Talking with students about making records (as I do in my teaching work for the Music Production & Engineering department at Berklee College), a frequent topic is the work of others that they admire. Much as students in film school might be asked about their favorite directors, we ask students about their favorite engineers and producers. Their responses may reveal a number of things: Are they aware of the professional roles involved in making records? Do they read record credits? To what extent have they researched a particular producer’s work? Have they identified common stylistic aspects of a producer’s work, and can they describe them?
This topic is rarely straightforward. What we might say about a producer’s “style” is at least partly conjecture; what we hear in their work is usually the product of collaboration with multiple people contributing elements of composition, arrangement, performance, rhythm, timbre, etc. The extent to which a recording’s overall sound, or any small detail of it, can be attributed to its producer (or engineer or mixer) varies widely – as does the impression of their contribution on any individual listener. Only the people who were there in the room when the record was being made can know exactly who did what – and even they may disagree about it later. Nevertheless, distinguishing traits do tend to emerge in the work of certain producers and engineers, and the avid listener will spot them.
When students turn the question back around on me (Who are my favorite producers?), as a gen-Xer I think first of those who shaped the innovative post-punk, new wave and “modern rock” records of the late 1970s and 80s.
Popular music in the late 1970s was altered by a unique convergence: Punk rock had shattered musical norms and inspired a generation of musicians (and non-musicians) to create and express. Electronic media were providing unprecedented exposure to musical inspiration from all over the world. Technological innovations in synthesizers and effects processors made accessible a new palette of sounds and ways of manipulating them. The music industry was thriving and eager to develop new artists. In that fertile setting, an explosion of inventive new bands, especially concentrated in the UK, worked with an array of inspired and resourceful producers and engineers to create some of the most distinctive records in all of pop music’s history.
Here, in no particular order, are some producers and engineers whose work in the 70s and 80s has had the most influence on me. I’ve also included selected listening recommendations, and if you’re a Tidal subscriber, here’s a playlist.
Mike Hedges produced and/or engineered defining works by The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Beat, the Associates and many others. His production on The Cure’s second and third albums, Seventeen Seconds (1980) and Faith (1981), is strikingly minimal – icy cold and stark, yet imbued throughout with soft dreamy melancholy – the perfect platform for Robert Smith’s songs of longing and isolation. Hedges’ work with Siouxsie and the Banshees – five albums from 1982’s A Kiss in the Dreamhouse through 1988’s Peepshow – is almost the opposite: lush, sensual and powerful, bursting with exotic multicolored psychedelia.
Listen:
The Cure – “A Forest” (Seventeen Seconds, 1980)
The Cure – “Other Voices” (Faith, 1981)
The Beat – “Mirror in the Bathroom” (I Just Can’t Stop It, 1980)
Siouxsie and the Banshees – “Painted Bird” (A Kiss in the Dreamhouse, 1982)
Siouxsie and the Banshees – “Dazzle” (Hyaena, 1984)
Steve Lillywhite‘s endless credits include seminal works by Peter Gabriel, U2, Talking Heads, XTC, Big Country, Ultravox, Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Psychedelic Furs. His pioneering work on U2’s raw, explosive early records (especially the 1983 album War) and the distinctive drum sounds he fashioned with Hugh Padgham (see below) for XTC and Peter Gabriel changed the landscape of record production in the 1980s.
Listen:
Peter Gabriel – “Intruder” (Peter Gabriel [3], 1980)
XTC – “Generals and Majors” (Black Sea, 1980)
The Psychedelic Furs – “Mr. Jones” (Talk Talk Talk, 1981)
The Chameleons – “In Shreds” (1982 single)
U2 – “New Year’s Day” (War, 1983)
Simple Minds – “Up on the Catwalk” (Sparkle in the Rain, 1984)
Flood (Mark Ellis) worked with numerous artists on the influential independent labels Some Bizarre and Mute Records in the eighties, including Cabaret Voltaire, Psychic TV, Marc Almond, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Depeche Mode and Erasure. His engineering and production helped to shape the era’s groundbreaking electronic pop, industrial and avant-garde acts and bring them mainstream recognition.
