Steely Dan - Haitian Divorce

Frank Sinatra - In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning

Gaucho. The album as a whole; the song in particular.

but listening to "Blue" for the first time in ages, not long ago, I was surprised how good it sounds, as you describe Mr C.

Joni's voice can be grating at times, but you just don't get that quality on this album, which is surely a sign of great production work?

Still Crazy After All These Years came up on the iPod in the car yesterday, and I was thinking the exact same thing. Not just the song, the whole album.

...when the phrase 'less is more' is bandied about...

But I refer you to Prince, in particular to 'Kiss' and 'Sign 'O' The Times'.

All the space in the world for the songs to breathe and stretch out.

John Wood for John Martyn's Solid Air (the sonic perspective, the vibes and sax are ace)

Gus Dudgeon for Elton John's Rocket Man (astonishing drum sound in particular)

Manfred Eicher (for hundreds of beautiful ECM albums over the years: best ears in the business?)

Rudy van Gelder (a mere "engineer", but what well-recorded, fuss free jazz)

Greg Lake (for the better ELP stuff)

Frank Zappa (for his work rate)

I always felt the Attractions played in an exhilarating rush most of the time (and this is a good thing) - but so much so that it almost seemed like a studio couldn't contain them. The 'Get Happy!!' and 'Blood & Chocolate' albums are examples where there almost seems to be too much sound crammed into the record.

But I think on 'Trust' there's a clarity that demonstrates how scarily tight and precise they were. 'Strict Time' is perhaps the best example.

http://www.last.fm/music/Elvis%2BCostello%2B%2526%2BThe%2BAttractions/_/...

I'm also a big fan of the 'ethereal atmosphere' school of production, at its best, wedded to some extraordinary vocal talents: Emmylou Harris 'Wrecking Ball', Plant/Krauss 'Raising Sand'.

production but I guess there are good producers who with great subtlety improve the artists work while retaining it's original essence. There are bad producers who ruin great songs by letting their ego overide the original idea of the band. Then there are those that ride a fucking great truck through it, rip it up and chuck something out the other end nothing like the original and all the better for it. I give you.........Trevor Horn

From this......

To this........

.. may I say that albums like "Gaucho" and "Still Crazy.."..(and "Kinda Blue"...and "Blue" for that matter) are if anything, under-produced. What you are hearing there is a combination of great playing and sublime recording technique (as opposed to, say Trevor Horn or Roy Thomas Baker-style "production")
It's a subtle difference, but it's there.

Depeche Mode's Violator was put together with such care that the record must be heard from beginning to end. In fact, the connecting interludes are among their finest moments.

Tubular Bells, I'd say that was an album of quite extraordinary production skill. And it sounds beautiful, even now, after al these years. So, credit due to messrs Oldfield, Hayworth and Newman, methinks.

1. Receive approach from A-list guitar band looking to fuse credibility with stadium fillability.

2. Turn up at band's shiny new studio with pack of "Oblique Strategies" cards. Send singer to Mustique for a month, and get band to pick card from pack that says: "Think slippy; put a tea towel on your head.". Instruct engineer to start doing random things with nobs (missus!).

3. Leave band jamming in the studio with anonymous engineer while you fly off to sit in sweat lodge with plate-lipped aboriginal american friends of Sting.

4. Fly back from sweat lodge to studio on same day that singer returns from Mustique. Replace first anonymous engineer with a second engineer who will go through a month's worth of instrumental noodling and pick out the most floaty bits before de-randomising the aforementioned nobs.

5. Give singer book to read about French Revolution, and play him some recordings of men with noseflutes. Get him to pick Oblique Strategies card that says "pretend to be a like a pork pie with antlers".

6. Let band hire your combined floatation tank and Tantric sex suite at discounted rate while singer finds mojo and improves studio tan. Fly off to Inuit whalesong symposium for a month.

7. Return home and peel band loose from aforementioned new age facilities. Reunite singer and band, and shout at them a bit. Send them all home for a month with a copy of "The Master & Margerita" each while you fly to New York for combined human beatbox and doowop conference.

8. Phone Canadian friend while you are away, and ask him to fly to London (at band's expense) on the sly and add layers of slide guitar and authentic acadian production mud to earlier tapes.

9. Return. Give band peyote, and get band to listen to tapes again. They have naturo-pharmocologically induced damascene moment, and declare you a genius.

10. VOILA!!! POP-ERAMA HIT-BANANA!!!

11. One year later: have idea for Tuareg themed eco-village in Cirencester. In order to secure funds, get third engineer to go through tapes and find 40 minutes more spacey noodling. Send letter to band vocalist stating that his journey is not complete, and drag him back to the studio after two week intensive rebirthing masterclass.

12. Repeat process until richer than Steve Jobs and more spiritually replete than Annie Lennox.

Danny Wilson and Steve McQueen

..anything by the Carpenters, Parachute by the Pretty Things and Meddle by Floyd all have a lovely mix of warmth and depth. Ditto, the recent reissue of Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue.

When The Levee Breaks. Huge soundscape, never bettered drum sound, that phased dirty harmonica and the way it all spirals down a plughole at the end.

for all his Beatles work but especially Sgt Pepper quite extraordinary off the top of my head Being for the benefit of Mr Kite, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds,Good Morning Good Morning and A Day In The Life.

for the sublime 'Sara' on F.Mac's 'Tusk'. Six and a half minutes of delicate touches, understated playing and gorgeous harmonies. I always remember thinking 'digital schmigital' when I read about the new fangled process but then jumped out of my chair when Mick's brushes turned up, right in my ear!

Despite the vocals being multitracked to infinity, the sound is remarkably clean and clear.

I also have an admiration for more contemporary everything-but-the-kitchen-sink production such as Scott Horscroft and Luke Steele's production on The Sleepy Jackson's Personality or Michael Beinhorn's (Red Hot Chili Peppers (not the recent ones!), Herbie Hancock, Aerosmith) work on Mew's And The Glass Handled Kites.

production work with Talk Talk is I think a great example of a producer helping a band fulfil its potential. By the time of Spirit of Eden he'd stripped the band back to something more basic and then built them back up with key touches: the way the drums sound, the space and silence, the bursts of noise, the prominence of the piano. It's almost like 2 layers of production: a stripped back and effects free band playing drum, bass, guitar and piano and then another layer awash with sonic effects and ambience. And then you have Mark Hollis' voice giving the whole thing a soul.

When I first heard the album I struggled with it but now it is an album that just keeps on giving with each subsequent play. It was made nearly 20 years ago but could have been made 40 years ago or 5 minutes ago.