the new Malakai record.
Macht Nix (Remix), AK47 -II
- Prod/Eng/Mix
- Gronland
- www.ak4711.de
Robert Hoile
- Arkham started out as a side project with Robert Hoile who I met when we worked together at Mayfair Studios. Bob left when he was offered a job working for Gronland records home of Neu!, Roedelius, Merz, and Half Cousin amongst others. Bob managed to talk his boss Rene into letting him do a couple of remixes and he called me in to help and so Arkham was born.
It still exists at the minute as a side project until we've got more time to spend on it and there's been talk between us about doing an Arkham album but it's always good working with Bob because he's a mate and because we always think the same way about how things should be.
So far its just been Gronland artists that we've worked with but I really like the last few remixes we've done including the Merz and Dextro remixes.
Album Tracks, Ben Onono
- Eng
- Tri-Tone
- www.benonono.com
Fire, I Saw You With Her (Single and B-Side), The Vitamins
- Eng/Mix
- Red Flag Records
- www.thevitamins.co.uk
Neon One (EP), Rich File
- Mix
- Richard File
Steve Dub
- I first met Steve when I started working at Miloco four years ago after leaving Mayfair Studios. We got on well and Steve started asking for me to be on his sessions. I used to do all the Protools work as Steve mainly uses Logic. We worked in that capacity on all sorts of projects including The Chemical Brothers, Roots Manuva and The Prodigy.
Steve first asked me to engineer for him when he started producing albums with Segs (The Ruts/Alabama 3) and the first record we worked on together was the Dangermen album. Since then we've engineered together on The Sunshine Underground album and more recently the new Malakai record.
Presents The Dangermen Vol 1, Madness
- Eng
- V2
- www.madness.co.uk
- iTunes
- http://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/m/madness-dangermen.shtml
- This will be, without a doubt, the most biased review I've ever written. I can't help it; this is my youth we're talking about here. Madness was my first concert (Warner Theater in Washington, DC) as well as the foundation of what would become my love of "indie" (alt?) rock. Not that Madness was an indie rock band when I first heard "One Step Beyond". No, the term hadn't even been coined yet, but there was something decidedly out of the mainstream about loving ska, and Madness in particular, when I was in high school. I will freely admit to wearing skinny ties and silly suits, to skanking at clubs where I'd gained admittance by virtue of my older brother's driver license, to starting a band called (get this) Sanity 6, to having arguments about who was cooler Suggs or Chaz, to adopting "It Must Be Love" as "our" song during a 10th grade romance. Without Madness I would never have heard The Specials, English Beat, Bad Manners or The Selecter. And without 2-Tone I never would have been led down a path that brought Minor Threat, Rites of Spring, Dag Nasty, R.E.M., Nirvana, Galaxy 500, and so many others to my ears. So I guess it's likely that The Dangermen Sessions Vol. 1 will get a passing grade from me even if it's complete shit, thus tarnishing my hard earned reputation as a reviewer worth trusting. Fortunately, it's not shit. It's even pretty good, at points. The Nutty Boys are still doing their thing, and after all these years that's got to mean something.
The Dangermen is the alter ego for the boys in Madness; really it's an excuse to make records and book gigs without the responsibility of having to trot out "Night Boat to Cairo", "Baggy Trousers" and "Our House" every time they play live. While this is sure to disappoint those who only want to relive the glory days of youth, it's a sensible strategy for a band pigeonholed to play the role of human jukebox for middle-aged men who shout, "play fooking 'My Girl' ya bastards'", from the cheap seats. So The Dangermen were born in an effort to play some unmolested shows and, specifically, to play music in the style they founded the band on so many years ago. The album that results from these efforts is a heartfelt homage to a different time and place. While this strategy could easily have led to an album of pitiable songs played in the key of desperate attempt to recapture a long faded youth, instead we get an album of covers imbued with everything that made the band good.
Consisting entirely of ska cover versions of everything from The Supremes' "You Keep Me Hanging On" to Desmond Dekker's "Israelites" to The Kinks "Lola", each song gets a loving rocksteady treatment: bouncy fairground jutter set to a skank begging beat. It continues to amaze that a bunch of north London white boys can so religiously recreate the feel of a sound that originated in Jamaica. But that's always been Madness' greatest asset: their ability to invest an honest, joyful passion into a sound that at its most fundamental level they have zero in common with.
