Session Buzz – New Records In The Works Around NYC
Summertime is not the super busiest time for recording studios; bands are out touring and playing festivals, and business overall slows a bit. But still, if you ask around (and we did), plenty of projects were just getting started if not just wrapping up over these longest days of the year.
Producer/engineer Chris Shaw mixed some vintage Bob Dylan over at Strange Weather Recording in Williamsburg – that is, he mixed “Bob Dylan, Live at the Isle of Wight 1969”, as part of a Bootleg Series. Also at Strange Weather, Daniel James Schlett finished mixing the new Amen Dunes record for Sacred Bones, as Marc Alan Goodman started work on the new Analog Rebellion record.
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Joan Osborne and Bill Sims at Grand Street Recording
Speaking of Dylan, NYC blues legend Bill Sims has been putting some of the finishing touches on his album of Bob Dylan tunes, with Joan Osborne laying down some soulful vocals on “I Shall Be Released”, over at Grand Street Recording in Williamsburg. Ken Rich engineered the session and is co-producing the album with Ethan Eubanks.
Also at Grand Street… singer/songwriter Ingrid Michaelson tracked drums for a few of her upcoming songs with drummer Elliot Jacobson, producer Chris Kuffner, engineer Ken Rich and Jake Lummus assisting. The team made use of the studio’s 60’s Ludwig 24×14 kick and matching toms, along with a vintage Black Beauty snare and an oddball 1920s era 15″ brass snare….Diane Birch recorded and mixed a couple songs for her upcoming album with Tomek Miernowski… and composer DB Shapiro recorded and mixed his newest album with Ken Rich engineering and producing. Rich mixed down to ½” tape at 30ips on Grand Street’s new Studer A80RC MKII tape machine, monitoring on the new ATC SCM25a monitors recently purchased from Audio Power Tools.
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Prior to Fun.’s summer tour, guitarist Jack Antonoff was recording over at Mission Sound (also in Williamsburg) recording for his new project for RCA, with John Hill producing. And this month, producer Chris Goss is at Mission, cutting tracks for Pure Love. Mission’s own Oliver Straus will be engineering.
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Kanye West locked out Studios 1 and 2 at Germano Studios in NoHo to record/mix tracks for Yeezus, with engineers Noah Goldstein and Anthony Kilhoffer, and producers Mike Dean and Hudson Mohawke. Following Kanye, Lauryn Hill moved into Germano for several weeks, working on new material with engineer Graham Marsh for Sony Music. Meanwhile, Dream Theater was in to mix their new eponymous full-length album, with Richard Chycki engineering; Yoko Ono worked on her new album with Sean Lennon producing; Universal France artist Emilie Simon mixed new material with producer/engineer Chris Coady; Tiësto was recording in Studio 2 and pop artist Moxie was in Studio 1 recording with Dan Glashausser for Capitol Records.
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Wilco guitarist Nels Cline and renowned jazz guitarist Julian Lage are working on an album together, and recorded at Sear Sound in Midtown – tracking with Chris Allen at the Neve 8038. British soul singer/songwriter Liam Bailey tracked a new album through that Neve as well, with Jimmy Douglass at the controls, and Salaam Remi producing for Sony Masterworks.
In other Sear sessions…Ian Axel’s new project “A Great Big World” recorded some new tracks for their Epic Records debut, with Dan Romer producing and Ted Tuthill engineering; The Public Theater tracked and mixed the music for Shakespeare In The Park‘s production of “Comedy Of Errors”, with Gary Maurer engineering and Greg Pliska producing; James Farber mixed some new music by The Gypsy Kings; and work for the “50 Shades!” musical began, with Matt Pierson producing and Chris Allen engineering.