Listen:
Cabaret Voltaire – “24-24” (The Crackdown, 1983)
Cabaret Voltaire – “The Operative” (Micro-Phonies, 1984)
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – “From Her to Eternity” (From Her to Eternity, 1984)
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – “The Mercy Seat” (Tender Prey, 1988)
Depeche Mode – “Shake the Disease” (1985 single)
Depeche Mode – “Enjoy the Silence” (Violator, 1990)
Nitzer Ebb – “Control I’m Here” (Belief, 1989)
Nine Inch Nails – “Terrible Lie” (Pretty Hate Machine, 1989)
Martin Hannett was the wildly creative producer of most of Factory Records’ releases in the late 70s and 80s, including Joy Division, New Order, A Certain Ratio, the Durutti Column and Section 25; as well as seminal recordings by OMD, Buzzcocks, the Psychedelic Furs, Magazine, and several others (sometimes using the name Martin Zero). Hannett was a true sonic artist, notorious for his eccentric methods and volatile personality, using the studio to radically transform conventional instruments into bizarre new sounds. His production for Joy Division and the early New Order records seems to discard all prior conventions of rock music recording, inventing wholly new concepts of what a band could sound like: cold, dark, angular, otherworldly.
Listen:
Joy Division – “Shadowplay” (Unknown Pleasures, 1979)
Joy Division – “Isolation” (Closer, 1980)
Joy Division – “Love Will Tear Us Apart” (1980 single)
New Order – “Procession” (1981 single)
New Order – “Everything’s Gone Green” (1981 single)
New Order – “Doubts Even Here” (Movement, 1981)
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – “Almost” (original Cargo Studios version, 1979 single b-side)
Magazine – “Because You’re Frightened” (The Correct Use of Soap, 1980)
Conny Plank was a true pioneer of studio craft; his contributions to the art and his influence on other music-makers are without measure. Throughout the 1970s he was a central figure in European avant-garde/progressive music (aka “krautrock”), producing and/or engineering records by Kraftwerk, Neu!, Cluster, Harmonia, Brian Eno, Can and many others. He went on to work with many significant and innovative artists of the 1980s including Devo, Ultravox, Eurythmics, Killing Joke and DAF. His legendary studio near Cologne featured numerous customized technical innovations, most notably its unique hand-built recording console, which Plank designed and continuously upgraded until his death in 1987.
Listen:
Cluster – “Plas” (Cluster II, 1972)
Kraftwerk – “Autobahn” (Autobahn, 1974)
Harmonia – “Gollum” (Deluxe, 1975)
Eno/Moebius/Roedelius – “Base & Apex” (After the Heat, 1978)
Devo – “Mongoloid” (Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!, 1978)
Ultravox – “Quiet Men” (Systems of Romance, 1978)
Ultravox – “Vienna” (Vienna, 1980)
Killing Joke – “Empire Song” (Revelations, 1982)
Gareth Jones engineered and produced some of the most distinctive records of the 1980s, including key works by John Foxx, Depeche Mode, Einstürzende Neubauten and Wire. He was an early proponent of the digital sampler and other new (at the time) recording technologies and was closely associated with legendary Hansa Tonstudio in Berlin.
Listen:
John Foxx – “Underpass” (Metamatic, 1981)
Depeche Mode – “Everything Counts” (Construction Time Again, 1983)
Depeche Mode – “Something To Do” (Some Great Reward, 1984)
Einstürzende Neubauten – “Z.N.S.” (Halber Mensch, 1986)
Einstürzende Neubauten – “Ich Bin’s” (Fünf auf der nach oben offenen Richterskala, 1987)
Wire – “Over Theirs” (The Ideal Copy, 1987)
Wire – “The Finest Drops” (A Bell is a Cup Until it is Struck, 1988)
John Fryer is largely responsible for the lush, reverb-drenched sound associated with Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil, collaborating with 4AD founder Ivo Watts-Russell on many of the label’s releases in the 1980s. He also worked with Mute Records artists Fad Gadget, Dome, Depeche Mode, Yazoo and others, often at Blackwing Studios in south London, and was one of the extraordinary lineup of co-producers on Nine Inch Nails’ debut Pretty Hate Machine.
