A record that inspires you production-wise:
Hollie Cook – Hollie Cook
This is produced by Prince Fatty, aka Mike Pelanconi. He’s my favourite reggae producer right now, and has been since that record. Prince Fatty’s productions are spotless. He assembled the best reggae session musicians you can find in the UK and made them play his own way, to replicate that ‘King Tubby’ feeling. Recorded all analog on tape, not on click, mixed all analogue with a fidelity and accuracy in the search for those machines that made reggae and dub what they are now (tape delays such as the Roland Space Echo, spring reverbs like the Fisher Space X-pander, Ampex tape machines etc).
That would be enough, an amazing way of obtaining an original early-dancehall reggae sound. Well, not for Prince Fatty. He put Hollie Cook on those productions, not a reggae artist. Her background wasn’t in reggae music and her style is all but classically reggae. It’s sweet and mellow, long-stretched catchy choruses and suave voice. That did the trick for me. The combination of two distant flavours. That record – in terms of production – inspired me to put together a consistent sound for this whole project.
