otm
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 30 November 2020 22:01 (three years ago) link
rather than that, post something produced by anyone else that sounds like albini
This is a really good question! The first thing that pops to mind is, I dunno, Led Zeppelin or something, but those albums sound so much better than his, even 50 years later. Then again, those albums sound better than almost anyone's albums, too.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 30 November 2020 22:05 (three years ago) link
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, 30 November 2020 22:34 (three years ago) link
close but the guitars aren't quite there imo
― imago, Monday, 30 November 2020 22:41 (three years ago) link
I always thought Jawbreaker's Bivouac sounded more stereotypically "albini-sound" (big thundering drums, loud guitars, low vocals) than 24-hour (and also that 24-hour sounded awful),but the official engineer for that record is Albini's cat.
― Philip Nunez, Monday, 30 November 2020 23:04 (three years ago) link
post something produced by anyone else that sounds like albini
― assert (MatthewK), Monday, 30 November 2020 23:11 (three years ago) link
Tim Mac who did a lot of Amphetamine Reptile stuff like Cows, Halo of Flies, Janitor Joe, Babes in Toyland was similar to the classic Albini Jesus Lizard zone but not nearly as good
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 30 November 2020 23:33 (three years ago) link
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, 30 November 2020 23:37 (three years ago) link
That is an excellent example of a precursor to the Albini drum sound and close enough for me on all other fronts.
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Monday, 30 November 2020 23:56 (three years ago) link
TechnicalBen Fenner – engineer
― imago, Tuesday, 1 December 2020 00:04 (three years ago) link
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/benfenner
quite the cv
― imago, Tuesday, 1 December 2020 00:07 (three years ago) link
Just looked him up — he worked with Bowie on Outside, did a bunch of things with Steve Hackett...and was an (the?) engineer on Elvis Costello’s All This Useless Beauty. It’s all a rich tapestry.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 1 December 2020 00:11 (three years ago) link
Not very Albini-esque artists necessarily! But I found an interview where he talks about the need for clarity in sound so there's something shared there
― imago, Tuesday, 1 December 2020 00:15 (three years ago) link
in Spin mag in 1986, the mag's first piece re: Big Black, which was by John Leland, contained a jeremiad from SA re: "horrible beatbox rap." it may not evince racism qua racism, but Albini very clearly has a view of music in which anything straying from punk/hardcore/amerindie practices is pandering, false crap…it was very commonplace for me to encounter attitudes in the albini-adjacent Louisville scene that any african american popular music was false show biz shit antithetical to true punk-rock purism…
― veronica moser, Tuesday, 1 December 2020 00:32 (three years ago) link
@ imago, I LOVE that song you posted-- that, to me, is Albini's production in its best context
I generally think Albini is "the best person for the job" for only about 20% of the albums he's worked on. Nina Nastasia is, to my mind, not in that 20%, not that it's bad, but I don't think it's the right union. PJ Harvey might not be, either, but I'm really glad they made that one record together (and am glad they haven't worked together again). He's "the best" for Jesus Lizard and Neurosis and Cheer Accident, no question. On the Taylor Swift thread, somebody was theorizing about a her recording with Albini and I cannot imagine that'd result in anything positive.
― flamboyant goon tie included, Tuesday, 1 December 2020 01:14 (three years ago) link
I don't know how Nina's records could be any betterhe obviously makes her comfortable making music which is more important than anything production wise, though I think the production is perfect too
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 1 December 2020 01:28 (three years ago) link
He's "the best" for Jesus Lizard and Neurosis and Cheer Accident, no question
emboldened, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and add GY!BE to this
― imago, Tuesday, 1 December 2020 01:29 (three years ago) link
xp yeah count me in as a fan of the sound of those Nastasia records, in particular the one w/Jim White
― howls of non-specificity (sleeve), Tuesday, 1 December 2020 01:33 (three years ago) link
I’m not sure it has the typical Albini-sound, but I’ve always loved the engineering/production for Magnolia Electric Co.. I think he’s mentioned wanting to work with Neil Young and I always use that album as a reference for what I’d imagine would come out of recording Neil.
― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Tuesday, 1 December 2020 01:44 (three years ago) link
I think it's funny that Led Zeppelin was put up as a counterpoint because Albini produced a Page and Plant album and it sounded good, but also wouldn't be mistaken for Zep.
― Mr. Cacciatore (Moodles), Tuesday, 1 December 2020 01:46 (three years ago) link
It's actually his production for Harvey, Nastasia, Breeders, Electrelane and Esben & the Witch that I like the best of his work, more than the Lizardy stuff. (Four or five records among my fav of all time in there). I like hearing some croak and grain in those singers' voices, at odds with the way those singing registers and melodies are usually captured. As I said on some other thread, I'd love to hear him record La Luz. Along those lines, Goat Girl do sound like they've already recorded with him
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlnkyZnqIZg
Producer, I think, was Dan Carey
Blessed Black Wings is fantastic, and I wish more metal was recorded that way, but I'm also glad they never worked together again.
― Julius Caesar Memento Hoodie (bendy), Tuesday, 1 December 2020 01:54 (three years ago) link
also just wanna say extremely good call on "Destroyer", I could immediately recall the drum sound and it totally makes sense
― howls of non-specificity (sleeve), Tuesday, 1 December 2020 01:57 (three years ago) link
O God yeah Axes is so good both as an art-rock album and production-wise
― imago, Tuesday, 1 December 2020 02:01 (three years ago) link
I’m not sure it has the typical Albini-sound, but I’ve always loved the engineering/production for _Magnolia Electric Co._. I think he’s mentioned wanting to work with Neil Young and I always use that album as a reference for what I’d imagine would come out of recording Neil.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 1 December 2020 02:03 (three years ago) link
Albany
― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 1 December 2020 02:26 (three years ago) link
end transmission off magnolia electric co is godlikeI believe albini just started recording that take when the band thought they were doing a rehearsal take
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 1 December 2020 02:36 (three years ago) link
silkworm is probably his best musical relationship
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 1 December 2020 02:38 (three years ago) link
Wow the sound on the Kinks song
― actually-very-convincing (Sund4r), Tuesday, 1 December 2020 02:55 (three years ago) link
Hunh, it just occurred to me that that Kinks song was one of the first hard rock songs on the radio that really got me.
― Julius Caesar Memento Hoodie (bendy), Tuesday, 1 December 2020 03:10 (three years ago) link
would you say it really got you now
― early-Woolf semantic prosody (Hadrian VIII), Tuesday, 1 December 2020 03:18 (three years ago) link
Cheer-Accident track v cool.
― actually-very-convincing (Sund4r), Tuesday, 1 December 2020 03:22 (three years ago) link
I hate youtube quality but listening to a very familiar song (to me) that he re-recorded you can immediately identify his "sound":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Es-bGRYkj4
(please someone post a better quality version of this if possible)
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Tuesday, 1 December 2020 03:33 (three years ago) link
been following this thread all day and can't come up with anything to say other than imagine having 30+ years of evidence in front of you and arguing that steve albini isn't good at making records
― call all destroyer, Tuesday, 1 December 2020 03:34 (three years ago) link
I didn’t hear much difference between high on fire records which brings up the idea that maybe we’ve got this backwards — albini isn’t the extravagant one you get that bargain producers could easily emulate, but rather albini is the bargain producer you get instead of some other big shot.
― Philip Nunez, Tuesday, 1 December 2020 03:39 (three years ago) link
I don't know if anyone is really arguing that Steve Albini is not good at making records. It's telling that as far as I can tell "Rid of Me" is the only work in that 30+ year career that some people second guess. It's just a particularly high profile exception. He does, however, generally have a sound, and that sound is not good for every project, which is probably true for many producers.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 1 December 2020 03:59 (three years ago) link
electrical audio/albini super cheap for a world class studio
https://electricalaudio.com/booking-rates
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 1 December 2020 04:04 (three years ago) link
I don't know if anyone is really arguing that Steve Albini is not good at making records.