Listen:
Fad Gadget – “State of the Nation” (Fireside Favourites, 1980)
Cocteau Twins – “Wax and Wane” (Garlands, 1982)
Cocteau Twins – “Five Ten Fiftyfold” (Head Over Heels, 1983)
This Mortal Coil – “Another Day” (It’ll End in Tears, 1984)
This Mortal Coil – “Strength of Strings” (Filigree & Shadow, 1986)
Clan of Xymox – “Medusa” (Medusa, 1986)
He Said – “I Fall Into Your Arms” (Hail, 1986)
Nine Inch Nails – “Something I Can Never Have” (Pretty Hate Machine, 1989)
Mike Thorne produced landmark records for Soft Cell, Nina Hagen, Bronski Beat, Laurie Anderson and many others during the 1980s. Standing tall among his very first production credits in the late 70s are the classic trifecta of Wire’s first albums: Pink Flag, Chairs Missing and 154. Thorne also produced Colin Newman’s first solo record A-Z, which production-wise sounds like the natural follow-up to 154.
Listen:
Wire – “Ex-Lion Tamer” (Pink Flag, 1977)
Wire – “I Am the Fly” (Chairs Missing, 1978)
Wire – “The 15th” (154, 1979)
Colin Newman – “Alone” (A-Z, 1980)
Soft Cell – “Tainted Love” (Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, 1981)
Soft Cell – “The Art of Falling Apart” (The Art of Falling Apart, 1983)
Nick Launay produced crucial early records by Killing Joke, Public Image Ltd, Gang of Four, The Birthday Party, Midnight Oil, INXS and others during the 1980s, often at Townhouse Studios in Shepherd’s Bush where he was a staff engineer. He was one of the engineers (along with Hugh Padgham, see below) on Kate Bush’s fourth (and best?) album, The Dreaming, responsible for some of its gigantic drums and other wild sounds. In addition to an obvious emphasis on performance, Launay made fearless use of studio technology to shape sounds creatively, contributing massively to the distinct sonic identity of each artist he worked with.
Listen:
Public Image Ltd – “Banging the Door” (Flowers of Romance, 1981)
Killing Joke – “Follow the Leaders” (what’s THIS for…!, 1981)
Gang of Four – “To Hell With Poverty” (1981 single)
The Birthday Party – “Release the Bats” (1981 single)
Midnight Oil – “Power and the Passion” (10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1982)
Midnight Oil – “Kosciusko” (Red Sails in the Sunset, 1984)
INXS – “Johnson’s Aeroplane” (The Swing, 1984)
Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley together have produced nearly every record by Madness, including all of their best-known classics, and a number of other artists including Elvis Costello and the Attractions, Dexys Midnight Runners, China Crisis and Lloyd Cole and the Commotions. Their work with Madness is remarkable for its crisp and exuberant sound, and for the progression of style, performance and orchestration on display across the band’s first four albums (especially) and singles of that era – growing from their simpler ska origins into one of the great British pop bands of all time.
Listen:
Madness – “Night Boat to Cairo” (One Step Beyond, 1979)
Madness – “Embarrassment” (Absolutely, 1980)
Madness – “House of Fun” (1982 single)
Madness – “Primrose Hill” (The Rise & Fall, 1982)
Dexys Midnight Runners – “Come On Eileen” (Too-Rye-Ay, 1982)
Brian Eno‘s contributions to music, art and technology are vast, and as a record producer he is a hero to legions. His uses of technology and experimental processes working as a solo artist and collaborator (with Robert Fripp, Harold Budd, David Byrne, Daniel Lanois, members of Cluster, et al) have yielded an extraordinarily deep and inventive body of work – including seminal works of the “ambient” genre (a term Eno himself coined). He also produced classic records by Ultravox, Devo, Talking Heads, Peter Gabriel and U2 (among others). His contributions to the sounds and concepts of the David Bowie albums Low, “Heroes” and Lodger (although not actually credited as co-production) give an undeniable sense of space, color, and unfettered experimentation to the legendary “Berlin trilogy.” The Oblique Strategies series of cards created by Eno and Peter Schmidt are a favorite creative tool in recording studios everywhere, having helped countless musicians and producers through moments of creative uncertainty.
