Name a Good Irish Recording

PaulBrewer

In these days of Hybrid Recording the amount of actual recordings has increased significantly.

But is any of it any good ?

If you subtract the few albums that are record company backed (Bell X1 for example that I think sounds very good) are there any 'bands' (as opposed to solo or bedroom artists) making interesting recordings ?

When I say interesting, both musically AND recording/sound wise ?

I saw an Irish Band on MySpace today who had their track mixed by Cenzo Townshend who, as regular readers will know, I'm a big fan of.

It was, however, a load of ole cock, Cenzo or No !



That got me thinking ....

DamagedTrax

keep an eye on the riot tapes (our own milanpan!c's band)

i predict they'll be making waves with a new recording very soon :cool:

MilanPan!c

DamagedTrax wrote: »

keep an eye on the riot tapes (our own milanpan!c's band)

i predict they'll be making waves with a new recording very soon :cool:

Ummm... woot?

DBSound

www.myspace.com/cellardoorcobh . . . . 3 tracks recorded and mixed at Data Recording Studios in Kerry and mastered using Abbey Roads online mastering service. Let me know what ya think nyway cheers

leedsfan88

how about these guys
http://www.myspace.com/johnblekandtherats

heard them in Cork and got their EP and it was very good...well i thought it was anyways:D

MilanPan!c

DBSound wrote: »

www.myspace.com/cellardoorcobh . . . . 3 tracks recorded and mixed at Data Recording Studios in Kerry and mastered using Abbey Roads online mastering service. Let me know what ya think nyway cheers

sounds pretty good!

I went to friend you and discovered we were already friends...

MilanPan!c

leedsfan88 wrote: »

how about these guys
http://www.myspace.com/johnblekandtherats

heard them in Cork and got their EP and it was very good...well i thought it was anyways:D

Also like this... reminds me of a (guilty secret) band I like.

I'll try and swing by that Anseo show... could be cool!

---

To both of bands:

It's interesting, I wouldn't necessarily say the recording is the best thing about either of these, but the personality that's captured and the tunes...

Good stuff... nice to be reminded that Ireland's got such diverse stuff!

DBSound

MilanPan!c wrote: »

sounds pretty good!

I went to friend you and discovered we were already friends...

Cool nice one . . . My only issue with it now listening back is that maybe the kick is a bit too in your face for what we're doing . . . saying that sometimes I listen back and think the kick sounds awesome :eek:

MilanPan!c

DBSound wrote: »

Cool nice one . . . My only issue with it now listening back is that maybe the kick is a bit too in your face for what we're doing . . . saying that sometimes I listen back and think the kick sounds awesome :eek:

yeah, I agree with that... the drums are a bit high... but you know, it only kinda matters to some people...

TelePaul

A good Irish recording? "Paradise in the Picturehouse".

PaulBrewer

TelePaul wrote: »

A good Irish recording? "Paradise in the Picturehouse".

Carefully crafted by our own Tweeky !
It certainly captured a moment in time - it was recorded as a bunch of demos that got turned into an album I believe.

However I mean current stuff.

TelePaul

PaulBrewer wrote: »

Carefully crafted by our own Tweeky !
It certainly captured a moment in time - it was recorded as a bunch of demos that got turned into an album I believe.

However I mean current stuff.

Who is this Tweeky fellow you speak so highly of? A Boardsie? Yeah I'm a bit out of touch with the current Irish scene in that I havn't bought a CD from an Irish band in about 10 years...

PaulBrewer

TelePaul wrote: »

Who is this Tweeky fellow you speak so highly of? A Boardsie?

One of our very own ....

Aridstarling

Mick Flannery's first album sounds great, his second sounds better. Lisa Hannigan's Sea Sew is astoundingly nice. Twin Kranes' debút from last year as well. The new Our Little Secrets sounds pretty damn good. I love the sound of Patrick Kelleher and His Cold Dead Hands' album from last year, You Look Cold. Chequerboard's stuff is always immaculate.

There's more, but its early.

PaulBrewer

Aridstarling wrote: »

Mick Flannery's first album sounds great, his second sounds better. Lisa Hannigan's Sea Sew is astoundingly nice. Twin Kranes' debút from last year as well. The new Our Little Secrets sounds pretty damn good. I love the sound of Patrick Kelleher and His Cold Dead Hands' album from last year, You Look Cold. Chequerboard's stuff is always immaculate.

