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From the Archive - July Skies - The Weather Clock
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From the Archive - July Skies - The Weather Clock
Oooooohhhhfff...
I'm gonna go with Justice's Cross on that, it's pretty mindblowing!
i find it a bit dodgy actually
the distorted synths sound awesome, but in general i find it all a bit too overcranked. Everythings in the red, everything is crammed together into one loud bassless mush. I like it, i really do, but it just doesn't sound quite right
^
It does sound pretty synthetic, but I kinda know what you mean by there being no space for the bass...It's probably been mixed for a mega-sized sound system.
I also think Noisettes 'What time is it Mr. Wolf?' is worth a mention. Oh yeah Jack Peñate's album sounds rather...for lack of a better word 'Clean'.
um... not too sure...
but I'll go with Pantha Du Prince - This Bliss. In fact, the title of the album sums it up.
Animal Collective
*waits for beating*
nah, although i don't dislike the production
i dunno................ LCD Soundsystem. best album all year all round, IMO.
Strawberry Jam
NO NO NO NO
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO
^ This
Strawberry Jam was OK produced, but not exactly excellently. Not a patch on the last 3, certainly.
I nominate 'In Debt To' by Napoleon IIIrd. Crisp, clean, medium-fi... fantastic.
LOL
this "of the year" is always a bit silly
because SFA and Radiohead basically take it in turns
(160kbps)
You can still tell its amazingly produced
when my discbox arrives im gonna rip it in 7 billion kbps and not notice the difference.
they are inelligible for this prize
because they show such little respect for their production values. Even if it was the best produced album of the year i'd still turn them away
Theyre releasing it on cd too, for jesus' sake
What kind of f--kery?
I'm going to have to go with Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black." Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi really got to the heart of old-school R&B, doo-wop and Motown for the sound.
^
Overlooked that, he's probably been the most hyped producer of 2007(Ronson).
i haven't heard the record
but it does sound pretty damn good on the radio (not a great test for production, i know)
came out last year though.
Jamie Lidell
did it much better on Multiply in 2005 though. And actually managed to make it an innovative record at the same time.
hmm
Wooden Wand's "James & The Quiet" comes to mind, lots of warmth and space. It'd be so easy to over-egg those arrangements because they're so simple, but Lee Ranaldo did a great job.
RTX's "Western Xterminator" too, Jennifer Herrema just knows how to do rock records. Everything is at the right level.
^ @ RTX
that record sounds fucking amazing. It just sits on the boundary between over-cramped noise and classic rock of an early Van Halen persuasion
Everything Herrema produces sounds perfect
even The Chicks! She's a real production connosieur, the only outside producer that ever touched anything by Royal Trux was David Briggs who did all the old Neil Young records and Alice Cooper.
"Accelerator" is probably my favourite production job ever, alongside early Van Halen and Aerosmith "Rocks". They used compression in such a brutal, untidy way... just incomprehensibly great.
Tbh, i mostly only notice production when it's bad. The new Major Stars record is a real missed opportunity.
i know what you mean
but a lot of things seem to be pretty terribly produced, so it's more "exceptions to the rule" than anything else. I suppose it's because i mainly listen to older music, you can really see a big jump in production values
Also, is Rocks pretty good then? I always wondered where Aerosmith got their reputation from
yeah
since the 80s production has been pretty dreadful. even in places you'd expect more from... half the SST catalogue sounds fucking appalling.
Rocks is brilliant, aside from the songs themselves, the production is just fucking RICH. in parts it sounds like dub.
everything after Rocks is a bit lamentable though
"aside from the songs themselves"
that sounds like a glowing endorsement. Still pretty intrigued though, i do love my well produced classic rock
But i do reckon it's only recently that production has started getting really bad. In the 80s it was all about the overcompressed drum sound, now it seems to be about the overcompressed everything, no space between any of the instruments. I'm not a great expert on the matter, but Stylus did some superb articles on the topic, particularly a pair on the best and worst sounding albums of the past decade. Tellingly, most of the ones on the "worst" list were from the past few years, and many of them seemed to be quite well respected records (within the indie community, at least)
i meant the songs are great!
but it's not just them that make the record great.
yeah, that's definitely the problem now... it's mostly just since compression in any form came about though i think. but then i'm not by any means an expert on production and i can only go by ear on what sounds good and what doesn't, really.
those stylus articles were great.
i think the 'indie community' is largely made up of bullshitters anyway: the way it is right now, it works along the same lines as the 'mainstream' market does but focused on one particular group of music buyers to maximise sales within that area. almost all of the 'top records of the year' will be on large indies with major label distro or connections, whilst the localised labels that do all the work have to buy ads on places like Pitchfork to get reviews etc. It's still full of cynicism and backslapping, whilst trends still give added coverage to records that otherwise wouldn't warrant the attention. Ultimately I don't think real overall quality makes much of a difference in the 'community' because people are still herded towards liking certain things as reviewers don't have any real independence/focus to just cover what they want and editorial dictates policy.
So, um, yeah - production doesn't matter to these people because they don't actually have a healthy attitude to music as it is. And as a result a lot of people don't know what good production is.
that's the crux of the problem really
a lot of people, artists included, can't really tell between good production and bad production. It's partially brought on by the degraded quality of music which surrounds listeners nowadays, be it through myspace streaming, youtube, poorly encoded mp3s or whatever - 25 years ago people looked for the optimum listening environment (via a well balanced stereo), nowadays people look for the convenient listening situation (iPods etc). And so a lot of musicians just don't know any better - but that's one of the problems with badly produced/compressed music, it often sounds pretty good to a casual observer. Louder, punchier, more grabbing.. it just doesn't stand up to close repeated scrutiny, there's no depth to it.
