Christine Tobin - The Secret Life of a Girl

An excellent (and well-deserved) review of Christine's new album which we mastered back in March, as I mentioned in my first post. It's always good to see one of your artists doing well - I love this record, and I wish Christine every success with it. Maybe this will be the breakthrough she deserves !

And while I think of it, Phil got a great review too !

Christine Tobin, Secret Life of a Girl

 (Babel) 

John L Walters
Friday May 16, 2008
The Guardian

Dublin-born singer Christine Tobin is a jewel of the London jazz scene, streets ahead of the pack, but she deserves better. She should be on a global stage, rubbing shoulders with fellow troubadours like Cave, Mitchell and Cohen. And while her current 15-date tour should help broaden her UK fan base, this is an album that could break through to a bigger, international audience. Tobin's eloquent songs are framed by masterful arrangements and beautifully recorded to make the most of the content. There's no self-indulgence: it's all about the songs. Dave Whitford's sonorous bass and Phil Robson's self-effacing guitar are the perfect match for Tobin's rich, dark-hued vocals.

Highlights include the swampy Bye Bye; the Corner of an Eye, with its archaic "spring reverb"; and a delicious cover of Cohen and Robinson's Everybody Knows. Yet it's a tribute to the quality of Tobin's writing that there are no weak spots in this excellent collection.

Where I'm At

So here it is - my first post - written while copying sources for a new Paul Weller box set one of our customers is putting together. Sadly it all comes from 16-bit CDRs rather than hi-res files or original tapes, but it's still a pretty cool project. I probably won't get to master it, unfortunately, since we have some DVDs coming in which need authoring and I'm commited to a large Interactive Whiteboard CD-ROM as of next week, but I know Simon will do a great job. On the other hand, once the sources are compiled in the right order they'll get sent away for approval by Universal, and that will take a while, so perhaps I'll be free by then. I'll have to fight him for it...

Looking forward to Richard Durrant's session on Monday - it sounds very different to the bonkers "Horse" album he produced for John Douglas Clark, which we worked on before Christmas. ( "...half album, half sound installation... described variously as 'Ivor Cutler meets Pink Floyd' and 'John Shuttleworth meets Prof. Stanley Unwin' " ) And, I'm really looking forward to working with Christine Tobin again next month - I was really pleased with the way her fellow artist and partner Phil Robson's album "Six Strings and the Beat" turned out last month, despite both of us struggling with the after-effects of flu. And looking forward to getting copies of the Opeth "Still Life" DVD - progressive Swedish Black Metal wouldn't necessarily normally be my listening material of choice, but Jens at Fascination Street did such a great job on the new 5.1 surround mixes, the band play really well and the menus came out nicely, though I say so myself. Plus I'm sure the packaging will be highly decadent, which should be fun.

So that's "where I'm at" at the moment - I think future posts will have updates on these and other interesting or enjoyable projects, plus ramblings on subjects like Mastering and DVD authoring - for example Blu Ray's so-called victory in the "Format Wars" and what it means for our customers who want to release in hi-def - and indeed if HD on disc is going to be a success at all, or go the way of SACD and DVD Audio...

Currently I am listening to "Seventh Tree" by Goldfrapp and loving it...