Miloco Studios
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Miloco Studios are a leading independent group of recording studios based in London, England. There are currently nine recording studios underneath the Miloco umbrella, all of which are either owned or represented by the Miloco company, and are all located in various areas of London. The nine studios vary in terms of their aptitude for tracking, mixing or overdubbing; the consoles that occupy the control rooms; their recording spaces; their outboard gear and monitoring systems.
Some of the artists known to use the studios regularly include The Chemical Brothers, Arctic Monkeys, UNKLE, Spiritualized, Audio Bullys, KT Tunstall, Luke Haines and Kate Nash.
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[edit] History
Miloco was formed out of the merging of three former London recording studios: Milo Music, The Garden and Orinoco Studios.
Milo Music began in 1984 as a small studio in East London’s Hoxton Square (the studio is commonly referred to as simply ‘The Square’), which was used by the likes of Tricky, M People and The Brand New Heavies in the early years of its life. In the early nineties they took over another building nearby to The Square and used it to build seven programming suites for artists and producers to use for long-term periods. Today, Miloco still operate five of the seven rooms, and people filling them currently include pop producer Richard X and Swing Out Sister. In the late nineties, Milo Music also became the parent company of producer Howie B’s Pussyfoot record label, whose roster of artists usually recorded at the studios.
The Garden studio, located in the Shoreditch area of East London, was built in 1978 by Ultravox’s John Foxx and the well-renowned studio designer Andy Munro. It became a regular choice of studios for the likes of Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure and Depeche Mode, as well as Matt Johnson of The The who ended up buying the studio for himself (he still owns it today). Milo Music became the studio’s representative from the mid-1990s, when for the first time The Garden was run as a commercial enterprise.
Orinoco Studios was founded in the mid-1980s and came to prominence with the release of Enya’s Orinoco-produced ‘Watermark’ album, which included the hit ‘Orinoco Flow’, apparently named after the studios. Orinoco was central to both the dance explosion of the late 1980s and the indie / Britpop era of the early to mid-nineties. The studio’s top-end Neve mix room (known as The Neve VR room) has always been integral to Orinoco’s appeal, and since the early 1990s bands such as Oasis and The Chemical Brothers mixed groundbreaking albums such as (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? and Dig Your Own Hole respectively, in The Neve. All of The Chemical Brothers’ six albums have been mixed in the room, and the dance act also regularly use The Toyshop programming room, located in the same building as The Neve. 1997 saw Orinoco produce more number-one albums than any other UK studio, apart from EMI’s Abbey Road.
When Milo Music bought Orinoco in 2000, the Miloco name was created. 2006 saw Miloco open three new studios. The first was the former Innovation Studios on Highbury Corner in North London, renamed ‘The SSL’ after the studio’s Solid State Logic mixing console. After opening The SSL came the addition of dance producer and DJ Pete Heller’s Kentish Town studio, Musikbox, and then producer Ben Hillier built a unique live tracking studio in the former Orinoco building, which is now called The Pool.
The latest room to be added to the Miloco company is legendary producer Hugh Padgham’s, Sofa Sound Studios in West London, which Miloco took over in the summer of 2007.
[edit] The Studios
Miloco One: The Neve VR – a mix and tracking room containing a Neve VR60 console, based in Bermondsey
Miloco Two: The Toyshop – a programming and overdub room based in Bermondsey
Miloco Three: The Square – a mix and tracking room containing an Amek B2520 console, based in Hoxton.
Miloco Four: The Garden – a tracking room containing a Neve V3 console, based in Shoreditch
Miloco Five: The SSL – a mix room containing an SSL G Series console, based in Islington.
Miloco Six: The Market – five private programming suites based in Hoxton, and two in Bermondsey.
Miloco Seven: Musikbox – a mix and overdub room containing a Neve VR60 console, based in Kentish Town.
Miloco Eight: The Pool – a live tracking room based in Bermondsey.
Miloco Nine: Sofa Sound Studios – a mix and tracking room containing an SSL G+ Series, based in Chiswick.
[edit] Artists
Well-known artists who have worked at Miloco studios include:
Arctic Monkeys
Audio Bullys
Badly Drawn Boy
Beth Orton
Björk
Coldplay
DJ Shadow
Editors
Elastica
Enya
Funeral for a Friend
Gallows
Groove Armada
Idlewild
Jamie T
Jarvis Cocker
Kasabian
Kate Nash
Liberty X
Luke Haines
Madness
Mark Ronson
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Oasis
Rachel Stevens
Razorlight
Roots Manuva
Slipknot
Sugababes
The Auteurs
The Chemical Brothers
The Futureheads
The Horrors
The Prodigy
Turin Brakes
UNKLE
[edit] Albums
[edit] 2007 Miloco albums include:
Kate Nash – Made of Bricks
Arctic Monkeys – Favourite Worst Nightmare
Newton Faulkner – Hand Built By Robots
The Horrors – Strange House
The Chemical Brothers – We Are The Night
Shitdisco – Kingdom of Fear
Roll Deep – Rules and Regulations
The Maccabees – Colour It In
Mr Hudson and the Library – A Tale of Two Cities
Battle – Break The Banks
[edit] Past Miloco albums include:
Enya – Watermark
Oasis – (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?
Ash – 1977
The Chemical Brothers – Dig Your Own Hole
EGO – The Garden
Depeche Mode – Construction Time Again
John Foxx – The Garden
Roots Manuva – Awfully Deep
Audio Bullys – Ego War
The Cure – The Top
M.I.A. – Arular
Richard X – Richard X Presents His X-Factor Vol. 1
The Auteurs – How I Learned to Love the Bootboys
Gene – Olympian
Jarvis Cocker - Jarvis
Fionn Regan - The End of History
Black Box Recorder - The Facts of Life
Plan B - Who Needs Actions When You Got Words
James Yorkston - The Year of the Leopard
Shed Seven - Ladyman
Luke Haines - Das Capital
[edit] Interface Engineer Management
In 2007 Miloco set up a sister company, Interface, a studio engineer and producer management company. The Interface roster currently manages the following UK-based engineers and producers: Pete Hofmann, Finn Eiles, Matt Hyde, Martin Jenkins, Mark Rankin, Matt Foster, Ferg Peterkin, Joe Hirst and Ben Thackeray.