Listen:
Brian Eno – “Baby’s on Fire” (Here Come the Warm Jets, 1973)
Brian Eno – “Golden Hours” (Another Green World, 1975)
David Bowie – “Art Decade” (Low, 1977)
David Bowie – “Heroes” (“Heroes”, 1977)
David Bowie – “Red Sails” (Lodger, 1979)
Talking Heads – “Memories Can’t Wait” (Fear of Music, 1979)
Talking Heads – “The Overload” (Remain in Light, 1980)
Brian Eno/David Byrne – “America is Waiting” (My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, 1981)
Harold Budd/Brian Eno with Daniel Lanois – “Dark-Eyed Sister” (The Pearl, 1984)
Eno Moebius Roedelius Plank – “The Belldog” (Begegnungen, 1984)
U2 – “The Unforgettable Fire” (The Unforgettable Fire, 1984)
Tony Visconti is well known for producing most of David Bowie’s best-loved records, from the start of his career through his final album Blackstar. He also produced most of the T. Rex catalog and produced and/or mixed records by Thin Lizzy, Sparks, Iggy Pop, Boomtown Rats, The Stranglers and many others. His versatility, inventiveness, work ethic and humility are legendary.
Listen:
David Bowie – “African Night Flight” (Lodger, 1979)
David Bowie – “Fashion” (Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), 1980)
Boomtown Rats – “Up All Night” (V Deep, 1982)
Sparks – “In the Future” (Indiscreet, 1975)
Iggy Pop – “Nightclubbing” (The Idiot, 1977)
The Stranglers – “Golden Brown” (La Folie, 1981)
Adrian Sherwood is one of the British producers who in the 1980s strongly embraced Jamaican dub techniques and brought them into common usage in many styles of music. His production and remix credits include a litany of dub records (many on his own label, On-U Sound Records) and a wide array of post-punk, electronic and industrial artists including The Fall, Ministry, Skinny Puppy, Cabaret Voltaire, KMFDM and Depeche Mode.
Listen:
Depeche Mode – “Master and Servant (An ON-U Sound Science Fiction Dance Hall Classic)” (1984 single)
Ministry – “Just Like You” (Twitch, 1986)
Skinny Puppy – “Deep Down Trauma Hounds (Remix)” (1987 “Addiction” single b-side)
Nine Inch Nails – “Down In It” (Pretty Hate Machine, 1989)
Hugh Padgham produced and/or engineered some of the most striking (and famous) records of the post-punk/new wave era, often collaborating with Steve Lillywhite (see above); the two created the explosive gated drum sound that countless others sought to copy in the eighties. His work includes classic records by Peter Gabriel, XTC, the Police, Kate Bush, Split Enz, David Bowie and many others.
Listen:
XTC – “Making Plans for Nigel” (Drums and Wires, 1979)
Peter Gabriel – “Games Without Frontiers” (Peter Gabriel [3], 1980)
The Police – “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” (Ghost in the Machine, 1981)
XTC – “No Thugs in Our House” (English Settlement, 1982)
Kate Bush – “Suspended in Gaffa” (The Dreaming, 1982)
The Police – “Synchronicity II” (Synchronicity, 1983)
Mike Howlett produced definitive albums of 1980s new wave, including classic records by OMD, A Flock of Seagulls, Blancmange, China Crisis and John Foxx.
