Tony Visconti Discusses the Making of 'The Next Day'

[highplainsdem]

Continuing a series that started with Tony talking about Heathen - https://www.democraticunderground.com/1034152824 - followed by Reality: https://www.democraticunderground.com/1034153268

[speak easy]

1. Tony employed very unusual production (for him) on The Next Day.

He compressed the hell out of it, almost as much as Owen Morris did on Definitely Maybe. I searched the net for less compressed versions; they did not exist. It was 100% intentional and quite a departure from other Bowie mixes before or since.

[highplainsdem]

2. Here's a link for more info on the recording:

https://sonicscoop.com/engineering-david-bowies-the-next-day-inside-the-magic-shop-sessions-with-mario-j-mcnulty/

[speak easy]

3. Tony Visconti is a genius producer. Daylight is second.

When I worked out that there were no less compressed versions of The Next Day, I knew it was intentional, 100%. And I have not the slightest doubt it was David himself who made that decision. It is beyond belief that Tony could have delivered an ultra compressed version of the album and David wouldn't have noticed. David wanted it exactly that way.

Last month, Tony gave us his own remaster of The Next Day as part of the box set 'I Can't Give Everything Away 2002 to 2016': It's airy, clear as a bell, with every instrument and vocal having room to breathe. Tony, varies the degree of compression appropriate to each song and you can listen to the whole album without getting headphone fatigue.

They are a lot of Tony Visconti haters out there, and they haven't got a clue. Some of the biggest squarks of outrage came with his remix (not remaster) of 'The Man Who Sold To Earth' as 'Metrobolist Nine Songs From David Bowie.' Many of them hated it and I loved it. Maybe they didn't know that Tony was there playing bass in the sessions of 1970 and knew more about that music that they could ever do. Maybe. They made fools of themselves and I loved that too.