MPG announces 2016 Awards shortlist
The Music Producer’s Guild has revealed the shortlist for the 2016 awards, and Bjork, Mike Crossey (Wolf Alice, Jake Bugg, Foals), Catherine Marks (Howling Bells, Ian Brown, PJ Harvey, Depeche Mode) and Neil Comber, who has worked with over 25 top ten artists, are just some of the internationally acclaimed producers who have secured a place.
Debut albums including FKA Twigs’ LP1 and Royal Blood’s self-titled effort alongside Mark Ronson’s number one Uptown Special received nominations, while the list also features re-mixers Four Tet (Kieran Hebden) and UNKLE (James Lavelle).
There are five women nominated for awards this year who have worked with over 50 top ten artists between them. This includes Catherine Marks who is up for ‘Breakthrough Producer Of The Year’, Olga Fitzroy who is in the running for ‘Recording Engineer Of The Year’ and Mandy Parnell (pictured with Boy George at the 2015 event) who is in the ‘Mastering Engineer Of The Year’ category.
Now in its eighth year, the Music Producers Guild Awards will take place on 3 February 2016 at Grosvenor House, Park Lane in London. The ceremony will feature 15 awards categories, recognising the best and brightest names in music production including the Producer of the Year, who will also be awarded the first Brit Award.
Tony Platt, MPG Awards Group director commented: "We are delighted that this year we have had a record number of submissions and the highest number of votes cast to form the shortlist. This has resulted in the strongest array of candidates since we started the event and the judging is going to be a serious task! We are proud that the MPG Awards truly reflects the wealth of creative talent in our industry and are looking forward to an exciting, star studded evening in our new prestigious venue next February.”
The shortlists for each of the MPG 2016 Awards categories are as follows:
UK Producer Of The Year, sponsored by The BRIT Awards
- Charlie Andrew
- Mark Ronson
- Mike Crossey
- Tom Dalgety
International Producer Of The Year, sponsored by Pro Tools Expert
- Bjork
- Max Martin
- Robert John 'Mutt' Lange
Breakthrough Producer Of The Year, sponsored by Focusrite
- Catherine Marks
- FKA Twigs (Tahliah Barnett)
- Neil Comber
Recording Engineer Of The Year, sponsored by AMS Neve
- Dan Cox
- Guy Massey
- Olga Fitzroy
Breakthrough Engineer Of The Year
- Ben Baptie
- Brett Cox
- Drew Bang
Mix Engineer Of The Year, sponsored by Solid State Logic
- Cenzo Townshend
- Craig Silvey
- David Wrench
Mastering Engineer Of The Year
- Barry Grint
- John Davis
- Mandy Parnell
Re-mixer Of The Year, sponsored by Prism Sound
- Four Tet (Kieran Hebden)
- UNKLE (James Lavelle)
- Jungle
UK Album Of The Year
- LP1 - FKA Twigs
- Uptown Special - Mark Ronson
- Royal Blood - Royal Blood
UK Single Song Release Of The Year, sponsored by Shure
- Regret - Everything Everything
- Pendulum – FKA Twigs
- Ten Tonne Skeleton - Royal Blood
Studio Of The Year, sponsored by Avid
- AIR Studios
- Strongroom Studios
- Urchin Studios
The A&R Award
- Chris Briggs
- Ollie Hodge
- Tic
The winners of the Outstanding Contribution to UK Music Award, the MPG Innovation Award and the MPG Inspiration Award will be announced at the Awards ceremony in February.