Who's your favourite British producer?

markjohnson

When I was at uni (Leeds College of Music) studying Music Production we had a bunch of big british producers come in an give guest lectures, and one of my favourites was Trevor Horn.

Just been reminded of this as work have just done an interview with him (link if you're interested) and I was really blown away by how practical the advice in it was. He also talks a bit about the need to actually train engineers and producers - he's clearly very commited to developing not just great music but also developing people who can (and have!) gone on to produce great music of there own.

So while he may not have produced any of my favourite music I do love that about him.

Anyone else have a particular love for another producer?

AlexC

Gus Dudgeon - The Zombies’ She’s Not There, Bluesbreakers With Clapton album, all the early, great Elton John albums... also credited with being the first to use sampling (according to Wikipedia). He just seems to get a great ‘natural’ sound from instruments- which is harder than just setting up some mics.
Brian Eno, of course, for pushing the envelope of what a producer can do and using the recording process as an instrument in itself.
Re Trevor Horn - he’s a terrific producer. Welcome To The Pleasuredom is one of the best sounding and put together albums of all time imo. Style over substance for the most part, but a great record which completely encapsulates the time it was made.

GavRichList

Paul Epworth. Love the sound of his records. Silent alarm hasn’t aged a day in a decade. 

Obviously Godrich too, but that’s pretty much a given. 

markjohnson

GavRichList said:

Paul Epworth. Love the sound of his records. Silent alarm hasn’t aged a day in a decade. 

Oh man, Epworth has had his fingerprints on so much great British music of the last decade or so. His discography is insane - Bloc Party, Maxmo Park, Forster the People, Lorde. I'd go so far as to say he's probably responsible for real guitar music still being relevant today - I remember Silent Alarm coming out and being certain that it was a drum machine... then I saw them live and it blew my mind.

Funkfingers

Brian Eno.

Neill

I reckon John Wood is one of the great unsung heroes of the British music scene.  Responsible for some of the classic sounds of the 70's and 80's he rarely got the credit he deserved, I believe.  He co-founded the Sound techniques studio in the 1960's and many and of the albums credited to others eg. Joe Boyd were really John Wood's work, but no-one ever really looks at who the sound engineer is do they?  (Well some of you guys probably do)  

He left the music business for a while but these days has a studio up here in Bonnie Scotland that offers an analogue mixing service. 

Winny_Pooh

Epworth and Eno (genius)

Not much fresh British music in the last ten years which is a shame. 

Tucker Martine from the US is a recent favourite. 

Stuckfast

Agree that John Wood is great, but I don't think it's fair to say that Joe Boyd took the credit for his work. John Wood was an engineer first and foremost, and Joe Boyd was the producer. They are different roles (or were in the records they made together).

I really like a lot of the records Ken Scott produced. Ziggy Stardust sounds way better than the Bowie albums Visconti did in the 70s, and Duty Now For The Future by Devo is amazing.

Moss

I'm huge on A.G Cook at the moment for his hyper-synthetic pop production

Philtre

George Martin.

Kebabkid

Visconti. Yep, American but an Anglophile for years - Bowie, T-Rex, Thin Lizzy

axisus

I don't follow producers at all. The only brit I could think of (before seeing names here) was Roy Thomas Baker. Not a favourite though!

GavRichList

Flood also a shoe-in. 

Grunfeld

For creative input I think it has to be  Martin Hannett.
However,
Thomas Dolby always comes to mind for sheer beauty of balancing sounds.
His "Astronauts & Heretics" album is lovely for this.

wayneirie

Owen Morris, Jimmy miller (American but did all the stones stuff, George Martin, John Leckie, Geoff Barrow/Adrian Utlley, Massive Attack

pintspiller

That bloke that did Pixies and Bunnymen

lukedlb

John Leckie (stone roses, K, the bends), George Martin, Trevor Horn. 

duotone

Winny_Pooh said:

Epworth and Eno (genius)

Not much fresh British music in the last ten years which is a shame. 

Tucker Martine from the US is a recent favourite. 

http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/lectures/brian-eno

Kebabkid

I also liked the relatively unknown Gary Stevenson's production with Go West.

Heartfeltdawn

markjohnson said:

GavRichList said:

Paul Epworth. Love the sound of his records. Silent alarm hasn’t aged a day in a decade. 

Oh man, Epworth has had his fingerprints on so much great British music of the last decade or so. His discography is insane - Bloc Party, Maxmo Park, Forster the People, Lorde. I'd go so far as to say he's probably responsible for real guitar music still being relevant today - I remember Silent Alarm coming out and being certain that it was a drum machine... then I saw them live and it blew my mind.

He's OK if you like that particular Maximo/Bloc Party style. Sadly that means he also produced Intimacy, one of the worst records around for ages. 

Godrich and Leckie are obvious. Stephen Street is in there. Joe Boyd for so many of my favourite records. Ed Buller for the Suede records and working with Spiritualized, Gorwel Owen...

darcym

No shout out for Roy Baker Thomas ? did some pretty impressive stuff with Queen