Elvis Costello seems to be.
― actually-very-convincing (Sund4r), Tuesday, 1 December 2020 04:06 (three years ago) link
I love veronica moser (seriously one of my favorite posters on here) but his whole "racism qua racism" jab thrown at Albini, bearing in mind the reason for this revive is a quote from Elvis Costello, someone on record saying perhaps the most vile racist shit you can possibly conjure in regard to James Brown & Ray Charles... to me just sitting there like a monstrous elephant in the room.
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Tuesday, 1 December 2020 04:20 (three years ago) link
(sincere apologies if I've misgendered veronica moser as well)
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Tuesday, 1 December 2020 04:23 (three years ago) link
it's just funny that i feel like every so often this discussion comes up and we have to re-litigate the facts--steve worked on "spiderland," steve worked on the nina nastasia records, steve worked on magnolia electric co., steve worked on "rid of me," steve worked on almost the entire skwm discography, steve worked on all the joanna newsom stuff, steve worked on 50 great-sounding records you've never heard before--so we can shed the criticism of a cranky boomer like elvis costello.
― call all destroyer, Tuesday, 1 December 2020 04:26 (three years ago) link
Al is it possible that two nerdy rockist white dudes might both be racist even if they disagree with each other about some unrelated shit
― Left, Tuesday, 1 December 2020 04:30 (three years ago) link
xpost For sure. But Costello's specific cranky boomer criticism - re: Rid of Me - just happens to be the most commonly made across the board (studio pun!) criticism of Albini.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 1 December 2020 04:33 (three years ago) link
What was his specific criticism? All I got was "it sounds like shit" and "that guy doesn't know anything about production".
― actually-very-convincing (Sund4r), Tuesday, 1 December 2020 04:41 (three years ago) link
yeah i've never been clear on the specific issue people have with "rid of me" which in general sounds like steve alibini recording a power trio
― call all destroyer, Tuesday, 1 December 2020 04:44 (three years ago) link
xpost Just meant re that specific album. I can only assume Costello, like most people, at most only knows Albini's most high profile projects, one of which in this case just happened to be with an artist Costello really likes, who he thinks was done a disservice by the production, which is not a unique thought. I think the general criticism is that the trademark Albini Wall of Womph sort of steamrolls over PJs songs. Which was totally her call to make. I honestly find criticism of the album a little overblown, even my own, but there's little question it was designed to be a confrontational.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 1 December 2020 04:50 (three years ago) link
This Year's Model sounds a bit albiniesque — spare, a lot of drum detail.
― Philip Nunez, Tuesday, 1 December 2020 04:50 (three years ago) link
But bright! I'm kind of fascinated by Nick Lowe as producer. That's how he got the nickname 'basher," because he would just bash things out.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 1 December 2020 04:52 (three years ago) link
yeah rid of me is good not bad. elvis costello here is, as has been the case once or twice in the past, wrong about what constitutes good production for a rock and roll record
― turn the jawhatthefuckever on (One Eye Open), Tuesday, 1 December 2020 04:57 (three years ago) link
fwiw i was not arguing that albini is a bad producer upthread, hes clearly got a stack of classics to stand on. just that he clearly works with a certain number of bands obviously that dont ask very much of him, and hes happy to oblige. Which, whatever, great, everybody gets what they want, he always talks about what a journeyman he is. I dont think its a challop to confess that yes I've heard a large number of mediocre records over the last several decades that i wouldnt have guessed were albini joints if i hadnt seen his name on the sleeve. he has access to a great and unique sound, but i also dont think that he unmistakably imbues it into every record that he hits record on.
― turn the jawhatthefuckever on (One Eye Open), Tuesday, 1 December 2020 05:04 (three years ago) link
re:racial stuff its not even up for debate that albini is a longtime habitual user of certain words that are not ok in polite company, both in "ironic badboy" context and "i was just quoting what that rapper said" context, up to the present day
― turn the jawhatthefuckever on (One Eye Open), Tuesday, 1 December 2020 05:10 (three years ago) link