In a testimonial printed in Brooklyn Vegan following his dying, former Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore paid heartfelt tribute to Steve Albini, describing the late musician and report producer as “an authentic visionary, a person alive with the delight of creative impulse.”
Such fulsome reward is completely worthy, for Albini – who tragically handed following a coronary heart assault at his residence in Chicago on Might 7, 2024, aged simply 61 – actually was a singular determine in his subject of experience. Well-known for his caustic wit, Albini was equally famend for his no-nonsense method within the studio. Expressing a lifelong dislike of the time period “producer,” he most well-liked to be credited as “recording engineer” on all his initiatives and he at all times aimed to seize sound in its purest and most unalloyed type.
Because of this, Albini-helmed classes had been legendarily fast and reasonably priced affairs, with albums typically accomplished in only a matter of days. He would report devices on room microphones to seize the pure reverberations of the given area, whereas the usage of analog tools and one-take recordings had been his most well-liked modus operandi. Not like most engineers and/or report producers with comparable mainstream expertise, Albini additionally famously charged a flat price for his providers, refusing royalties and manufacturing factors on a lot of his initiatives. He remained so hands-on in method that he answered the cellphone and dealt straight with all of the bands he labored with at his Electrical Audio studio in Chicago.
Crucially, Albini skilled the music business from either side of the studio glass. Earlier than making his identify as arguably the nice alt-rock producer/engineer of our instances, he was the guitar and vocal frontman with two influential post-punk/proto-industrial bands, whereas his on-going parallel profession fronting self-styled “minimalist rock trio” Shellac lasted for 30 years and yielded acclaimed titles corresponding to 1994’s At Motion Park and 2000’s 1000 Hurts. Finally, although, this “authentic visionary” shall be remembered as considered one of trendy music’s most iconoclastic studio technicians, with a catalog together with a “couple thousand” albums. Listed here are simply 5 that spotlight why Steve Albini was so beloved within the studio.
PJ Harvey: Rid of Me (1993)
Steve Albini’s fame as underground rock’s go-to engineer mushroomed after he helmed landmark late 80s/early 90s releases together with Pixies’ Surfer Rosa and The Breeders’ Pod – which is why PJ Harvey approached him to supervise her second album, Rid Of Me as she believed Albini was “getting sounds unlike other sounds that I’d heard on vinyl.”
Following on from her acclaimed debut Dry, Rid Of Me was Harvey’s main label debut for Island, although the larger funds was largely irrelevant to Albini, who boxed the album off in two weeks, with Harvey and her band – drummer Rob Ellis and bassist Steve Vaughan – capturing the songs within the minimal variety of takes. Albini’s stripped-back method proved excellent for Rid Of Me, which nonetheless went Prime 3 within the U.Ok. regardless of containing a few of Harvey’s most wiry and visceral songs corresponding to “Man-Size,” “50 Ft Queenie,” “Rub ‘Til It Bleeds,” and “Me-Jane.”
“I really wanted that very bare, very real sound,” Harvey mentioned of Albini’s method in an interview with Spin. “I knew that it would suit the songs. It’s like touching real objects or feeling the grain of wood.”
Purchase PJ Harvey’s music on vinyl or CD now.
Nirvana: In Utero (1993)
Albini’s work with the Pixies and The Breeders additionally introduced him to the eye of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, although his band’s standing as arguably the world’s greatest rock band at this level reduce little ice with Albini. Certainly, in keeping with Nirvana biographer Michael Azerrad, Albini felt they had been “the same sort of people as all the small-fry bands I deal with, at the mercy of their record company.”
For that reason, Albini accepted Nirvana’s invitation however – as with Rid Of Me – main label budgets and massive recording complexes by no means entered the equation. As a substitute, Nirvana and Albini retreated to rural Minnesota’s Pachyderm Studios to chop In Utero in below two weeks, with quite a few the completed cuts comprising first takes. This ensured the album had an edgy, barely ragged, however at all times compelling really feel which completely suited risky and typically determined Cobain songs corresponding to “Milk It,” “Scentless Apprentice,” and the mordantly sarcastic “Radio Friendly Unit Shifter.” Albini’s uncooked engineering initially polarized opinion (Geffen even introduced in R.E.M. producer Scott Litt to remix a number of tracks), however In Utero nonetheless offered 15 million copies worldwide and it’s not possible to think about it sounding another approach immediately.