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Brooklyn dream pop band Elysian Fields mixed their upcoming album with producer/mixer Mark Plati at his East Village studio, Alice’s Restaurant. Plati also recently mixed projects for Swiss singer/songwriter Bastian Baker and Benji Hughes. All three records were mixed on Alice’s Restaurant’s Rupert Neve Designs 5088 console with Shadowmix faders, and mastered by Tom Durack. Notable outboard used on these projects includes the Burl B2 Bomber ADC and DAC; Thermionic Culture Phoenix, Retro 176 and LA-2A Tube compression/limiting; various API 500 series EQs; and plug-ins by UAD and SoundToys
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Cerebral Ballzy
Brooklyn punk band Cerebral Ballzy tracked a new song at Saltlands in DUMBO, with James Iha producing, and Arjun Agerwala engineering (assisted by Pete Wells).
Also at Saltlands… J Matthew Smith mixed sessions from tape for the 30th Anniversary re-release of veteran funk artist Steve Arrington’s Hall of Fame for Tummy Touch Records; the band Noble Hunter recorded a live set for Lambkini’s “Behind The Glass” video series; and Jon Patrick Walker & the Guilty Party tracked and mixed new material with Josh Kaufman producing, and J Matthew Smith engineering.
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Trey Songz released his new single “Sensational” earlier this month – the track was recorded, mixed and mastered at Engine Room Audio in lower Manhattan. The single was produced by Troy Taylor, recorded and mixed by Anthony Daniel and mastered by Mark B. Christensen.
Christensen also recently mastered: Albert Einstein, the second studio album by rapper Prodigy (of Mobb Deep) and producer, The Alchemist, featuring appearances by Roc Marciano, Raekwon, Action Bronson and more; and Ron Isley’s new album, This Song is for You, which came out last week on eOne Music. And Boston band Gentlemen Hall mastered their new track “Sail Into The Sun” at Engine Room with mastering engineer Dan Millice.
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The guys behind French Horn Rebellion have a new studio in Brooklyn named for their production company, You Too Can Woo, where they’ve been busy working on the new album by The Knocks (David Perlick Molinari mixing), new tracks by French Horn Rebellion, Ghost Beach’s live set, and designing new sounds for MTV. (See photos of the studio in this Cool Hunting feature.) Other recent projects include work with St. Lucia and Haerts. And the studio’s been hosting regular sessions for Savoir Adore, and Deidre and the Dark.
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Band of sisters, HAIM.
LA band HAIM mastered their new album – produced by Ariel Reichstaid for Polydor Records – with Emily Lazar at The Lodge, assisted by Rich Morales. Lazar also recently mastered a Damian Taylor remix of Gotye’s “Easy Way Out” (produced by Wally De Backer aka Gotye) – look for it on Gotye’s upcoming “Video Mirrors” release – the new BT album, A Song Across Wires, and the new Party Supplies album for Fool’s Gold Records. Rich Morales assisted on the BT and Party Supplies albums.
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At Masterdisk, Scott Hull has just finished mastering Sting’s new album, The Last Ship, produced by Rob Mathes for Interscope / A&M; Ben Allison mastered his new album, The Stars Look Very Different Today, with Randy Merrill. The album was recorded by Aaron Nevezie at The Bunker, and mixed by Allison for Sonic Camera Records. Vlado Meller mastered the new album by Phantogram, produced by John Hill and mixed by Rich Costey at Eldorado in Burbank for Universal Republic. And Mark Santangelo mastered the new album by The Weeknd producer Illangelo, called History of Man. Hear a track off the album, due out on Bromance Records August 20, here.
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Beach Boys guitarist Al Jardine was in Brooklyn at Excello Recording, mixing a new single “Waves of Love” with producer Larry Dvoskin and engineer Hugh Pool. Dvoskin also tapped Pool to mix a collaboration with Sean Lennon for Bono’s “One” charity project.
Also at Excello, Bluegrass legend Tony Trischka was in with The Punch Brothers producing vocals for his upcoming release with engineer Charles Dechants; alt rock duo “Ken Rock South” was in tracking and mixing an EP with Pool, assisted by Dechants; and Chilean production duo Koko Stambuck and Christopher Manhey were in tracking with Mexican Warner Brothers artist Paulino.
And we know there’s so much more going on out there! If you’d like to be featured in “Session Buzz,” please submit your studio news to submissions@sonicscoop.com.