At 13 songs The Dangermen Sessions Vol. 1 is a bit too long. All the songs bop along at about the same pace, all interpreted in the same rocksteady style, and this makes the proceedings a bit wearisome towards the end. But when Madness does it right it's clear they're still very much in possession of the skills that made them so unique. Covers of The Blues Busters' "Shame and Scandal", Max Romero's "I Chase the Devil", Lord Tanamo's "Taller Than You Are", are all filled with Madness' inimitable combination of keyboards, sax, chugging rhythm guitar, and Suggs' charismatic but nearly tuneless voice. It's a winning combination that only fails when the band tries to be too true to a song's roots (a dull version of Bob Marley's "So Much Trouble in the World") or too clever (Jose Feliciano's "Rain"). All in all though not a bad go for a band that's been written off more than once. Well done boys, you've made me proud.
— 12 October 2005
Steve Dub
- I first met Steve when I started working at Miloco four years ago after leaving Mayfair Studios. We got on well and Steve started asking for me to be on his sessions. I used to do all the Protools work as Steve mainly uses Logic. We worked in that capacity on all sorts of projects including The Chemical Brothers, Roots Manuva and The Prodigy.
Steve first asked me to engineer for him when he started producing albums with Segs (The Ruts/Alabama 3) and the first record we worked on together was the Dangermen album. Since then we've engineered together on The Sunshine Underground album and more recently the new Malakai record.
Pills In My Pocket, Fink
- Prod/Eng
- Ninja Tunes
- www.finkworld.co.uk
- iTunes
- http://www.pixelsurgeon.com/reviews/review.php?id=1013
-
Fink - Biscuits for Breakfast
This wasn’t the album we were expecting to hear from Fink, who is/was a Ninja Tune artist with even more of a trip-top bent than most on the label. And that’s certainly the understatement of the month, because Biscuits for Breakfast sounds like the album of an introspective singer-songwriter, rather than that of an experienced dancefloor filler. It’s a complete U-turn, 180, about-face, whatever you want to call it. Still, once we got over the initial shock, it was soon apparent that this was going to be one of our favourites from the first half of 2006, and no doubt beyond. Dance music it isn’t, but despite the slower pace, Fink has instilled his songs with the kind of funky undercurrent that only an experienced dance DJ could manage. Most importantly, he makes it sound like he’s been doing this forever, and the whole album swaggers with a natural confidence that few manage within any genre, let alone one that, at least from their audience’s point of view, that they’re essentially new to.
Fink’s bluesy, stripped down guitar technique slowly melds its way into your head, managing to be lush, but full of space at the same time. The insistence of his simple, but direct licks reminds a little of that other current acoustic hot property, José González, but then Fink’s early inspirations are undeniably in residence too. There’s John Martyn, Joni Mitchell and even John Lee Hooker in there somewhere; and as he puts it himself, it’s all the Js! Indeed, the result is certainly more compelling than the admittedly likeable Jack Johnson.
Pretty Little Thing opens the album, and sets the cocksure precedent for everything else to follow. Fink’s voice sounds great, again with a contemporary edge, but worldly-wise too. And it’s a voice you grow fonder of with repeated listening, soulful and warm as it is, but just raw enough at the edges to add texture.
Not to criticise Fink’s songwriting in any way, because it’s excellent throughout, but his persuasive cover of Alison Moyet’s All Cried Out is a definite highlight. Hush Now is also a great track, slow-burning and intense, and marks the only time Fink is joined by another vocalist; namely Tina Grace. The country-tinged blues vibe is strong in this one, and it wouldn’t sound out of place if it was in the Verve Records archive.
Despite the unusual premise, title-track Biscuits for Breakfast comes on like an instant classic. The impeccably judged keyboard part underscoring the vocal shows how Fink’s production smarts from his dance days are as attuned as they’ve ever been, and he’s not afraid to put them to good use. Indeed, one of the reasons you’ll keep listening to this is because the production is so damn good. It fills the room without invading your space.
So have we got anything bad to say about Fink’s first collection of proper songs? Well, not really, no. Other than that the album is just too short. We’re hungry for more. But if it’s biscuits for breakfast, we can’t to see what delights are going to be served up for lunch.
