laurie latham, over-producer. a tribute.

[bruiser]

i posted this over at "cd news and reissues," but thought it would work here too.

i think laurie latham's production on paul young's albums, and especially on the song "tear your playhouse down," is uniformly excellent, if a bit over-produced and engineered.

however, he really defined a lot of that super-clean 80's sound, for better or worse. better: anything by paul young. worse: "cosi fan tutti frutti" by squeeze, and "aural sculpture" by the stranglers. synthesized the grit right out of both projects, but maybe that was the point. and then.... "don't stand so close to me '86." yikes. although i know he had to finish that project on his own since sting and copeland were literally shoving each other around. pop stars!

and then brilliant work for echo and the bunnymen, giving them their only u.s. hits.

highlights of his production: octave effect on fretless bass; crisp linn drum programming; gated/stuttering synth chords that make the sound lush and warm.

lowlights: an "everything AND the kitchen sink" quality to his number of tracks and number of syntho sounds.

NEXT: master of minimalism and understatement, TREVOR HORN.
just kidding![:D]