Mark Knopfler’s fingerstyle Stratocaster on “Sultans of Swing” is technically singular — a sound that somehow became deeply unfashionable while remaining difficult to replicate precisely. The record is from 1978 and sounds like it.
What connects it outward is its engineer. Rhett Davies recorded the Dire Straits debut at Basing Street Studios; he went on to engineer most of the Roxy Music records and collaborate extensively with Brian Eno, including on several of the Eno records that shaped the ambient and avant-garde production approaches that electronic music descends from. A small Eno lineage, visible in an unlikely record.
Mark Knopfler’s fingerstyle Stratocaster on “Sultans of Swing” is technically singular — a sound that somehow became deeply unfashionable while remaining difficult to replicate precisely. The record is from 1978 and sounds like it.
What connects it outward is its engineer. Rhett Davies recorded the Dire Straits debut at Basing Street Studios; he went on to engineer most of the Roxy Music records and collaborate extensively with Brian Eno, including on several of the Eno records that shaped the ambient and avant-garde production approaches that electronic music descends from. A small Eno lineage, visible in an unlikely record.