The Music Producers Guild (MPG) has revealed the shortlist for its annual awards ceremony, set to take place in February next year.
Paul Epworth, Fraser T. Smith and Nigel Godrich are nominated for the top Prize, joining a host of internationally acclaimed producers shortlisted for various other accolades.
Announced today, the shortlist sees a record number of MPG Full Members casting their votes. Final judging will take place on December 5 and winners will be announced at the gala ceremony on February 16 at London’s Grosvenor House.
James Blake, Jeff Lynne and Tarek Musa of Spring King have been nominated for the newly introduced Self-Producing Artist category, while other notable entries include David Bowie’s Blackstar, Michael Kiwanuka’s Love and Hate and Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool, all of which are shortlisted for UK Album of the Year.
Now in its ninth year, the MPG Awards will feature 16 categories, with previous winners including Sir George Martin CBE, Youth, FKA Twigs, Brian Eno, Catherine Marks, Trevor Horn and Dave Stewart.
Tony Platt, MPG Awards Group director, said: “The MPG Awards are totally unique because they reflect the UK music industry’s incredible wealth of creative talent and also the respect we all have for our colleagues. The roles of producers and engineers are now universally recognised and we can pat ourselves on the back for championing that recognition. The support and encouragement that these production teams give to artists is priceless and should be shouted about at every opportunity.”
The shortlists for each of the MPG 2017 Awards categories are as follows:
UK Producer Of The Year
• Paul Epworth
• Nigel Godrich
• Fraser T. Smith
International Producer Of The Year, sponsored by Prism Sound
• Josh Homme
• Garret ‘Jacknife’ Lee
• Tony Visconti
Breakthrough Producer Of The Year, sponsored by Novation
• Brett Cox
• Andrew Hunt
• Joel Laslett Pott
Self Producing Artist of the Year, sponsored by Spitfire Audio
•James Blake
• Jeff Lynne
• Tarek Musa (Spring King)
Recording Engineer Of The Year, sponsored by AMS Neve
• Guy Massey
• Mark Rankin
• Richard Woodcraft
Breakthrough Engineer Of The Year, sponsored by Genelec
• Manon Grandjean
• Andrew Hunt
• Jack Ruston
Mix Engineer Of The Year, sponsored by Solid State Logic
• Tom Elmhirst
• Mark ‘Spike’ Stent
• Cenzo Townshend
Mastering Engineer Of The Year, sponsored by Prism Sound
• John Davis
• Barry Grint
• Mandy Parnell
Re-Mixer of the Year
• Disclosure (Howard & Guy Lawrence)
• Matthew Herbert
• Wideboys
UK Album Of The Year
• Black Star – David Bowie
• Love and Hate – Michael Kiwanuka
• A Moon Shaped Pool – Radiohead
UK Single Song Release Of The Year, sponsored by Shure
• This Is What Your Came For – Calvin Harris feat. Rihanna
• Burn The Witch – Radiohead
• Pillowtalk – ZAYN
Studio Of The Year
• Abbey Road Studios
• British Grove Studios
• RAK Studios
The A&R Award
• Toby L & Tim Dellow (Transgressive Records)
• Bart McDonagh (Domino Records)
• Nigel Reeve (Warner Music International)
The winner of the Outstanding Contribution to UK Music Award, sponsored by PPL, is yet to be announced, while the MPG Inspiration Award and the Special Recognition Award will be announced at the ceremony in February.
