batsbrewTodd Rundgren, "Todd" this has some amazing stuff.

 
I think Todd's last really good mix was on the "Wizard/True Star" album. After that, I am not sure that his mixes got better, though they usually were fairly clean.
 
Sadly, when he worked with XTC, he tried to change them, instead of helping the recording, and while "Skylarking" is fine, it is not even close, or half as good as "The Big Express" or a couple of albums before that ... which tells you that Todd's ideas in the console are in his head, not in the music ... yet!
 
I really think that he is too worried about a guitar when he is mad at Mr. Gunz and Bows, and forgets his lyrical side on the piano ... and he pretty much has given up playing keyboards, but maybe that was Jean Yves Labat, and not Todd! Labat's solo album "M. Frogg" is magnificently fun, specially if you like to hear Todd say many bad words at Mr. Gunz and Bowz!
 

Ooo... That might be a nice one to listen to this afternoon (after I finish listening to Herd Of Instinct's Conjure, which I couldn't prevent myself from getting, and am on the fourth go through - man, this stuff is GREAT!!!).

 
Almost all of the Djam Karet's stuff is really well mixed ... it has to BE ... because of its "ambient" moods and such ... and every time I hear "Dark Clouds, No Rain", I hear some magificent mixing and above all ... a really good DESIGN for what the mix should be to help bring out the atmospheric feeling in a lot of their music. Some of their music comes off as a jam that goes quite long ... as Gayle says it might start on Chord A and end on Chord Z and the process and design ... who knows? ... and I will have to listen to it again to see if I can find something in there ... but I have never found a Djam Karet album that did not take me away ... rock/ambient/weird ... whatever!
 
In many ways, "Herd of Instinct" is a nice continuation of the mastery and intelligence of the "studio" and "mastering" work that this band does ... not even Steven Wilson is this good, though he is pretty clean. Th esubtleties in PT, for example, are more a factor of Richard Barbieri's design (a la Rick Wright) than anything else.
 
My main concern, and this happened on the Coffee House Band stuff, is that too much of the recording is being compressed, and the details that would be considered "subtle" and minor details that make the front end look stronger and better, were gone. I know that Bapu is not a "compression" hog, but this was an observation I wanted to make earlier that I did not have the words for. I would like to see a bit less compression and more "detail" ... even though, it is harder and sometimes not as easy as it sounds, when you are adding/mixing so many people into one swell foop!

I always thought "Slave to the Rhythm" by Trevor Horn was a very good mix.

I've mentioned this before, but the first dance record I was really blown away by when I heard it up loud, was 'Hot Water' by Level 42, really powerful, but loads of dynamics.

The Union Square Music re-mixes of Slade's entire back catalogue are quite superb.

They sound just like the original LP's (and singles for that matter), with plenty of unsquashed dynamics and with each instrument sitting perfectly in the mix.
 
 

Thanks all. This is great. You've given me some music to hunt down for a good listen. (And I was nervous for a bit there that I'd neglected to exclude DSOTM.) Thanks!!!!

P.S. You've all been helpful.  I'm going to use the "This Post was Helpful" to help me keep track as I work my way through.... so don't feel neglected I'll get to you (but it'll take awhile... on the road a lot lately).