RE: the "indie community" question - i reckon it is getting better to some extent. There is more of a free attitude to music exploration, where people aren't tied into the bigger "tastemakers" and can explore the back-alleys with ease. There is definitely a herd mentality, but that seems to be more focussed around the zeitgeist grabbing indie-mainstream arena than anywhere else (broadsheet journalism seems to be moving into this position currently). But of course, these new avenues of music discovery tend to be focussed around degraded mediums where production/sound quality isn't much of a concern.
I suppose that right now things are still pretty bad, but it **seems** to be heading i the right direction. Maybe
yeah
i think one massive difference actually is the sheer amount of music to be consumed - i know for sure myself that i'd have gone and bought a good pre-amp by now were it not for the fact that'd mean missing out on 10 LPs.
Sometimes I do wish I'd spend more time with the records I know, but I'll still research stuff that's new to me pretty much every day. But then, I don't earn any money at present so I can't say what I'd do with funds.
i can't remember who it was that pointed it out (might've been on Blastitude) but rock writing used to be based around a concencus because there were only a couple hundred records around to be listened to in the 70s, say - everyone had the same reference points. Now, with the internet and digital music I'll probably hear 200 records a year.
I'm not sure it is getting better really, as for all the extra opportunities to discover new things I still think good journalism has a part to play - but it's important to actually get a personality across in the way you write so that people will know who to trust. There aren't many writers whom I could say had a clear explicit view on what they want from music, and all too often people are stuck reviewing things they just won't/don't 'get': my main gripes with reviews nowadays (aside from the sheer anonymity that comes with nods to objectivity) are poor fact-checking and inexperience with what's being reviewed. Nobody looks good when you trash an album whilst giving flat-out wrong reference points. But of course, there's always been bad music journalism.
I guess I just want some steady heads amongst all the madness.
I've said before, I really like the drums on Boxer
But some people thinks it all sounds a bit U2 I think.
When you roll at 96kbps like the cool kids do
it all sounds the same
STOP KILLING MUSIC
I'm not one of those cool kids mind
48kbps 'til I die. Everything sounds like the static in between radio stations
tut tut tut
tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut tut
That's what every song sounds like @ 36kbps
Seriously though, although I'm not really a 160kbps philistine, I just can never bring myself to really get into things like sound quality even though I almost envy people who do. Probably my favourite record is Miami by The Gun Club, and if you can find a review of it that doesn't contain the phrase 'mixing and mastering disaster' I'd be surprised. And if I made a top 20, a big percentage would probably be either recorded on a 4 track or have what would be termed shitty production. It's not something which generally matters all that much to me.
a lot of things NEED to be shittily produced
they just wouldn't sound right otherwise. But a lot of stuff just requires a bit of refinement
Cassadaga.
Seriously.
nah
you can still hear his voice innit
^
stars of the lid
...
good god no
it's so MOR and overly-polished
Icky Thump
is one.
...
No Age - Weirdo Rippers
It's fairly lo-fi but it sounds beautiful; the guitar tones and drones sound so warm, the distortion's filthy and the everything's really nicely separated in the mix.
Burial - Untrue
Hardly a controversial choice but the vinyl crackle and the depth of the reverb is lovely.
Stars Of The Lid
Just for all-round enveloping warmth.
Grails - Burning Off Impurities
Absolutely fucking immaculate production -everything is so perfectly separated in the mix and despite there being about a thousand things going on at once, everything sounds crystal clear and perfectly differentiated. And they've basically hit upon the most perfect guitar reverb ever.
The vinyl crackle on Untrue sounds like it was a garageband job
agreed on the reverb thuogh
interesting..
you're somebody i trust when it comes to production issues
untrue.
just did a CTRL + F and searched for "untrue". fucking thank you fucking lots and lots.
also, Gowns' Red State.
Burial Untrue
The production is amazing the most sonicly... is that a word... pleasing album of the year I reckon....
LCD Soundsystem is wicked too
Holy Fuck
It makes me go 'wow' in places.
Not many records do that for me.
neon bible
epic
Easily
the new Super Furry Animals one, it's just got everything right, true delight to listen too!
Saul Williams- The inevitable rise and liberation of niggy tardust
or Year Zero- Nine Inch Nails
Trent Reznor pretty much wins at production
El-P?
True that, pretty amazing that one
Probably better than the Saul Williams. Year Zero is absolutely spectacular though.
So is SFA actually. I think that might be my vote for best along with El-P
Yeasayer - All Hour Cymbals
Just the meticulousness of it, some great touches that come out after repeated listens.
Menomena - Friend and Foe
is pretty good. Particuarly on Wet and Rusting.
hmmm
no one mentioned mirrored yet. i think it sounds fucking great
marnie stern!!!!
FER REAL YO!
M.I.A
Yaaas
babyshambles...
considering.
Babyshambles
Very well produced second album giving an extremely 'clean' sound. Awesome production
^ this
.
Sound Of Silver
by far. That James Murphy got skillz.
Tromatic Fucking Reflexxxxxxxxxions
I can't believe...
noone's said 'Person Pitch'...
That new Jay-Z track is awesome too...
My kind of man
Von Sudenfed have made the best souinding record by a mile.......
^5
ELECTRONICA IS CHEATING
Uncool album choices
...and CERTAINLY not my choices for album of the year, but Springsteen's newest, and Kings of Leon's Because of the Times are up there production-wise.
Brendan O'Brien and Ethan Johns are pretty unbeatable.
First post by the way...hello.
either
Battles or LCD Soundsystem
Deerhoofs
album is really really well produced, especially seeing as they did it themselves. Each song has very diffrent instrumentation with mixtures of electronic and live instrament, but it all works so well.