As with "Drums and Wires", "Black Sea" was recorded at Virgin's The Town House studio in London with producer Steve Lillywhite and engineer Hugh Padgham. The team were asked to return for the recording of "Take This Town". Partridge remembered seeing "how Steve and Hugh had progressed" after working with Peter Gabriel and developing their signature gated reverb drum sound: "I think they developed a few interesting new techniques and there was a new toughness to our recordings." By comparison, the experience with Wainman proved unsatisfactory. The original intention was for XTC to produce themselves, but Virgin did not allow them to.