11/9/06
Congratulations to the winners of the Seattle Weekly Annual Music Awards whose records were mastered here!
2006: Best Hip Hop and Top Vote Getters Overall: Blue Scholars. Best New Artist: Common Market. Best Vocalist: Geologic (of Blue Scholars).
2005: Best Hip Hop: Blue Scholars.
2004: Best Album: Blue Scholars. Best Singer/Songwriter: Brandi Carlile. Best Hip Hop: Vitamin D. Best World/Reggae: Quasi Nada.
2003: Best Americana: Memphis Radio Kings.
There have been so many great albums mastered here in the last few years, it's a daunting task to highlight them... especially without forgetting someone... French jazz accordion genius Ludovic Beier's new disc Chilltimes is fabulous. Ludovic just appeared here at Seattle's Earshot Jazz Festival with the Django Reinhardt Festival group... Legion Within has a new disc produced in collaboration with members of KMFDM... Guinness Book of Records World's Fastest Rapper: Ricky Brown aka No Clue flew through with his new disc... ex Motels keyboardist Marty Jourard made beautiful bossa nova music with his group Novabossa... longtime blues guitarist Del Rey's new disc is titled When The Levee Breaks... hip hop artist Gabriel Teodros' debut disc Lovework will be released on Blue Scholars new label MassLine... Paris artist Tony Truant made a "best of" compilation remastered from his large discography. Tony plays with the Wampas, arguably the most popular rock band in France today... Dann Gallucci of Modest Mouse made his solo record A Gun Named Tension... Dann also collaborated with old bandmate Spencer Moody from Murder City Devils on the second disc from Triumph Of Lethargy... Spencer had his first TOL disc mastered here as well... Leon Hendrix's disc Keeper Of The Flame, yes that's the brother of Jimi Hendrix... numerous projects were done with soundtrack composer Daniel Sadowski including some new XBox soundtracks... Chenoa Egawa and Alex Turtle performed Native American ceremonial drumming and singing... Elizabeth and John Falconer made two classic Japanese koto and shakuhachi flute records for Elizabeth's Koto World label. Elizabeth is one the very few licensed American Masters of the Koto... Christos Govetas (Bill Frissell) has a new release, this time classic Greek rebetika... jazz band Reptet mastered their third release here, they've added several new talented horn players. The disc Do This! has been getting great reviews nationally for the original compositions, super playing, and vintage James Flora artwork... hip hop MySpace phenomenon Macklemore finished his debut full length album The Language Of My World... and while we're in the hip hop world, Onry Ozzborn and Grayskul made Deadlivers, and Boom Bap Project did Reprogram, which features beats by super-producers Jake One, Vitamin D, and Bean One. Both these discs were released on Rhymesayers Records, who had these groups touring the US and Europe all year... both Onry and Boom Bap have been frequent visitors to Master Works with Onry's The Grey Area and Boom Bap's Circumstance Dictates... two discs from popular hip hop artist Byrdie - Poetic Epidemic and N Flight... long awaited first album from Choklate... Clockwork's release After Midnight... two new hip hop releases from Optimus Rhyme, two from 100th Monkey, new hip hopper Tulsi's first full length, and hip hop artist Neezie Pleaze was produced by Vitamin D... rapper Sarkastik made two new albums as did rappers DZ, Lac Of Respect, Tangaray, Framework - who was brilliantly produced by Bean One, Skuntdunanna, Twin G, Tha Loco, Kazy D, Emperor P, Red Head Steve, and Yuns... award winners Memphis Radio Kings' new CD is entitled Four and was produced by Martin Feveyear, who also produced a great album for Reed... Mountain Con made their new one Sancho Panza... while Erik Blood produced his band The Turn-Ons' new title Parallels, and the new release for Romance... great Balkan cafe music from Balkan Cabaret in their second disc Somewhere Far Away... beautiful klezmer playing from the duo Kesselgarden... piano and vocal brilliance from former Paul Winter Consort singer Susan Osborn along with Japanese piano prodigy Kintaro Kihara... heavy metal from Church Of Hate, Utterance, Trepan, Non-Existence, Sonata... Ronan Chris Murphy produced Loveday as well as their first release Printed In Slovenia... Maine creative music collective Cerberus Shoal was recorded by Scott Colburn and brought back here for mastering... singer songwriter Kelli Hanson's new album Lullaby For An Astronaut is one of the most original new albums in years... Tullycraft continues to hold the Twee crown with their new one... Aja West and Cheeba made the Independent Music Awards winning jazz-funk album Flash And Snowball... UP Records duo Sick Bees finished their latest The Marina Album... and UP artist and composer/arranger Brent Arnold made two discs, The Spheres, released on UP, and a self released solo album... Phil Ek produced discs for The New Mexicans and The Spit-Licks... accapella Spiritual choir The Sounds Of The Northwest made two full length releases under the direction of Juan Huey-Rey, beautifully recorded by Doug Haire... and Dead Teenager Records brought in releases for Angry Amputees, Flamethrower, and Zeke...
