It's interesting to note that our national-producer award usually goes to Brian Eno --a man who specializes in abstract studio tweaking -- while the local award always goes to folks who favor the opposite approach, capturing a live-band sound that makes the producer almost invisible. Nobody in Boston better embodies that style than Mike Denneen, whose recent output includes a hit single (Aimee Mann's "That's Just What You Are," just re-released on her DGC album I'm With Stupid) some as-yet unreleased tracks by Cliffs of Dooneen/Superfly, a pair of recent local standouts (Jennifer Trynin, Letters to Cleo), and a swing into HORDE-land with Guster. Musically diverse as these projects may be, they're all produced to sound like the best possible live gig. But the biggest recent feather in Denneen's cap may be Gravel Pit's Manifesto (Q Division), an album that pulls the best out of a long-promising band -- something that the better-known Jim Dickinson didn't do on Gravel Pit's previous disc. Like the celebrated Fort Apache (whose honchos Sean Slade and Paul Kolderie are runners-up), Denneen's home base, Q Division, has become a local hotbed with a record label to match.

-- Brett Milano