Awfully Deep (Live Version), Roots Manuva
- Eng/Mix
- Bid Dada
- www.rootsmanuva.co.uk/rootsmanuva
Red Handed, Gillian Glover
- Eng/Mix
- Laughterwards
- We actually started making this record in the summer of 2006 and it was made incredibly quickly. Originally it was recorded and mixed in 6 days! However we come back to it last winter and spent four days overdubbing and remixing some of the tracks.
- http://www.musicomh.com/albums/gillian-glover_0507.htm
-
For some reason, we expect the offspring of rock legends to follow the same path as their parents if they ever decide to go into the music business. Thus, we have Ziggy Marley trying his luck with reggae, both Lennon children dealing in a similar, slightly psychedelic rock style as their legendary father and Kelly Osborne....well, you get the picture.
This only leads to unfair comparisons and disappointment of course, so it should come as no great surprise to find that Gillian Glover is pretty far removed from the hard rock that her father, Deep Purple bassist Roger, made his name with.
Glover's debut album falls squarely into that rather overcrowded 'female singer/songwriter' field, although her rock genes means that she's never in danger of becoming the new Dido or Norah Jones. Indeed, she's pretty difficult to pigeonhole, moving from folk to blues rock to breezy piano-based tunes at the blink of a eye on her debut album Red Handed.
Of course, having a father who's been in the business for over 30 years means that you're going to pick up some good contacts, and so Glover is surrounded by an excellent band of session musicians, who can count names like David Bowie, Ian Dury and Donovan amongst their credits. While this gives the album a polished, professional feel, it does mean that it sometimes suffers from sounding too perfect at times - a little raw edge wouldn't go amiss at times.
Yet Glover's smokey, expressive voice works well here, and she certainly has a classic touch as a songwriter. The bluesey workout of Holy Communion sees her giving KT Tunstall a run for her money, while the gorgeous string-backed piano ballad of Singing You To Sleep bears favourable comparison with the likes of Fiona Apple.
Glover's lyrics are pretty standard stuff, usually dealing with relationships, and although she does have a tendency to fall into cliche every so often, she also has an ear for an arresting phrase - such as "my cool veneer conceals a veritable mess" on Forecast For Rain.
The best moments on Red Handed are the simple ones. Perhaps the album's best track, Go, is a beautifully low-key piano ballad, showing off Glover's voice to its very best advantage while Hot Knives has a pleasingly raunchy air - it's easy to see Glover giving somebody like Juliette And The Licks a run for their money on this kind of form.
At other times though, the studied and professional air threatens to become too bland. The otherwise impressive Forecast For Rain is nearly ruined by an over-the-top and unnecessary guitar solo while there are a couple of tracks that fall too easily into that 'daytime Radio 2' mood - we have far too many songwriters like that, and Glover seems to be too talented to disappear into that market.
In general though, Red Handed is an impressive album, shot through with a talent and confidence that belies the fact it's Glover's debut record. Arguments about well-connected nepotism won't hold much water here - the songs here are too strong, and Glover's is a name to watch out for.
- John Murphy
Flight of the Raven (Mini-Album), Winnebago Deal
- Mix
- Artists
- www.winnebagodeal.com
- iTunes
The Coral Sea (Live), Patti Smith and Kevin Shields
- Eng
- Rocket Girl
- I spent the whole of September in Kevins studio with him mixing two of the dates that he and Patti played together. It should be released 2008 sometime.
- www.pattismith.net
Album tracks, Aynzli Jones
- Eng
- Mercury Records
- This was another of Steve and Segs projects. We did some additional production and mixed three tracks in the Neve Room and at Sofasound.
- http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=93002641
- iTunes
- http://music.guardian.co.uk/newbands/story/0,,2218458,00.html#article_continue
- No 236: Aynzli Jones
Who rhymes 'cancer' with 'romancer' and fuses dancehall and funk? Paul Lester has the scoop
Wednesday November 28, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Hometown: Kingston, Jamaica.
The lineup: Aynzli Jones (vocals), Nimbus (guitar), Manny Norte (DJ).