There's more, but its early.

I've heard of Mick and Lisa.... links for the others if you please ?

MilanPan!c

chequerboard (cool stuff)

http://www.myspace.com/chequerboardmusic

our little secrets (I think this is pretty mediocre sounding, recording wise, but I understand why he's popular, song-wise)

http://www.myspace.com/rhob

Patrick Kelleher (yes, nice sounding stuff... dense, but nice)

http://www.myspace.com/patrickkelleher

PaulBrewer

Aridstarling wrote: »

Mick Flannery's first album sounds great, his second sounds better. Lisa Hannigan's Sea Sew is astoundingly nice.

However I find it all a bit 'Look ! I knit me own cardigan!' for my own personal taste.

jtsuited

PaulBrewer wrote: »

'Look ! I knit me own cardigan!'

which sort of sums up Irish music for the past 15 years.

MilanPan!c

jtsuited wrote: »

which sort of sums up Irish music for the past 15 years.

It's changing!

jtsuited

I think Paul raises a good point here. It's like the promise of technology and the prospects of the democratization of technology have disappointed us greatly.
Everyone being able to make music without the financial burden of proper studio time has really just led to an insurmountable amount of mediocre bands with badly recorded nothing songs.

However, I think you're just looking in the wrong places for good Irish recordings. Exhibit A...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQQEmCPgxHY

DamagedTrax

jtsuited wrote: »

which sort of sums up Irish music for the past 15 years.

you're obviously listening to the wrong irish bands. unfortunatly our industry over here is way too "play it safe" so rarely does something interesting or differant get releases and we seldomly get to hear the immense talent that we have.

one band off the top of my head is logikparty. noisy abbrasive nowave sounds. they funded their own recording and distributed it themselves. got a recommended in tower and got picked up by rough trade. why the hell did they even need to fund everything themselves in the first place though?

its a fear of the unknown which is stagnating the market.

DamagedTrax

jtsuited wrote: »

I think Paul raises a good point here. It's like the promise of technology and the prospects of the democratization of technology have disappointed us greatly.
Everyone being able to make music without the financial burden of proper studio time has really just led to an insurmountable amount of mediocre bands with badly recorded nothing songs.

However, I think you're just looking in the wrong places for good Irish recordings. Exhibit A...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQQEmCPgxHY

grand but its pointless to talk about donnacha or any of our electronic producers because, essentially we dont "record" music (you know what i mean).

production on the electronic side has always been streets ahead of anything else but when we use synthesis and sampling its a little hard to get it wrong!

jtsuited

but see I think that raises an interesting question.....are the talented visionaries nowadays out trying to make their creative statements by being in rock bands?

DamagedTrax

no. i think theres talent in every genre over here but when we talk about a "good recording" throwing the techno hat in the ring isnt playing fair

my techno releases thru the years are crisp, clear and (technically) better sounding than most rock records but thats the nature of the beast. if i use a kick drum sample then my dynamics are already in check without the need for a compressor and that continues on thru the process.. essentially we use things like compressors for flavour rather than dynamic control. our playing doesnt matter as we have quantise and we dont have to worry about studio time as, besides a few synths and modules, everything generally stays ITB**

but ill tell you one thing, having that production experience is an amazing tool to carry over to the rock, indie and pop world. hybrid music is the future

**obviously im generalising, there are people like rob murphy who are a very high % OTB

PaulBrewer

jtsuited wrote: »

I think Paul raises a good point here. It's like the promise of technology and the prospects of the democratization of technology have disappointed us greatly.
Everyone being able to make music without the financial burden of proper studio time has really just led to an insurmountable amount of mediocre bands with badly recorded nothing songs.

However, I think you're just looking in the wrong places for good Irish recordings. Exhibit A...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQQEmCPgxHY

Aye , Donnacha and I have done business before and I like that track.

However it's specifically Band stuff I was wondering about.

DamagedTrax

this is awesome and one of the best irish releases in the last few years.

orphan code - last dance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DYjzXkovQ0

PaulBrewer

DamagedTrax wrote: »

this is awesome and one of the best irish releases in the last few years.

orphan code - last dance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DYjzXkovQ0

When the video is better than the song the cart is before the horse.

