Far Out 40: The ultimate Dan Carey productions and mixes
Good things come to those who wait, and for Speedy Wunderground label founder and producer Dan Carey, his rise in status was certainly a long time coming.
Having plied his trade in the business since the late 1990s, his name wasn’t exactly one with the most illustrious acts in music standing next to it, but after years of hard graft, he’s suddenly become one of the most in-demand producers and engineers for hire, especially in the UK.
In the early part of his career, he did manage to gain work mixing and producing for the likes of Hot Chip and Bloc Party, two longtime staples of the UK indie circuit, and would find himself producing two Mercury Prize-nominated albums in 2014 in Kae Tempest’s Everybody Down and Nick Mulvey’s First Mind. The formation of the record label would happen around the same time, and although at first it was only for single releases, it would soon become the catalyst for his rise in stock.
In 2018, around 20 years into Carey’s career, Speedy Wunderground would begin to release a string of singles that would prove to transform British indie rock by ushering in a new wave of young acts that were informed by post-punk, noise rock and prog to varying degrees, with Black Midi’s ‘bmbmbm’, Squid’s ‘The Dial’ and Black Country, New Road’s ‘Athen’s France’ all coming out within the space of a year. These may not be the finest releases in each band’s catalogue, but they proved that the Speedy Wunderground singles series was worth taking note of, and not only was Carey producing some of the best work of his career, but he was also spotting new talent and giving it a springboard.
From this moment onward, the demand for his services skyrocketed, with several artists not signed to his label requesting that he work on their albums. Soon after, he found himself forming partnerships with the likes of Fontaines DC and Wet Leg, both of whom experienced meteoric success with their earliest releases and have gone on to rise further into the mainstream.
Another reason Carey has grown to be so recognised is his unique working methods. He will often go into the studio with a band and leave later the same day with a finished track. His insistence that a song can be done in a day’s work means that things aren’t always polished, but the imperfections are what draw people to his work, and the fact that they’re not overthought is key to their appeal.
It isn’t just the vanguard of British indie rock that he’s known for working alongside, and there have been multiple occasions where he’s contributed to electronic and hip-hop records, offering his own unique flavour to records that one might consider to be outside of his wheelhouse. However, what he does have is an ear for groove, and will often be able to turn a track into a much dancier affair than when it started out, and his studio techniques regularly bring out different sides to the artists he works with.
In just over two decades, he’s lent his touch to many outstanding records, but we’ve compiled together a list of 40 of the best songs that he’s either mixed or produced for you to get to grips with exactly what he can bring to a band’s sound.
The greatest songs produced or mixed by Dan Carey:
- Black Midi – ‘953’
- Chairlift – ‘Amanaemonesia’
- Fontaines DC – ‘Boys in the Better Land’
- Goat Girl – ‘Sad Cowboy’
- Kae Tempest – ‘To The Victor The Spoils’
- Lianne La Havas – ‘Age
- Moreish Idols – ‘Chum’
- Pixx – ‘I Bow Down’
- PVA – ‘Sleek Form’
- Bat For Lashes – ‘Sunday Love’
- Squid – ‘Green Light’
- Tiña – ‘Golden Rope’
- Django Django – ‘Default’
- Warmduscher – ‘Standing on the Corner’
- Teleman – ‘Düsseldorf’
- Treeboy & Arc – ‘Concept’
- Heartworms – ‘Mad Catch’
- O. – ‘Green Shirt’
- Katy J Pearson – ‘Alligator’
- Black Country, New Road – ‘Sunglasses’
- Joyeria – ‘Here Comes Trouble’
- Lazarus Kane – ‘Narcissus’
- Sinead O’Brien – ‘Most Modern Painting’
- Honeyglaze – ‘Female Lead’
- Hot Chip – ‘Shake A Fist’
- Franz Ferdinand – ‘No You Girls’
- Steve Mason – ‘Fire!’
- Tame Impala – ‘Expectation’
- Toy – ‘Colours Running Out’
- Geese – ‘Disco’
- Wet Leg – ‘Pokemon’
- Lewsberg – ‘Six Hills’
- Moa Moa – ‘Coltan Candy’
- The Lounge Society – ‘Burn The Heather’
- Been Stellar – ‘Passing Judgement’
- Royal Otis – ‘Foam’
- Bloc Party – ‘Ratchet’
- Childhood – ‘Blue Velvet’
- The Child of Lov – ‘Fly’
- CSS – ‘Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death From Above’