6/14/02
Once again another year flies by! And it's been a busy year. New gear features a beautiful Ampex ATR 102 1/2" machine. Not exactly "new", but almost like new, and sounds absolutely great. Details in the gear section...
Many terrific artists and producers have been in with their projects, and many wonderful CDs have been made. Here's a listing of some of them... long time Master Works associate Ronan Chris Murphy has been busy in his new facilities in Los Angeles with new discs from Willie Oteri featuring Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto on a superb jazz fusion disc, and Jamie Walters (star of Beverly Hills 90210) and his new band Elco... Doug Martsch from Built To Spill has his new solo CD coming out on Warners... Jack Endino brought in Arizona indie artist Emily Ayn (Knot Known Records), and one of his own bands from the past, The Crypt Kicker Five... Phil Ek produced Mike Johnson's new release for UP Records. This is Mike's first new release in a few years, after spending most of his time recording with Mark Lanegan... also on UP, Jana McCall's new CD "Slumber"... Trey Gunn was back in from his busy touring schedule with King Crimson and his new group The Trey Gunn Band for his latest disc "Live Encounter" (First world Records). This is an enhanced CD with great music and movies of the band... the Home Alive compilation featured music from Amy Ray, Carrie Akre, Maktub, Black Halos, The Makers, Carrisa's Wierd, The Gossip, and others... Carrie Akre was in just recently for her own CD "Invitation" to be released on Good Ink Records... FCS North has a new CD that includes innovative re-mixes from Sientific American, Dynomite D, and others... international vinyl ace Brent Laurence was in with several of his hot dance discs... and Kellee Bradley finished her second CD in Nashville with Ron Bennett producing... the highly original and creative Eric "Two Scoops" Moore was in with his new CD produced by Duke Robillard... Chic Street Man with his latest disc "Lullablues", produced by Giovanna Embesi and mixed by Ronan Chris Murphy... classical pianist Mark Salman brought in his Beethoven performances with orchestra... pianists Amy Rubin and Dawn Clement finished their CD "The Rubin-Clement Piano Dialogs" for Musicians Accord... multi-instrumentalist Christos Govetas found the time to finish his incredible new CD of Greek music with his group Pangeo, in between touring and recording with Bill Frissell and his numerous other projects... and from Jamaica we had the pleasure of reggae legend Winston Jarrett in for his new single "Man of Peace"...
5/1/01
Another year! In this case, no news has meant we were too busy to write about it! New for this year is some great new gear from Weiss and Apogee. Take a look over in the gear section for the complete rundown...
So many great CDs... the second Dark Fantastic CD from Mark Pickerel is out on UP Records, produced by Martin Feveyear. Also produced by Martin, Common Heroes, and Portland's Stephanie Schneiderman. Jonathan Kochmer and Sarah Scott's long awaited Two Loons For Tea CD features guest artists Trey Gunn, Pat Mastelotto, Eyvind Kang and others... Octant's second release "Car Alarms and Crickets" is out on UP. FCS North has their new CD on PacifiCo Records; this is the second from this innovative jazz trio. Also among innovators are The Black Cat Orchestra with their newest "Mysteries Explained". Jeff Greinke's new Land CD explores intense electronic jazz featuring drummer Bill Reiflin. Jeff also has a new Hana CD "Omen" with Anisa Romero from Sky Cries Mary... Ela Lamblin, musician, sculptor, and dancer, has his latest "Tone Pond". This evocative CD is the music of Ela's own fantastic musical sculpture instruments... Exciting jazz from HighRize and Rebecca Richardson... The Degenerate Art Ensemble has their new abstract avant jazz release "Rinko" on Unit Circle Rekkids... soulmates Ota Prota have their new self titled release as well. Singer songwriter Laura Veirs has her second CD "The Triumphs & Travails of Orphan Mae", produced by Tucker Martine... From the Northwest's annual Hemp Fest, Hemplennium Compilation features The Herbivores, Phat Sidy Smokehouse, Jim Page, John Trudell, Merl Saunders, Jerry Garcia, and many more... Hard Rockers Satovan have a brilliant CD produced by R. Chris Murphy. Chris has also produced great discs for L.A.'s St. Friday, Seattle's Kerry Lauder Band, and the Swedish latin band Yellow Fever (Undertow Records). Deluxe Records relocated here in Seattle from the SF Bay area last year and produced albums from Mike Martinez and Blake Davis... Garrett Fisher's highly original Noh drama production "Moon in the Bucket" features Taiko percussion, koto, oboe, and three vocalists (16 Visions Records)... Premier Northwest bassist Barry Lieberman has released a double CD set of Vivaldi's Concertos for Double Bass and Piano... master flautist Paul Taub has his new CD on Periplum Records... Rappers FTS have their new CD "Kash Me Out" on Street Level Records... Skuntdunanna has his new release "Trapped In Da' Hatrixx" on Sea Sick Records... and hip hop EPs from the highly praised Boom Bap Project and Candidt...
