Hi!
My feeling is that I love most of what Theo does, but as a (much,
much, much) less successful producer, I hear things in otherwise great
tracks that are 'wrong' in a way that is a sharp stick in the ear for
no discernable artistic reason. Some tracks I want to remaster -
mostly run them through a De-Esser, compress the low end to keep it
manageable.
I actually consider theo parrish to be a GREAT producer. Take a listen to
"dan ryan" or "lights donw low (this one mix)". I am sure he spends a lot of
time making the sounds sound like they sound. I really dig all the sounds he
uses, espacially the Laurel Aitken alike ska 'shakk' in "dan ryan", wich he
also used in "twin citys". And I still wonder how he did the kick in "music"
it sounds so hard, but the levels are ok.
I think everybody agrees that Theo has no studio (I never heard him use a
synth, and he uses too much samples and does too much stuff to them to work
efficiently with a sampler). He probably has only one all-in studio
application on his computer. My guess is he uses Orion or somthing alike (I
recongize the typical filters used of the sampler module). The only sounds
he uses is stuff recorded from disco, ska, and soul recordings. What he
basicly does is sampling an organ, pitching it down 2 octaves an filter it
low and put a bit distortion on it. I think this is a very original way of
sound processing, it creates a really nice warm, but kind of hard sound. I
really like his way of doing things, I enjoy listening to his records very
much. Just as I like listening to Carl Craig's early 69 records or paperclip
people's "the secret tapes of dr. eich", wich also have a typical lo-fi
production.
What I do consider to be true is that the production on "friendly children"
is really bad, there is just to much bass there, resulting in a really bad
press. Maybe the people at peacefrog could press this record better? I don´t
know. Also the ugly edits are sometimes to much bass-fueled (and too
repetative most of the time).
Let me conclude with a top 5 of my favourite theo parrish records (wich I
condider to be well produced):
1) lights down low (this one mix) - the tracky mix with loads of noise.
2) dan ryan
3) dance sing
4) music
5) solitary flight
Can't wait for the Carl Craig remix of "Falling Up". I had to sell the
detroit beatdown compilation because I couldn't bear the tought that I had a
triple record pack with only one good track on it.
Cheers,
Maarten