Listen:
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – “The Misunderstanding” (Organisation, 1980)
A Flock of Seagulls – “Space Age Love Song” (A Flock of Seagulls, 1982)
Blancmange – “Living on the Ceiling” (Happy Families, 1982)
A Flock of Seagulls – “Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You)” (Listen, 1983)
China Crisis – “Working With Fire and Steel” (Working With Fire and Steel (Possible Pop Songs Volume Two), 1983)
Chris Hughes was a member (aka Merrick) of Adam and the Ants and produced their second and third albums – including the definitive Kings of the Wild Frontier. He also produced the starkly unique Tears for Fears debut The Hurting, and their massively successful follow-up Songs from the Big Chair.
Listen:
Adam and the Ants – “Kings of the Wild Frontier” (Kings of the Wild Frontier, 1980)
Adam and the Ants – “Stand and Deliver” (Prince Charming, 1981)
Tears for Fears – “Pale Shelter” (The Hurting, 1983)
Tears for Fears – “Shout” (Songs from the Big Chair, 1985)
Nigel Grey co-produced Siouxsie and the Banshees’ classic albums Kaleidoscope and Juju, the first three albums by the Police, and numerous others at his own Surrey Sound Studios in the 1970s and 80s.
Listen:
The Police – “Message in a Bottle” (Reggatta de Blanc, 1979)
The Police – “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” (Zenyatta Mondatta, 1980)
Siouxsie and the Banshees – “Christine” (Kaleidoscope, 1980)
Siouxsie and the Banshees – “Spellbound” (Juju, 1981)
David M. Allen (sometimes credited as Dave Allen – but not to be confused with Dave Allen of Gang of Four, Shriekback, et al) produced key 1980s works by the Cure, the Sisters of Mercy, the Chameleons and others. His production on the Cure’s mid/late-eighties albums established what many consider the band’s definitive sound, and helped them achieve their greatest commercial success.
Listen:
The Sisters of Mercy – “No Time to Cry” (First and Last and Always, 1985)
The Cure – “In Between Days” (The Head on the Door, 1985)
The Chameleons – “Swamp Thing” (Strange Times, 1986)
The Cure – “Just Like Heaven” (Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, 1987)
The Cure – “Fascination Street” (Disintegration, 1989)
John Leckie has a long list of recording credits extending back to the early 1970s when he was a tape operator at EMI/Abbey Road Studios. There he assisted on records by John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, and Syd Barrett; later as a staff engineer he worked on Pink Floyd’s Meddle and many other records. His early production credits include the first two XTC albums White Music and Go 2, Magazine’s debut album Real Life, Simple Minds, and the Human League. Throughout the 1980s he produced the Fall, the Adult Net, XTC’s “alter ego” the Dukes of Stratosphear, and the Stone Roses (among many others).
Listen:
XTC – “Radios in Motion” (White Music, 1978)
XTC – “Meccanik Dancing (Oh We Go!)” (Go 2, 1978)
Magazine – “Shot by Both Sides” (Real Life, 1978)
The Human League – “Being Boiled” (Travelogue, 1980)
The Dukes of Stratosphear – “25 O’Clock” (25 O’Clock, 1985)
The Dukes of Stratosphear – “Vanishing Girl” (Psonic Psunspot, 1987)
The Stone Roses – “I Wanna Be Adored” (The Stone Roses, 1989)
Colin Thurston worked with Tony Visconti in the late seventies, co-engineering David Bowie’s “Heroes” and Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life (also co-producing the latter album, as one-third of the pseudonymous “Bewlay Bros.” He produced the second Magazine album Secondhand Daylight, the Human League’s first full album Reproduction and Talk Talk’s debut The Party’s Over, among others. Surely his best known productions are the first two albums by Duran Duran: their self-titled 1981 debut, and 1982’s Rio.
Listen:
Iggy Pop – “The Passenger” (Lust for Life, 1977)
Magazine – “Talk to the Body” (Secondhand Daylight, 1979)
The Human League – “Almost Medieval” (Reproduction, 1979)
Duran Duran – “Careless Memories” (Duran Duran, 1981)
Duran Duran – “New Religion” (Rio, 1982)
Talk Talk – “Talk Talk” (The Party’s Over, 1982)