Released on 21st May 2021, Gary Numan’s 18th solo album Intruder is the fifth to emerge from the 15 year collaboration between Numan and producer, and PMC user, Ade Fenton.
Intruder follows the hugely successful (UK no.2) and critically acclaimed Savage: Songs From a Broken World album and is the third to be produced using PMC twotwo.8 monitors, which have been part of Ade Fenton’s studio set up since early 2013.
Fenton attributes the accuracy of the PMC monitors as having played a big part in the sound of the past three albums. For example, during the mixing of Splinter: Songs From a Broken Mind, in 2013 – the first album to be mixed using the twotwo.8s, he said, “They are hugely responsible for the high quality of sound we achieved when mixing the record.” Going on to add in 2021 during an interview about the making of Intruder that his studio set up includes “my beloved speakers, the PMC twotwo.8s.”
At the time of mixing the new album the world was, of course, in the midst of lockdown, forcing Fenton and Numan to work remotely, as Numan lives and works in LA and Fenton’s studio is in the southwest of the UK. The resulting mixes were taken to Metropolis Mastering for the final touches before release.
Metropolis, located in Chiswick London, is one of the world’s leading mastering facilities. Established in 1993, it features the powerhouse BB5 XBD-A speakers and extensive PMC/Bryston amplification. The mastering rooms have been described as “the best audio environments in the world”, making them a fitting location for the mastering of works by the very best artists, such as Numan.
At the controls was three times winner of the Music Producers Guild Mastering Engineer of the Year award, Matt Colton. Matt, who has worked on records from the likes of Thom Yorke, Elbow, Coldplay and many more, was in charge of the final stages of the creative process that has resulted in the universally praised release of Intruder.
Commenting on the mastering process, Ade Fenton says, “To hear the tracks we produced on the PMC twotwo.8s played back through the huge BB5 XBD system was a revelation, but a very pleasant one. While the bass performance of the two 15” drivers is clearly greater, the clarity and detail the system presents leaves nothing masked and proves just what a fantastic speaker the twotwo.8 is to produce on. I was blown away by what I heard at Metropolis and am really pleased with the final product and what Gary and I have created with Intruder.”
Intruder is out now and available as a digital download, CD, cassette, vinyl, special edition gold vinyl and picture disc and from the major streaming platforms.
https://garynuman.tmstor.es
