Friday, February 25, 2011

Giving Jamie xx a run for his money, ten of the next generation of young music producers

In no particular order Hudson Mohawke, Chris Coady, Starsmith and the other new producers you really must hear (NB There's a handy Spotify playlist here)

The Knocks

The new Bloodshy & Avant

The skinny Ben "B-Roc" Ruttner and James "J-Patt" Patterson may not be able to come up with exciting monikers, but they certainly know their way around a decent melody. Specialising in summery, laidback pop, theirs is a life of enviable simplicity: "Being able to wake up whenever and cruise to your own place where you can jam out as many ideas as you want all day long is awesome."

Worked on DJs by night and producers for the likes of Alex Winston and Samuel by day.

Working on "We've been getting great feedback from our solo effort, so I think we'll pursue that for a bit and see where it takes us," says J-Patt.

Amir Amor

The new Paul Epworth

The skinny Having worked with everyone from Plan B to Jamelia to Giggs, producer-engineer Amir Amor set up his own production house, Major Tom's. Based in Hoxton, its mission statement is clear: "Our aims are to develop forward-thinking pop artists, highlight new talent and promote creativity" For Amor, his signature "expensive lo-fi" sound is enhanced by the fact that he gets the pleasure without any of the pain: "It's satisfying to make the music I'd want to hear, but not have to be in the limelight."

Worked on Call him Mr Versatile: he's done studio work for everyone from David's Lyre and Yuck, to Little Boots and N-Dubz.

Working on Spark's debut album plus a top-secret solo record described as "Bananarama meets Fun Boy Three, but 2011 style".

MNEK

The new Frankmusik

The skinny When asked what he did before producing, MNEK (right) says, "nursery". This precocious 16-year-old south Londoner creates DayGlo pop that's hard to pigeonhole: "It's pop mixed with electro mixed with funk mixed with soul mixed with 80s and 90s music."

Worked on A retwizzle of Tinie Tempah's Written In The Stars plus work alongside pop uberlords Xenomania.

Working on Production for rave-pop upstart Charli XCX, Duran Duran remixes.

Alalal

The new Mark Ronson

The skinny Alalal, AKA Al O'Connell, has a simple mantra: "If it's not banging ? make it banging; if it's not a classic ? classic it up." It could all have been so different. Living and working in Dublin, O'Connell posted flyers for a "punk samba" band, with the lone reply sending him to London where he started as the tea boy in Eastcote Studios. From there he started engineering records and remixing, before moving into production. "Not sure I have a signature sound as it changes from band to band. I think its important to see what a band's signature sound is or a direction for them to go in."

Worked on The latest Duran Duran album with Mark Ronson, Little Boots, New Young Pony Club.

Working on French brother-sister duo Singtank as well as Django Django.

Starsmith

The new Stuart Price

The skinny After producing all the good tracks on Ellie Goulding's first album, Starsmith, AKA Fin Dow-Smith, has gone on to produce sleek electropop for the likes of Kylie and Cheryl Cole, balancing big-label politics with a need to be creative: "When I've worked with established artists, I've naturally been more restricted, but you still have to take risks and push yourself to do something different."

Worked on As well as tracks for Kylie and Cheryl, Smith also produced a track on Diana Vickers's really not bad debut, and has remixed everyone from Animal Kingdom to Lady Gaga, Passion Pit and Marina And The Diamonds.

Working on Putting the finishing touches to his own solo album.

Benny Blanco

The new Dr Luke

The skinny Benjamin Levin, AKA 22-year-old Benny Blanco, started out as a rapper, inspired by Eminem, before he realised that "no one except other Jews could relate to a short, chubby kid talkin' 'bout the suburbs and latkas". Since then he's worked alongside pop behemoth Dr Luke for the likes of Katy Perry and Ke$ha.

Worked on Made an EP with Spank Rock in 2007, and a year later produced Don't Trust Me, the breakthrough hit for 3OH!3.

Working on Mike Posner, Wiz Khalifa, Neon Hitch, Ke$ha, and "some others that I dunno if I can say just yet" [It's Britney].

Chris Coady

The new Dave Sitek

The skinny Anyone who has wrapped themselves in the warm glow of Beach House's Teen Dream will already be familiar with New York-based Coady's ability to wrench every moment of melodic joy out of a song. He's such a pro that most of his Twitter feed reads like it's written in strange tech-speak: "Just got 4 API 550s from Vintage King!"

Worked on Produced Poor Animal by Zola Jesus as well as albums by Smith Westerns and Abe Vigoda, and co-produced the new ? And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead record, Tao Of The Dead.

Working on The new album by Cold Cave, Cherish The Light Years, due out in April on Matador.

Hudson Mohawke

The new J Dilla

The skinny Glasgow-born Hudson Mohawke was the youngest-ever finalist at the UK DMC Championship (he was 15 and that's some big DJ competition) and in the eight years since has gone on to replace Aphex Twin as Warp's in-house glitch-pop prankster. His own album Butter is a pretty startling collection of forward-thinking R&B beats, fresh enough to inspire Alabama rap duo G-Side to re-work his track Fuse for their song Get It.

Worked on Produced a cover of Tweet's Oops (Oh My) for a Theophilus London mixtape, as well as Egyptian Hip Hop's debut EP, Some Reptiles Grew Wings.

Working on A new EP and album for Warp, as well as rumours of more work in hip-hop.

Charlie Hugall

The new Stephen Street

The skinny "I got into production when I was about 10 ? my older brother was in a band and I was always really jealous of him so I decided to get involved by recording them," says Hugall. To prove that it's not just artists who theorise, here's some food for thought: "I feel like 75% of production is psychology".

Worked on Produced Florence And The Machine's You've Got The Love and has worked on sessions with Razorlight and Kaiser Chiefs.

Working on 2:54, Alex Winston, Shutters.

David Kosten

The new Nigel Godrich

The skinny Kosten's production style is all about tension, be it the creeping way it manifests itself on Bat For Lashes' haunting Daniel, or the constant push-pull of Everything Everything's complex debut, Man Alive. As with Radiohead knob-twiddler Godrich, he's able to pull various strands together to make a cohesive whole.

Worked on Previously working under the moniker Faultline, Kosten released two albums loaded with famous guests as well as producing both Bat For Lashes albums and the recent release by Chew Lips.

Working on The forthcoming Guillemots album.


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