Mindfulness in the Recording Studio

BY KYLE MICHAEL NICOLAIDES

Will Putney: Sounds of a Graphic Nature

BY SAM RETZER

In the past few decades, something wicked has crept out of the Central Jersey swamp, slowly rising into the foothills and beyond. Horrific sounds that meld flesh and circuitry in a cyber-metallic world of one man's creation. Well, one man and his trusty staff of engineers, the musicians, and the machines. Will Putney has helped usher in a modern heavy music golden age through his ground-breaking production work with the likes of Vein.fm, Knocked Loose, Thy Art Is Murder, and his own bands Fit for an Autopsy and END. If anyone has perfected the science of modern precision combined with old-fashioned bludgeon, it's Mr. Putney. He even won a Grammy with Ice-T's Body Count in 2021. We sat down at his Graphic Nature Audio in Kinnelon, New Jersey, to try and make sense of the audio carnage, as well as the surgical skills required for maximum impact.

Evelyn Glennie: "Sound can be the most subtle thing, but the body does need to slow down in order to connect with it."

BY IAN BRENNAN, THE COLLECTION

Experimental and classically-trained percussionist Evelyn Glennie has released almost 50 albums and collaborated with the likes of Björk, Mark Knopfler [Tape Op #97], Fred Frith, Bela Fleck, Bobby McFerrin, and fellow Scot, filmmaker Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire). Evelyn became deaf at the age of 12 and she is currently the only deaf artist known to have ever won a Grammy – which she has done twice, as well as having been nominated three other times since 1988. She also received Britain's Polar Music Prize in 2015, and the Leonardo da Vinci International Award in 1987. Amongst other honors, she has been awarded the title Dame by the Order of the British Empire (the female counterpart to Knighthood). Ms. Glennie was the focus of the 2004 documentary feature, Touch the Sound, and even appeared on an episode of Sesame Street. The author of two books (Good Vibrations and Listen World!), Glennie's stated mission is to "teach the world to listen."

Julie Last: The Technical With The Emotional

BY JULIE LAST

With a start at New York City's Record Plant in the mid-'70s, Julie Last continued with her career at Ocean Way Studios in Los Angeles. Now living in Woodstock, NY, she runs her own Cold Brook Productions. Along the way she worked on sessions for Talking Heads, Cheap Trick, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Lou Reed, Brian Eno [ Tape Op #85], Joni Mitchell, and Rickie Lee Jones.