DamagedTrax

PaulBrewer wrote: »

When the video is better than the song the cart is before the horse.

subjective

PaulBrewer

DamagedTrax wrote: »

subjective

Come on, 'The Feeling' do all that so much better .... and they've choruses, No ?

PMI

Theres a great recording out this friday by J90 visit www.downloadmusic.ie and check out a small clip of it or just buy it

More Gloss than Dulux on it

DamagedTrax

PaulBrewer wrote: »

Come on, 'The Feeling' do all that so much better .... and they've choruses, No ?

subjective

a few days ago i spoke to someone who doesnt like the pixies..

i personally cant stand the beatles.. am i wrong not to like them?

MilanPan!c

DamagedTrax wrote: »

i personally cant stand the beatles.. am i wrong not to like them?

Of course you are, you idiot!

novarock

PaulBrewer wrote: »

Come on, 'The Feeling' do all that so much better .... and they've choruses, No ?

The thread title says recordings, not songs. Me personally (not an engineer, a lot of interest in it, and a good bit of studio experience) - I think that the orphan code recordings were/are excellent, and having seen them live, they reflect the sound of the band excellently.

I think the way music is recorded in Ireland has changed in the ten years that I have been in bands. There is far too much emphasis on post production - which I am not a fan of, and also, a lot of the bands in dublin are not willing to spend any money on decent recording time.

From my point of view, my own band spent a lot of time pre-recording getting everything sorted, demoing the tracks ourselves, figuring out the in's and out's, nailing down any electronic/sequence additions to the tracks, all to ensure that we achieved a sound that WE were satisified with.. We spent one of our three days tracking in Sun just micing and getting tones down before we even pressed record. When we did record we did a majority of it live to try and get that feel into it. I wont even mention the mixing process, painful is not the word!

Im not saying we are the best band with the best songs or anything remotely like it, but we did put the effort in, and a lot of the criticism of Irish recordings is directed at engineers, id aim it directly at the bands for not putting the time/effort/money in.


One of my favourite recordings this year is defintely the cast of cheers album, recorded by MicK Richards, he couldnt have done a better job in my opinion.

novarock

MilanPan!c wrote: »

Of course you are, you idiot!

Im with Damagedtrax on this one, if I wanted to hear someone singing about kites, id watch more childrens TV.

DamagedTrax

MilanPan!c wrote: »

Of course you are, you idiot!

frank black owns your soul you badly drawn twat

PaulBrewer

DamagedTrax wrote: »

frank black owns your soul you badly drawn twat

Did I mention I worked with Frank Black once too ?

NovaRock makes some good points.

There's no reason (apart from indecision perhaps) why mixing should be painful though .... explain Nova ?

PaulBrewer

DamagedTrax wrote: »

subjective

a few days ago i spoke to someone who doesnt like the pixies..

i personally cant stand the beatles.. am i wrong not to like them?

Have you anything to do with Orphan Code ?

DamagedTrax

PaulBrewer wrote: »

Have you anything to do with Orphan Code ?

nothing at all. ive only heard maybe 4/5 of their tracks. wasnt overly impressed with any of the others but "last dance" just hit me as a great tune (and very well recorded too).

novarock

Well, painful is not the right term. It just took us a while to agree on what we wanted it to sound like. Once the first track was mixed the way we and the engineer were happy with (which took a few attempts, was mastered twice!) the others fell into place.

This was mostly down to uncertainty on our part..

DamagedTrax

novarock wrote: »

Well, painful is not the right term. It just took us a while to agree on what we wanted it to sound like. Once the first track was mixed the way we and the engineer were happy with (which took a few attempts, was mastered twice!) the others fell into place.

This was mostly down to uncertainty on our part..

exactly. translating a bands vision can be a slow process. i mean how do you make a guitar sound more "red" or how do you make a vocalist sound like "insert name" when they've a differant style voice?

it can take time to decipher a musicians descriptions.

MilanPan!c

DamagedTrax wrote: »

frank black owns your soul you badly drawn twat

Have you seen the man recently? He's been eating a lot more than souls.

MilanPan!c

novarock wrote: »

The thread title says recordings, not songs. Me personally (not an engineer, a lot of interest in it, and a good bit of studio experience) - I think that the orphan code recordings were/are excellent, and having seen them live, they reflect the sound of the band excellently.