4/10/00
Six months since the last news! Time is flying, and the studio has been packed with projects and work. Some very exciting CDs were made. It's hard to select favorites without omitting some, but we'll try anyway... Josh White, formerly of Seattle's Man Ray and Medicate sets out on a new musical avenue with his CD "Coming Undone". Chris Eckman of The Walkabouts and Chris and Carla has made a richly textured and beautiful album "A Janela" (Glitterhouse Records). A compilation of years of Modest Mouse singles were remastered from the original tapes and released as "Building Nothing Out Of Something" on UP Records. The CD has been #1 on the NW charts for months now. Lillith Faire winner JR has released her CD "Songs Of Angels", produced by Brad Hauser of Critters Buggin' renown. Eric "Two Scoops" Moore, formerly with Luther Allison, has three new CDs for release. Jazz guitarist Nicholas Hoffman's latest "Jazzy's Dance" features the great organist Joey DeFrancesco. Rapper Sarkastik's "Sarkazm" and Gangsta Nutt's "Save Me" are out on Twomp-O-Six and Pointside Records. Saxophonist Dan Greenblatt has a fine release "Stretch" featuring Jay Thomas, Phil Sparks, and Clarence Acox. "Raw Power" by Trey Gunn (of King Crimson fame) features Trey with his Warr Guitar. Slabco Records released Dynomite D's CD "By The Way" and the complete Sientific American series on a double CD. Mark Pickerel, from Truly and formerly The Screaming Trees, made "Dark Fantastic" out on UP Records. Also on UP, Octant's "Shock-No-Par", and soon to be released, a new Sick Bees album. Incidentally, we also had a hand in some of Truly's last CD "Feeling You Up" on Thick Records. Welcome's new CD "Sun As Night Light" is out on Rx Remedy Records. A great live album from The Herbivores, "Say Yes" features guitarist Jay Roberts and the ever energetic Jim Matthiesson. Exciting work in progress with producer Mark Walk... and let's not forget The Ukulele Trance Project; a great metal release from Aggression Core on Peak records; and a new CD from rappers FTS "Money Motivated".
This month also marks the relocation of longtime Master Works ally R. Chris Murphy. Chris is a greatly talented producer and mixer who has moved his base of operations, Eschaton Music Works, from Seattle to LA. We've worked with Chris on dozens of projects including King Crimson, Christdriver, Josh White, Windowpane, Kellee Bradley, Steve Ball, and quite a few more. His local presence will be sorely missed, but we expect to see him back for future mastering projects.
Exciting new gear and studio upgrades continue, look for those details over in the Gear section...
10/15/99
Well, the big news is that the web site finally is up and running. It's only taken three years... It's not quite complete yet, but we're getting there. Still have a few areas to work on and a bunch of pictures to take and put on the site. Hopefully within a few weeks that will all be done; then we can start revising everything...
It's been a really busy year. Lots of great CDs were made, and lots of improvements in our studio. The Manley custom-built monitor controller has really helped out the monitoring signal chain. No more faders, pots, or op-amps in the monitor path. Exact reference listening levels, every time. The Van den Hul cabling didn't hurt much either (except the bank account).
New loudness metering from Dorrough, and the new Audio Control spectrum analyzer help out to keep tabs on levels, balance and other important stuff. The new Aardsync II ultra low jitter master clock drives the digital gear now, and the sonic improvement is stunning. Greater width and depth, better resolution and detail in ambiance, presence, and space.
Well, it's back to work now - more on the artists and the CDs in the next News...
