Home or Away?

HOT PRESS has carried out its own mini-survey into where Irish artists record their albums.

Obviously, given the size and diversity of the Irish music business, a definitive list of "Irish" albums released in any given year is difficult to compile. However, we have taken a sample of fifty LPs comprising selections from the worlds of rock, traditional and country, all of which have been released during the course of 1993.

The overwhelming majority of these (thirty-two to be precise) was recorded in Irish studios. Exactly half of these were albums that came under the "traditional" banner.

A couple of albums including Clannad's Banba and Mary Coughlan's Love For Sale were recorded in the UK, but mixed in Ireland. Some, like Phil Coulter's Local Heroes and The Devlin's Drift, were recorded in both London and Dublin.

Irish artists based in Britain (Sultans of Ping f.C., Fatima Mansions/Bubonique, Marxman, That Petrol Emotion, Fat Lady Sings etc.) tend to almost always record in the UK and not in Ireland. There have been no exceptions to that rule this year.

Of the major internationally-established Irish acts, most of these also seem to record abroad. Of this year's crop, Hothouse Flowers' Songs From The Rain was recorded in the UK and USA, Van Morrison's Too Long In Exile was recorded in the UK and USA, Gary Moore's Blues Alive (live) was recorded in USA, UK and France, and An Emotional Fish's Junk Puppets was recorded in the UK. U2's Zooropa, of course, recorded in Dublin.

Other non-Irish recordings include The Blue Angels' Coming Out Of Nowhere (UK), Maura O'Connell's Blue Is The Colour Of Hope and the Peace Together compilation (UK).