Purchase Nirvana’s music on vinyl or CD now.
Veruca Salt: Blow It Out Your Ass, It’s Veruca Salt (1996)
Named after the spoilt wealthy woman from Roald Dahl’s legendary 1964 youngsters’s e-book, Charlie And The Chocolate Manufacturing facility, spiky, but melodic alt-rock quartet Veruca Salt fashioned in Chicago in 1992, with their music showcasing the songwriting skills of co-founding guitar and vocal duo, Nina Gordon and Louise Publish.
The band made waves with 1994’s American Thighs (that includes the MTV hit “Seether”) after which they bridged the hole to 1997’s Eight Arms To Maintain You with the memorably-titled, Albini-helmed EP Blow It Out Your Ass, It’s Veruca Salt, that includes 4 spirited alt-rock exercises together with Publish’s “I’m Taking Europe With Me” and Gordon’s “Shimmer Like A Girl.” Bob Rock changed Albini within the producer’s chair for Eight Arms To Maintain You, however the band’s liaison with Albini nonetheless proved memorable.
“Those of us who were lucky enough to call [Steve] a friend knew that he was incredibly sweet, sensitive and generous,” the band wrote in a tribute to Albini in The Line Of Finest Match following his dying. “He was funny, smart as hell, an excellent cook and a fiercely loyal defender of the people he loved.”
Hearken to Blow It Out Your Ass, It’s Veruca Salt now.
Bush: Razorblade Suitcase (1996)
Bush’s 1994 debut album Sixteen Stone was an enormous success in North America, however the U.Ok. quartet initially lacked the credibility of the likes of established alt-rock acts corresponding to Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam. Eager to place that proper, Gavin Rossdale and firm employed Albini to supervise Sixteen Tons’ follow-up Razorblade Suitcase which got here collectively throughout classes at London’s Abbey Highway Studios.
In a fashion much like Nirvana’s In Utero, Razorblade Suitcase was significantly extra visceral than its predecessor, but its much less polished really feel suited Rossdale’s angst-ridden songs and it grew to become an enormous success within the States, topping the charts on the again of its ferocious lead single “Swallowed.”
Razorblade Suitcase additionally succeeded in profitable Bush some goodwill from the press, a number of of whom referred to the album because the final main “grunge” album of the Nineteen Nineties. Albini additional shocked the critics by roundly endorsing the band’s music and telling Spin that “I’ve put more time and energy on this record than any record I’ve done and you can’t work on something for that long if it doesn’t have resonance for you.”
Hearken to Razorblade Suitcase now.
Jimmy Web page & Robert Plant: Strolling Into Clarksdale (1998)
With out understanding the again story, you would possibly moderately assume that Albini was overwhelmed by an invite to work with former Led Zeppelin legends Jimmy Web page and Robert Plant on their much-lauded reunion album Strolling Into Clarksdale. Nevertheless, as Albini later revealed, their collaboration didn’t come about as a result of he was a starry-eyed Led Zeppelin fan. Certainly, it was his no-nonsense method which gained Albini the gig.
“I could flatter myself and think they wanted to record with a hip producer,” Albini instructed Basic Rock. “But I don’t think of myself as being particularly hip. Their recording method is very matter of fact, very old school and there are very few people making records that way anymore. And the fact that’s also my preferred way of working I think appealed to them. They weren’t trying to make a contemporary record at all.”
Nonetheless, Albini’s sparse manufacturing added a up to date edge to Strolling Into Clarksdale regardless. Songs such because the gnarly, jagged “Sons Of Freedom,” the offended “Burning Up” and the Nirvana-esque quiet-loud dynamics of “Blue Train” sounded bang on development within the late 90s and the report’s edgy, in-the-moment really feel mirrored Plant’s needs that Strolling Into Clarksdale sound trendy sufficient that it will enable him and Web page to “be measured by what happened two hours ago than what happened 25 years ago.”