I think the way music is recorded in Ireland has changed in the ten years that I have been in bands. There is far too much emphasis on post production - which I am not a fan of, and also, a lot of the bands in dublin are not willing to spend any money on decent recording time.

From my point of view, my own band spent a lot of time pre-recording getting everything sorted, demoing the tracks ourselves, figuring out the in's and out's, nailing down any electronic/sequence additions to the tracks, all to ensure that we achieved a sound that WE were satisified with.. We spent one of our three days tracking in Sun just micing and getting tones down before we even pressed record. When we did record we did a majority of it live to try and get that feel into it. I wont even mention the mixing process, painful is not the word!

Im not saying we are the best band with the best songs or anything remotely like it, but we did put the effort in, and a lot of the criticism of Irish recordings is directed at engineers, id aim it directly at the bands for not putting the time/effort/money in.


One of my favourite recordings this year is defintely the cast of cheers album, recorded by MicK Richards, he couldnt have done a better job in my opinion.

You know, I almost completely agree with this.

This time around I decided to sort out the bands SOUND, before even having a "band".

In my experience, bands/artists don't even begin to sound like themselves until after they record... that defines their sound, in some cases a lot more than the songs...

So I decided to define the sound, as best as I could in my own studio (Hum Studio) and THEN find the players.... it's been a lot more successful than any other approach I've taken.... but maybe I've been lucky/I have finally found a awesome singer/I'm a better writer now.

Anyway, yes know your sound before you let someone else get involved...

If you don't it'll turn into mariah carey harmonies and keyboard solos in post production.

DamagedTrax

MilanPan!c wrote: »

If you don't it'll turn into mariah carey harmonies and keyboard solos in post production.

was that a subtle hint? :D:D:D

MilanPan!c

DamagedTrax wrote: »

was that a subtle hint? :D:D:D

what?!?!?

oh no no no!

krd

jtsuited wrote: »

I think Paul raises a good point here. It's like the promise of technology and the prospects of the democratization of technology have disappointed us greatly.
Everyone being able to make music without the financial burden of proper studio time has really just led to an insurmountable amount of mediocre bands with badly recorded nothing songs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQQEmCPgxHY

The mediocre bands have always been around. I think it's really mediocre people. Most of my favourite, in fact possibly all of my favourite, musicians have always been outrageous weirdos. When mediocrities open their mouths to sing out comes blandness. Ireland's great for producing mediocre people - everyone walks around suspiciously eyeing each other up, with this 'are you some kind of weirdo' look. You're not allowed be a little odd - you're allowed pretend, as long as you give the wink to let people know.

When Sinead O Connor played Troy on her acoustic guitar - no one was left thinking whether she had any nice cardigan patterns she might share.

I think the technology is being grossly abused. It give everything a very professional sounding sheen. But it's only masking blandness.

The measure of a good song is really, does it still sound good when it's recorded and played really badly.

A good song will carry through by itself. You'll notice that Tina Turner's 'What's love got to do' stills sounds great when played back on a corroded 20 year old, fifth generation copy C60.

The songs are lacking hooks and grooves.

As for the production. Everything is sounding too even. I'm thinking of
orphan code. No one has really gone to the bother of sitting down with the technology and make the bass player and drummer sound like their doing anything. They've layered 50 guitars on - but no one's given much consideration to make the rhythm section sound like they have a rhythm. Instead they've got aimless guitar mush.

I've been listening a bit recently to REM's Radio Free Europe. Great song. But loads of simplicity - and loads of very simple embellishments (the odd piano key here and there - little noises) - the vocals and guitar were deliberately recorded poorly to make it sound more authentic and real.

Radio Free Europe - great song. No one can make out more than 3 words of the lyrics.

Radio Free Europe can be played on a Kazoo and still sound ....memorable.

It's the same with a Christy Moore song - it just breaths, no matter how much jam or fluff has got into the tape.

Orphan should have been just allowed track that song with a bass, drums, guitar with no effects pedal, and if it didn't work then - they should have gone back to the drawing board.

No **** that - Orphan should have been forced to demo it by Kazoo orchestra.

SeanHurley

I really like the sound of Halves' stuff, both musically and sonically (http://www.myspace.com/ahomeforhalves)

I also think The Minutes have grown into a fine band, their new recordings are quite garagy sounding but they to capture their essence which to me is the mark of a good recording.

