The Music Producers Guild Announces its 2014 Awards Shortlist

10 December 2013 - Press release

London, UK: Ethan Johns, Paul Epworth, Tony Visconti and Rick Rubin are just some of the internationally acclaimed producers who have secured a coveted place on the Music Producers Guild 2014 Awards shortlist.

Albums by David Bowie, Adele, Laura Marling, The Foals and ZZ Top helped deliver nominations for an exceptionally diverse range of recording professionals whose work encompasses a wide variety of musical styles and genres. The list also includes notable new producers such as Disclosure and features James Blake's debut album Overgrown, which won this year's Mercury Music Prize.

Now in its sixth year, the Music Producers Guild Awards recognises the enormous contribution made by recording professionals to the success of the UK’s music industry. The winner of the Producer of the Year Award also receives a BRIT Award for Best Producer, and both awards will be presented at the Music Producers Guild’s Awards ceremony, which takes place on Thursday February 13^th 2014 at the Park Plaza Riverbank Hotel in London.

MPG Chairman Steve Levine says: "An MPG Award is highly sought-after by recording professionals because it represents an endorsement by your peers. Whilst anyone can nominate, only full members of the MPG are allowed to vote for the shortlist and therefore the results are relevant to the creative value of our industry. Those who win an MPG Award are known to be at the top of their game as a recording professional.”

The shortlists for each of the MPG 2014 Awards categories (in no particular order) are as follows:

• UK Producer of the Year, sponsored by The BRITS 2014:

Paul Epworth

Flood (Mark Ellis) & Alan Moulder

Ethan Johns

• International Producer of the Year, sponsored by Beats by Dr Dre:

Daft Punk (Thomas Bangalter, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo)

Rick Rubin

Tony Visconti

• Recording Engineer of the Year, sponsored by Rode:

Catherine Marks

Guy Massey

Mark Rankin

• Mix Engineer of the Year, sponsored by Solid State Logic:

         Tom Elmhirst

Flood (Mark Ellis) & Alan Moulder

Mark ‘Spike’ Stent

• Mastering Engineer of the Year:

John Dent

Barry Grint

Mandy Parnell

• Breakthrough Producer of the Year, sponsored by Focusrite/Novation:

Dan Smith & Mark Crew

Disclosure (Guy Lawrence, Howard Lawrence)

Duncan Mills

• Breakthrough Engineer of the Year:

Dan Cox

Catherine Marks

Matt Wiggins

• Re-mixer of the Year:

Freemasons (Russell Smith & James Wiltshire)

Four Tet (Kieran Hebden)

MJ Cole (Matthew Coleman)

• UK Album of the Year, sponsored by Universal Audio:

James Blake – Overgrown

Foals – Holy Fire

Laura Marling – Once I was An Eagle

• UK Single Song Release of the Year, sponsored by Shure:

Adele – Skyfall

Everything Everything – Kemosabe

Foals – My Number

• Studio of the Year, sponsored by KMR Audio:

British Grove Studios

RAK Studios

Strongroom Studios

• The A&R Award:

Chris Briggs

Imran Ahmed

Jim Chancellor

The winners of the Outstanding Contribution to UK Music Award, sponsored by PPL, the MPG Innovation Award, sponsored by Genelec and the MPG Inspiration Award, sponsored by UK Music, will be announced at the Awards ceremony in February. All three of these Awards are in the gift of the MPG.