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Perhaps his recent outing as Robbie Williams’s bassist reignited Trevor Horn’s desire to get back to the front-of-house role mega-million-selling producer previously enjoyed with Yes and Buggles.

The Producers – also featuring Horn’s old studio associate and fellow knob twiddler Stephen Lipson, ex-10cc/Art Of Noise man Lol Creme and star session drummer Ash Soan – have actually been nurtured over five years, first as an occasional live act, before entering the studio.

The unhurried gestation and formidable sonic background of all participants has resulted in some plush, sumptuously layered soundscapes. Given the rewards that success has brought their way, it’s unsurprising that the songs on the album brim with visions of the good life – the immaculate lullaby Garden Of Flowers, showcasing soaring guitar and high-flown harmonies, is a prime example. Man On The Moon is a dream idyll to stand beside 10cc’s I’m Mandy Fly Me, and the prog-engendered Barking Up The Right Tree negotiates tricky time signatures with flair and panache.

Forestalling ‘the cabaret has taken over’ refrain on Watching You Out There, Made In Basing Street is polished-to-perfection elegance. And although it lacks the central character that a lead singer might lend, the show of excellence is undeniable.

Late NME, Daily Mirror and Classic Rock writer Gavin Martin started writing about music in 1977 when he published his hand-written fanzine Alternative Ulster in Belfast. He moved to London in 1980 to become the NME’s Media Editor and features writer, where he interviewed the Sex Pistols, Joe Strummer, Pete Townshend, U2, Bruce Springsteen, Ian Dury, Killing Joke, Neil Young, REM, Sting, Marvin Gaye, Leonard Cohen, Nina Simone, James Brown, Willie Nelson, Willie Dixon, Madonna and a host of others. He was also published in The Times, Guardian, Independent, Loaded, GQ and Uncut, he had pieces on Michael Jackson, Van Morrison and Frank Sinatra featured in The Faber Book Of Pop and Rock ’N’ Roll Is Here To Stay, and was the Daily Mirror’s regular music critic from 2001. He died in 2022.