The background: Has anyone fused dancehall and funk before? Just checking before we start bandying about phrases like "innovator", "pioneer" and "why the f***?" Aynzli Jones, whose real name probably isn't Aynsley Jonze, is a Hammersmith-born, Kingston-raised 25-year-old MC who has just signed to a major label on the basis of a dazzling ragga flow, an ability to write pop-smart hooks and a facility with rhyme that is second to none (Bar-Nun, a rapper from Brooklyn). So far the ones that stand out are "MySpace" and "my face", and "cancer" and "romancer", although references to The Message and Snoop Dogg on I Don't Listen, his limited-edition debut single, aren't quite as ludicrously inspired. His boom-bap attack, however, is, drawing on Jamaican patois, a staccato UK hip-hop flavour and good old-fashioned singing. Trust us. We know these things.
His friends call him Superflex, and he's earning a reputation for his hard-hitting lyrics, six-minute freestyles and having a nickname like Superflex. When he was six, his mother left Hammersmith for Kingston, Jamaica, although surely Kingston, London would have been quicker. He immersed himself in the city's soundclash culture, writing bars and freestyling on the street, not a punishable offence in Jamaica, or indeed any of the other islands (try doing it in Hackney, though, and see what happens). By the age of 16, he'd been in the studio with Bounty Killer, Elephant Man and Barrington Levy. We can only imagine. He returned to London to study sound engineering and soon was combining dancehall toasting and funk and rap rhythms for paying audiences, including a support slot with Ziggy, easily the second greatest of all the Marleys. Mind you, Rita wasn't bad.
Jonesey, as nobody will ever call him, was signed by Mercury on the strength of his MySpace demos, Frenz and Had Enuff, and went into the studio to record his debut LP with Squeak E Clean (producer for ODB and the Pharcyde) and Salaam Remi, the hip-hop legend responsible for recordings by Amy Winehouse, Fugees, Nas and Miss Dynamite. More recently he worked with techno slaphead Moby on his forthcoming single, Alice. It will appear on Aynzli's 2008 debut album, which he's working on with Chemical Brothers and Roots Manuva knob-twiddler Steve Dub, no relation to Colin Reggae.
The buzz: "An unfeasibly talented young dancehall/soul artist, and a filthy little slut of a record."
The truth: Not sure about its sexual orientation but I Don't Listen is a powerful first foray from a promising young talent. And suddenly digital dancehall doesn't seem like a half-bad idea.
Most likely to: Encourage further exploration of this new-fangled dancehall digi-funk thing, or thang.
Least likely to: Encourage random use of the letter "z" in names. Paul Lezter? We think not.
File next to: Beenie Man, Elephant Man, Buju Banton, Sizzla.
What to buy: I Don't Listen is released by Mercury on December 3.
Steve Dub
- I first met Steve when I started working at Miloco four years ago after leaving Mayfair Studios. We got on well and Steve started asking for me to be on his sessions. I used to do all the Protools work as Steve mainly uses Logic. We worked in that capacity on all sorts of projects including The Chemical Brothers, Roots Manuva and The Prodigy.
Steve first asked me to engineer for him when he started producing albums with Segs (The Ruts/Alabama 3) and the first record we worked on together was the Dangermen album. Since then we've engineered together on The Sunshine Underground album and more recently the new Malakai record.
Forthcoming Album, Vanessa Brown
- Eng
- Island
Steve Dub
- I first met Steve when I started working at Miloco four years ago after leaving Mayfair Studios. We got on well and Steve started asking for me to be on his sessions. I used to do all the Protools work as Steve mainly uses Logic. We worked in that capacity on all sorts of projects including The Chemical Brothers, Roots Manuva and The Prodigy.
Steve first asked me to engineer for him when he started producing albums with Segs (The Ruts/Alabama 3) and the first record we worked on together was the Dangermen album. Since then we've engineered together on The Sunshine Underground album and more recently the new Malakai record.
Forthcoming Tracks, Burmese Days
- Eng
- Supervision Management
- www.myspace.com/burmesedaysuk
Forthcoming Track, Little Boots
- Eng
- Atlantic
- www.myspace.com/littlebootsmusic
Gruff Rhys Remix, Oasis
- Eng
- Big Brother
Monsterism Island Soundtrack, Gruff Rhys
- Eng
- Ankst Management
"Age of Consent" - New Order Cover, The Envy Corps
- Eng/Mix
- Mercury
- Recorded and Mixed this in a day in the Neve. To be released as Napster download.
- www.theenvycorps.com
- iTunes
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