There are a few Irish records I like that probably aren't pushing the boundary musically, I think it was said in another post Ollie Cole's album last year sounds quite nice, Gemma Hayes' records always sound great.

A band I reckon are one to watch are We Cut Corners, I have seen them live a few times it is just a guitar player and drummer but they have raised hairs on the back of my neck - which is something for a cynical struggling musician like myself

And another thing saying you like music but dont like The Beatles is like saying "Ah yeah I like English, except for all the words like". The Beatles invented music, everything before them was just tuning up

DamagedTrax

SeanHurley wrote: »

And another thing saying you like music but dont like The Beatles is like saying "Ah yeah I like English, except for all the words like". The Beatles invented music, everything before them was just tuning up

for a musician thats pretty closed minded! musicians above all should recognise how one mans gold is another mans sh*t.

i like a lot of rockabilly/soul/ska and some of that pre-dates the beatles by a long shot.. but its "only tuning up" yeah?

if you like the beatles then fair play but in my world they're bland, unintersting pedestrian music (except for abbey road, i do recognise that as a masterpiece.. long live ringo & LSD )

and there are a lot more languages out there besides english. most common does not equal greatest in my book.

SeanHurley

DamagedTrax wrote: »

for a musician thats pretty closed minded! musicians above all should recognise how one mans gold is another mans sh*t.

i like a lot of rockabilly/soul/ska and some of that pre-dates the beatles by a long shot.. but its "only tuning up" yeah?

if you like the beatles then fair play but in my world they're bland, unintersting pedestrian music (except for abbey road, i do recognise that as a masterpiece.. long live ringo & LSD )

and there are a lot more languages out there besides english. most common does not equal greatest in my book.

I was jesting. I do believe The Beatles to be a great band if not the finest band the world has ever seen, but that is my opinion. Your opinion is equally valid even if it is wrong :D

And I never said English was the greatest :eek: Anyroad no offence meant dude.



Peace and love.

Aridstarling

The amount of sweeping generalisations in this thread is staggering. And all ye educated men...

I don't think you can fairly criticise Lisa Hannigan like that. If she had been from London chances are you'd be fawning over it.

There are loads of bands making great sounding records in Ireland, always have been really. To say theres a huge problem with Irish music in such general terms is demeaning and narrow minded. For evidence listen to Adebisi Shank, The Cast of Cheers, The Redneck Manifesto, Halves, Katie Kim, Logik Party, Enemies, Adrian Crowley, Valerie Francis, Catscars, Hunter-Gatherer, Jape, R.S.A.G., Super Extra Bonus Party, The Ambience Affair or Twin Kranes. They've all released great sounding records in the last two or three years. Pretty much all self-funded.

There is no shortage of talent in either song-writing or recording and certainly no problem with mediocrity.

DamagedTrax

SeanHurley wrote: »

I was jesting. I do believe The Beatles to be a great band if not the finest band the world has ever seen, but that is my opinion. Your opinion is equally valid even if it is wrong :D

And I never said English was the greatest :eek: Anyroad no offence meant dude.



Peace and love.

no offence taken at all dude... i thought my jest came across in my post?!?!

i KNOW the beatles are ****e.. any claims otherwise dont offend me, they just confirm my suspicians of the claiments stupidity... like milanpan!c :pac::pac::pac:

DamagedTrax

Aridstarling wrote: »

The amount of sweeping generalisations in this thread is staggering. And all ye educated men...

I don't think you can fairly criticise Lisa Hannigan like that. If she had been from London chances are you'd be fawning over it.

There are loads of bands making great sounding records in Ireland, always have been really. To say theres a huge problem with Irish music in such general terms is demeaning and narrow minded. For evidence listen to Adebisi Shank, The Cast of Cheers, The Redneck Manifesto, Halves, Katie Kim, Logik Party, Enemies, Adrian Crowley, Valerie Francis, Catscars, Hunter-Gatherer, Jape, R.S.A.G., Super Extra Bonus Party, The Ambience Affair or Twin Kranes. They've all released great sounding records in the last two or three years. Pretty much all self-funded.

There is no shortage of talent in either song-writing or recording and certainly no problem with mediocrity.

couldnt agree more.