Inside the Studio

Steve Sutherland invites you to shrink wrap ’n’ roll as he tells the story of a studio that once made plastics before producing classics by the likes of The Stranglers and The Cure

Because Bruxelles – or Brussels if you prefer – is not on anyone’s list of the world’s most famous rock ’n’ roll capitals, chances are you won’t have heard of Belgium’s ICP Recording Studios. If truth be told, my only memories associating the land of chocolate and waffles to anything vaguely musical were the unfortunate fact that Scots hooligan rocker Alex Harvey died of a heart attack while waiting for a ferry in Zeebrugge back in 1982.

Then there was Les Disques du Crépuscule, a well-thought-of indie label founded in Bruxelles in 1980 by Michel Duval and Annik Honoré. This supported artists a little off the well-beaten track and had a sublabel by the name of Factory Benelux, which released stuff in Europe supplied by the Manchester label.

Richard Jobson (far right) when in The Skids

At least one Crepuscule release, An Afternoon In Company, a 1984 album of poetry by Skids frontman Richard Jobson backed by Vini Reilly of The Durutti Column and minimalist composer Wim Mertens, was recorded at ICP and it turns out that, while not that well known, the studio actually has a bunch of great stories to tell. So let’s get down to it.

A quick kiss

Leaving aside a raft of local artists, ICP’s history suggests that it’s a convenient stop-off for bands who find themselves in the midst of a European tour and looking for a spot to nip in and lay down some tracks or mix down some stuff already in the can. Relatively cheap and relatively cheerful, so to speak.

The Cure’s Robert Smith who finished mixing Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me at ICP in 1987

That’s what The Cure did, for instance, in January 1987. Having recorded the tracks for the double Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me LP in Miraval, France [HFN Sep ’24], Robert Smith mixed the album with co-producer David M Allen at Compass Point in the Bahamas then finished it at ICP.

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark had visited in 1983 under rather different circumstances. Their fourth album, Dazzle Ships, had been a commercial disaster and sounded way too experimental for the liking of their label Virgin Records who insisted they get back to recording some stuff that might actually sell.

‘We decided to dial down some of the experiments and dial up some of the melodies’, said singer Andy McCluskey later. ‘If we’d done another Dazzle Ships, Virgin would definitely have dropped us’, keyboardist Paul Humphreys agreed.

The Stranglers pictured in London in 1985

Studio shuffle

So off they went to put matters right – first to Highland Studios in Inverness, then Chapel Studios in Lincolnshire, then Mayfair Studios in London, then Air Studios in Montserrat where they enjoyed themselves immensely but ran out of time. Burning through the budget, they flew to the more affordable ICP Studios where Brian Tench, the producer they’d been using, was joined by superstar studio guy Tony Visconti at Virgin’s behest.

This didn’t really work out either, and eventually OMD and Tench hightailed it to Wisseloord in the Netherlands to tie things up. The resulting album was Junk Culture and it did well enough to keep them all above the breadline.

Fast Forward to ’85 and a band of fellow Merseysiders hopped into view. It must be said that all was not exactly bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in the camp when Echo & The Bunnymen rocked up in Bruxelles. They were having trouble getting their heads around creating a follow-up to their highly-lauded fourth LP Ocean Rain and had already scrapped tracks they’d recorded with producers Clive Langer and Ian Broudie. Hooking up with Laurie Latham, they got down to work, recording a number of tracks, one of which morphed into the single ‘Bring On The Dancing Horses’. Drummer Pete de Freitas then went AWOL and announced he was leaving the band. He was briefly replaced by Blair Cunningham, formerly of Haircut One Hundred, but that didn’t work out so he was replaced by former ABC drummer David Palmer and more tracks were laid down with producer Gil Norton.

The larger of the two isolation booths in Studio A measures 20 square metres

Palmer then also upped and left, de Freitas stepped in again, and business resumed, under pressure from their label, Warner Brothers, which didn’t like the Norton sessions and insisted the Bunnies shape up and create something more viable. Latham was back and the band switched in and out of studios using ICP, Conny’s in Cologne and The Workhouse in London.

