These are the guys that make your favourite acts sound like perfection, or who arrange their body of work to make it cohesive and impressive. 5 masterminds who have earned my respect this year
( in no peculiar order)
Rick Rubin : As both producer and executive producer he's been handling two of the biggest rappers in the game right now: Kanye and Eminem. Eminem's first single this 2013,
Berzerk, has Rick's touch, you'd say his minimalism when he deals with rap and mixes it with rock ( hear Beastie Boys as an example, who are sampled in
Berzerk itself ) . Another reminder of his love of stripped perfomances is Gaga's
Dope , produced by the beard himself, the only mature producer on ARTPOP, and it stands out...
Noah "40" Shebib : Responsible for Drake's sound, he's been producing all of his albums ever since the bottom of his career, and now he's here ( blink blink ). All of these rappers trying to emulate Drake's sound are just missing a good dealer as this guy here.
Stuart Price: My favourite producer ever, let me be real honest so you won't be surprise while reading this brief review of his work this year. He embodies the dance music trend that's been riding throughout the airwaves until this very moment thanks to his alliance with Madonna back in 2005, but this is 2013 and he's also left his mark with the Pet Shop Boys, a collaboration that was bound to happen anytime soon, and ''Electric'' is the baby oddly born from this threesome. This album has ''smash'' written all over it, unfortunately ageing is something strong in the industry ( Madonna reference? ) and a couple of 50 years old gay men won't blast on the mainstream radios like that, even if they beat the young pop divas at making relatable and yet funny music to dance to. Stuart even took the time to reunite with the Killers to produce ''Just Another Girl'', which isn't another copy of ''Human'' but an example of how Stuart can also work with rock bands without comprimising their quality.
Daft Punk: Yeezus and Random Access Memories, that's all I'm going to say. Daft Punk don't need introduction, not when they have been inspiring everyone at the EDM scene ever since the beginning ( even the previosly mentioned Stuart Price had one of his multiple aliases inspired by their breakout on the French House scene, Jacques Lu Cont) .
Alex Da Kid: You might not like Imagine Dragons and their music ( my case), but if you listen to their record you will end up checking out who's making them sound like Coldplay or even U2 mixed with reggae or even dubstep. With songs like ''Love the way you lie'' or ''Airplanes'', this guy here is already a big name in the scene, although he's barely been around for 7 years, his loud percussion is an emblem on all of the songs he produces, and this sound is suitable for artists like the ones named before.
Special mention:
Boots, producer on Beyoncé's new album, 2014 will be his year, that's for sure