I really like Iron Maiden's Dance of Death.

The Fragile (Pilgrimage is a fucking production tour de force)
Pierced From Within (HEFTY, HEFTY, HEFTY)

Will add more when I can think of them..

(no heroes)

Some Boots is an interesting choice for 'best production', in that they recoarded that shit in a living room: http://www.kimcheerecords.com/articles/drums/

Crazy shit! I think it works for me because it just sounds right. Sometimes an uber polished piece just doesnt work.

I totally agree, pretty much all of the Karate records are like that, stripped down, "real" sounding.

That is also one of the reasons they sounded so good live: basically, they made it easy for themselves to recreate the album vibe, because, well... that is what they actually sounded like anyhow.

I've never listened to them; I only know Geoff Farina by name and the odd article in TapeOp. What's their deal, and what would you suggest of theirs?

That Isis record sounds amazing, BTW. I really like Matt Bayles' work. The atmosphere and textures of that record are really cool without sounding like studio manipulation. I missed them when they were still around and passed through here, but it struck me as roughly what that band would actually be throwing down. The really dry drums against the spacey guitars and synth in the mellower parts- I threw that on the first day I had my ADAMs and heard some synth layers I never noticed before!- and the quiet, distant vocals make for a really neat sound.

Karate are like a kind of a jazz-flavored indie rock sort of thing. Like, there isn't any actual jazz to most of the records, other than some interesting chords and biz. They just have some element of that sound to them.

I mostly like their first three records, Karate, In Place Of Real Insight, and The Bed Is In The Ocean, because that is the period around when i got into them and was seeing them play around town a lot.

I would probably suggest The Bed Is In The Ocean to start with.

Also: Geoff Farina is maybe an acquired taste sort of singer, he reminds me a little of a cleaner-voiced, slightly higher-pitched Ian McKaye.

I should also mention, that i would be a little... not quite surprised i guess... but maybe a little surprised, if you would actually find Karate to be to your liking.

They are, after all, essentially indie-emo-jazzrock.

Stranger things have happened. I have at least a few curveballs, I think, in my collection and while I suppose there's a pattern to stuff I listen to a lot of, fairly random tastes... and really mostly only actually listen to classical music and oldschool jazz these days when it's not one of my own bands or something off the forums, speaker testing notwithstanding.

When you listen to it you will see what i mean i think. For some reason i feel that the vocals might be the dealbreaker.

I will check out that Karate album when I have the resources to do so, as well..
Sounds interesting.

Total aside: snaxo, have you heard that one St. Vincent track from the record due to arrive somewhere around autumn? Song is called The Surgeon i think, and is out and about in a few places(like probably her website?).

It is interesting, a bit different. I expect the disc to be different again from the last two and cool. Some words of the album having been leaked already, but i have not yet seen anything i would trust as a source yet.

Oh and a couple of contributions to the actual subject matter of the thread:

Queens Of The Stone Age - Songs For The Deaf
The Black Keys - Brothers

Both are really organic, warm and often fuzz-y records.
Also both coincidentally righteous as fuck.

I do like Brothers quite a bit. They played a bunch of tracks off of it on the radio out in LA.

I was listening to Songs For The Deaf earlier and thinking how fucking rawkin' it sounds. The opening track is so good.

edit - also I may have already mentioned it but the production on RATM's self titled is spot on for me.

oh wow.. nice to see a coupla good'ns in here!

man.. it's SO hard to isolate 'best'... but i'll chuck out some favorites.

bill evans trio- the complete village vanguard sessions. ungodly amazing musical interaction, caught in perfect, off kilter stereo. organic as it gets.
miles davis- in person live at the blackhawk. odd production, but great great on vinyl. the cd sounds awful. the early pressings sound badass.
miles davis quartet- live in tokyo. live music breathing.
louis armstrong and duke ellington 'the great summit' sessions-- whoa. this is what music sounds like. period. if you ever wanted to know what your favorite vintage mics sound like through gorgeous tube preamps? if i ever get this good, i'm retiring my ears.
the police- ghost in the machine. mr. padgham is amazing.
slint- spiderland. everlasting respect for brian paulson. total genius in every regard.
i'm glad to've seen karate up here. i like the kimchee recordings a lot. DIY at it's finest!
don caballero- between 2 and what burns never returns- al sutton is one of my favorite engineers, and i know next to nothing of the man. SO fucking good. the speaking canaries records are also fan fucking tastic.
victory at sea- easier than living. again-- diy at it's best, and christina files is a really good engineer!
guided by voices- never ever let me down. i'm also a huge fan of tobin sprout and his 4 trackorama.
i'm a big fan of that didn't it rain record by songs:ohia. steve albini got that one dead nuts. same with most of the nina nastasia records, which are pretty fantastic as well. not a big fan of his rock recordings most times, honestly.. but those are heroic.
i really like the rachels records recorded by bob weston.
sst's spot will probably always be an incredibly underrated recordist- and that cat has done some monumental work. zen arcade alone should put him into the panoply of greats... but he's done a SHITLOAD more great records.. ignoring, obviously, black flags output... amongst others.
theres a three mile pilot record i truly love.. no idea who recorded it.
i have loved a lot of stuff recorded by miles boisen-- although i own none of it!
retardedly-- i love a record by a lady named katell keinig called jet. GREAT engineering there- eric- you might dig some of that. neat mix of electronics and very very organic musicianship.


hm.. i'll think of more.

It's funny how many of the people mentioned by name I've read interviews with in TapeOp.

It occurs to me I haven't played a single thing recorded by Rudy Van Gelder through my new monitors and this is probably wrong on some fundamental level.

MIchael Jacksons Thriller.

One i am listening to at the moment that sounds quite decent:



I do enjoy the sound of the late nineties, no doubt.