Hopping mad

On top of all the comings and goings, the band members weren’t getting on. Singer Ian McCulloch was hitting the booze bigtime and would later confess: ‘I was on another planet but then I didn’t want to be on the one [the other Bunnymen] were on’. The resulting album was simply called Echo & The Bunnymen, as if they couldn’t be bothered to think up an appropriate name.

And the tracks had been remixed in America by Bruce Lampcov, a process over which none of the band members – on tour in Brazil at the time – had much of a say.

When it came out in July ’87, the Bunnymen hated it. Guitarist Will Sergeant called it ‘an overcooked fish’ while bassist Les Pattinson said ‘I like the songs, just hated the mixes’. As for Ian McCulloch, he would later say: ‘It still sounds c**p’.

Wrap stars

ICP didn’t actually start out as a recording studio. Founded in 1966 – the ICP stands for Inter Chemicals and Plastics – it was set up to manufacture automated machines for packaging vinyl in transparent shrink wrap for record companies. A decade later it established its operations in a disused bread factory at 41-43 Avenue Emile De Beco, 1050 Ixelles where its business still resides today. One of its most specialised projects around this time was to work with the famous Hipgnosis design team to create and then produce an opaque dark blue shrink wrap for Pink Floyd’s 1975 album, Wish You Were Here.

French singer Françoise Hardy, who used ICP to record parts of her album Le Danger, released in 1996

Recording activity at ICP started in 1980 with the creation of what is now Studio B, equipped with an MCI 600 Series 36/24 analogue console and an MCI JH24 multitrack tape machine. Studio A was added three years later boasting similar equipment, and within just 12 months it was joined by Studio C, which housed an Otari MTR-90 24-track tape machine and a Soundcraft 2400 Series analogue console.

Upgrading in ’86 saw Studio A add an SSL 4056 E Series analogue desk. ICP opened a residential property the next year with the purchase of a townhouse adjacent to the studio complex, a second townhouse being added soon after. Studio B was upgraded in ’88, an SSL 4040 E Series analogue console replacing the MCI 600, and two more years down the line saw an EMI Neve A3096 desk installed in Studio C, the twin console to the EMI Neve in Abbey Road, London.

Nineteen-ninety also saw ICP invest in digital multitrack recording with the purchase of an Otari DTR-900 and Sony PCM 3324 while more residential space was acquired, this time with an indoor pool and gym. There then came the opening of Studio D with the installation of an 18-channel all-tube Siemens/ Telefunken console that was originally custom-built for Deutsche Grammophone Hannover in 1959.

Rock band Wolf Alice (l-r) Joff Oddie, singer Ellie Rowsell, Joel Amey and Theo Ellis

Recording Royalty

Artists who have enjoyed these facilities include Stereophonics; the late, great Françoise Hardy; Suede; The Gun Club; Mika; Swim Deep; and The Stranglers, who recorded their Feline (’83) and Aural Sculpture (’84) albums at ICP. The Courteeners did their second LP, Falcon, here in 2010, The Vaccines did their second, Come Of Age, at the studio two years later and in 2017 English rock duo Royal Blood used ICP to record their sophomore offering How Did We Get So Dark.

One of the studio’s most recent successes was Wolf Alice’s third album, the UK No 1 Blue Weekend, which the band recorded at ICP with producer Markus Dravs in 2021.

Key Recording Timeline

1982
The Stranglers record Feline using synths for a more polished sound. The album is a Top 5 hit in the UK

1984
The Cure use ICP to finish mixing Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, which sees them break into the US market

1987
Ex-Skids frontman Richard Jobson seeks to showcase his skill as a poet and storyteller with An Afternoon In Company, a now-rare LP

2010
Pulp producer Ed Buller is behind the desk as The Courteneers record Falcon. It debuts at No 6 in the charts

2012
Helped by Kings Of Leon producer Ethan Johns, The Vaccines enter the UK charts at No 1 with Come Of Age

2012
Another album to debut at No 1 in the UK is Blue Weekend by Wolf Alice, produced at ICP by Markus Dravs