Yes – another Brian Eno post ! But it’s completely worth it. This Arena documentary about possibly my favourite music producer is simply outstanding – partly because it contains plenty of Eno snippets for the enthusiast, but also because it’s beautifully made and put together – fascinating, intelligently chosen visuals and audio accompany the interviews throughout.
It’s also great for me to see Eno in his Suffolk habitat, because that’s where I grew up, too – and seeing the familiar serene, slightly surreal landscapes accompanied by his music and words somehow makes perfect sense in a way that hadn’t registered with me before.
I’m sorry things have been a little quiet so far this year – it’s because there’s all kinds of stuff going on behind the scenes that I’m really looking forward to telling you about… soon : )
Meanwhile, regular readers might like to check out my latest guest post on the RecordProduction.com site:
So, do you see what I’ve done here ? This video is:
About a classic piece of music
A little Christmassy (Although “Do They Know It’s Christmas Time” has to be one of the least Christmassy tunes ever)
About recording and production (At least, it includes some footage of people in SARM studios)
Thought-provoking (I think), and
Includes loads of footage of eighties pop stars with ridiculous haircuts !
I’m feeling quite smug
More seriously though, I was really pleased to find this. Band Aid and Live Aid had huge impact on me when I was growing up – I believe the idea of pop music being used selflessly for the good of others is an inspirational one, regardless of how effective they were at achieving their goals with hindsight. There are many people who are cynical about this kind of thing – I’m not one of them.
This site is about making your music sound fantastic. And in my last post I listed twelve of my favourite outstanding albums for sound. Lots of people replied with their own suggestions in the comments – so far, so good.
I agreed with many of the suggestions, but was interested in one album that was mentioned several times: “Rage Against The Machine” by Rage Against The Machine. Now, there’s no question that RATM sounds great. Let’s face it, it’s something of a classic. It sounds heavy, hooky, dynamic, hard-hitting, impactful and balanced.
But I wouldn’t have chosen it for my list, and I still wouldn’t. Why ? Because just sounding great isn’t enough – to sound fantastic, the audio needs to have personality.
Lots of people have asked me for albums I think sound great – so, here are some that spring instantly to mind. I should say upfront, this isn’t intended to be some kind of “top 12 best sounding albums ever” list, just some from my own collection that I love the sound of, for whatever reason.
If you take a listen, you’ll probably notice some pretty clear recurring themes – suggestions in the comments, please ! I’ve included the Amazon affiliate widget above so you can hear the songs, but if you live in Europe this Spotify playlist will be even better since you can listen to complete songs.
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