Previous Work
Explore Martyn's Decades of Previous Work Through Influential Albums, Iconic Records and Career-Defining Projects
Across a career spanning multiple decades, Martyn has contributed to a wide range of influential records, shaping the sound of chart-topping artists and emerging talent alike. His production style blends technical precision with a strong creative instinct, resulting in work that consistently stands out for its clarity, depth and musical identity.
This selection of previous projects highlights just a portion of his long-running catalogue — from breakthrough singles and acclaimed albums to unique collaborations across different genres. Each project reflects Martyn’s commitment to crafting recordings that not only meet the brief, but elevate and define the artists behind them.
PREVIOUS WORK
Roachford
Info
Location: U.K.
Highlights:
- Single Production
Permanent Shade of Blue is the third album by British band Roachford, released in 1994. The album was certified double-platinum in Australia, where it reached number 2 in the ARIA Charts.
PREVIOUS WORK
Deva Premal
Dakshina is an album from the singer Deva Premal that Martyn Phillips produced in 2005.
Info
Location: U.K.
Highlights:
- Album Production
Deva Premal (born 2 April 1970 in Nürnberg, Germany) is a singer known for introducing Sanskrit mantras into the mainstream. Her meditative, spiritual music, composed and produced with her partner Miten and released on the their own label, Prabhu Music, puts ancient Tibetan and Sanskrit mantras into contemporary settings.
PREVIOUS WORK
Londonbeat
I’ve Been Thinking About You is a single from the pop band Londonbeat that Martyn Phillips produced in 1990.
Info
Location: U.K.
Highlights:
- Single Production
“I’ve Been Thinking About You” is a song by British-American band Londonbeat from their second studio album In the Blood (1990), produced by record producer Martyn Phillips.
PREVIOUS WORK
Erasure
Chorus is a single from the pop band Erasure that Martyn Phillips produced in 1991.
Info
Location: U.K.
Highlights:
- Album Production
Chorus, Erasure’s fifth proper studio album, was released on 14 October 1991 by Mute Records in Germany and the UK and 15 October 1991 by Sire/Reprise Records in the USA; and on the short list of nominees for the 1992 Mercury Prize.
PREVIOUS WORK
Jesus Jones
Info
Location: U.K.
Highlights:
- Album Production
Right Here, Right Now is a single from the pop band Jesus Jones that Martyn Phillips produced in 1990. Jesus Jones are a British alternative rock band from Bradford-on-Avon in Wiltshire, formed in late 1988, who recorded and performed from the late 1980s to the 2000s. Their track “Right Here, Right Now” was an international hit, and was subsequently globally licensed for promotional and advertising campaigns.
Just after starting work on Londonbeat’s In the Blood, I heard Mike’s demo of this track, sent by Dave Balfe at Food Records. Its message and directness grabbed me immediately, enough that I told the slightly unimpressed Londonbeat singers I needed time off to record it—even before our deal was finalised.
Recording with Mike at Sam Therapy and Matrix went smoothly. The song’s lyrics nod to the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification, and, fittingly, I recorded the lead vocal on an ex-East German Neumann UM57 I’d bought after the borders opened.
My first mix didn’t land, so I returned to Sarm 3, but the US label still wasn’t convinced and brought in Gary Hellman and John Luingo to create a smoother, shorter version.
Ironically, although the track was anti-war, Gulf War veterans embraced it as a “We Showed Saddam” anthem, sending it to No.1 on the R&R chart and No.2 in the Billboard Hot 100—kept from the top only by EMF’s Unbelievable. Both Clintons later used it as rally walk-on music. And its release date proved uncanny: September 11th 1990, the same day George H. W. Bush delivered his “New World Order” speech – make of that what you will!
PREVIOUS WORK
Akasa
Info
Location: U.K.
Highlights:
- Album Production
Akasa was a London-based pop band that had moderate success in the late-1980s and early-1990s. The group was formed in 1988 under a deal with Warner Bros.
Although One Night in My Life didn’t make a major chart impact, it remains personally important. I first met Jhalib Millar while searching for Indo-fusion musicians for Habbiba, which Francis Usmar and I were producing for Bappi Lahiri. He played me material he and Clem Alford had written with Sophiya Haque, and their charm and potential were obvious—both men had previously been in Monsoon with Sheila Chandra and were hoping to recapture the magic of Ever So Lonely.
I produced high-quality demos at Madhouse Studios in Luton, working on their Harrison console and using their excellent microphones, including an AKG C12A for Sophie’s vocals. Most instrumentation came from my Akai S1000 samplers, including the string arrangement, with bass from the Minimoog paired with a Yamaha TX216.
The track convinced East West Records that I could handle full production, leading to my role on the Happiness album. We later upgraded tracks at Sam Therapy Studios and mixed at Swanyard. Tim Simenon delivered a great remix, and I added my own “BBB” mix; the video, shot by Jack Cardiff at Leighton House, and Pierre et Gilles’ single cover are well worth revisiting.
After several singles and an album, Sophie became one of the first pan-Asian VJs, reportedly drawing an audience of around a quarter-billion viewers. Sadly, she passed away far too young after a short illness, and Jhalib—the band’s driving force—was also later lost in similar circumstances.
PREVIOUS WORK
The Beloved
Info
Location: U.K.
Highlights:
- Album Production
Happiness is a 1990 album from the British pop band The Beloved that Martyn Phillips produced. The Beloved are a British electronic music group. Happiness reached #14 on the U.K. Albums Chart on its release, in March 1990, and subsequently reached #154 on the U.S. Billboard 200 Pop Albums Chart.
In the late 1980s I frequently worked as a synthesiser programmer for Paul Staveley O’Duffy, operating the Fairlight CMI and contributing synth work to major releases. These included Swing Out Sister’s Breakout and Surrender, Was (Not Was)’s Walk the Dinosaur and Spy in the House of Love, as well as projects with Errol Brown, Barry Manilow, and even John Barry on The Living Daylights soundtrack.
Paul produced two singles for The Beloved, and after Your Love Takes Me Higher gained club traction, Jon Marsh and Steve Waddington wanted to push their sound toward Chicago and Deep House influences. Having heard my work with Akasa, they asked me to produce their album Happiness.
We spent several months tracking at Sam Therapy Studios, blending dance-culture elements with their structured pop writing. The Sun Rising grew from a pad progression voiced on the Roland Juno-60 and D-50, paired with a vocal hook that later caused legal headaches. With no automation on the DDA console, the mix became a hands-on performance—three of us riding faders and EQ in real time until dawn quite literally “rose,” fittingly for the track’s future rave-anthem status.
Singles Hello and Time After Time were mixed on the SSL E-Series in Sarm Studio 3, my favourite room at Basing Street. A flurry of alternative and club versions evolved into the remix album Blissed Out, whose tight deadlines gave the tracks a raw immediacy. Jon later continued under The Beloved with his wife Henny, achieving major success with Sweet Harmony.