It’s a sharp and sudden loss for the world of music, as the massively influential producer Steve Albini has been pronounced dead at 61. The California-born Albini came up through the ranks in the 1980s; first as guitarist and vocalist for Big Black (who formed in 1981 and split right around the release of their second and final album Songs About Fucking in 1987); and later for Shellac, formed in 1992.

By then, of course, Albini had begun making a name for himself in music—as a producer. Early credits included the likes of Slint, The Jesus Lizard, Failure and an early version of In On The Kill Taker by Fugazi. It was arguably his work on the debut Pixies album Surfer Rosa that would create a new blueprint for alternative rock as it crashed into the 1990s; that album lit the fuse that resulted in the explosion of grunge, swept along by Albini’s analog-only recording ethos. ‘Fuck digital’, he proclaimed on the back cover of Songs About Fucking, and it was so.

That uncompromising approach landed him the production duties on Nirvana’s label-scaring final album In Utero – the finished product bore little relation to the work he put in, but there’s a reason why that album’s one of the first to come to mind when talking about Albini production. From there, his name became synonymous with a harsh and abrasive approach, typified by the music with which he had become associated by the mid-90s; yet he could work such different magic with, for example, PJ Harvey, Low or Songs: Ohia.

That’s to say nothing of Shellac themselves, a towering noise-rock unit who have, in their turn, been massively influential in the wake of the 1990s and leaving their stamp on math rock & related subgenres. It was them, Slint and Don Caballero—and Albini bears the distinction of having worked with all three bands over the course of his career—who would go on to shape large sections of the math rock/post rock scenes worldwide.  That influence can be felt in his work with, say, Japanese instrumental luminaries MONO; he could frequently be seen behind the boards working on their records since 2004. Their cinematic sound may seem at odds with Albini’s reputation, but he’d put in the work by then, with cosigns from Mogwai and the famously confrontational Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

Famed for his traditionalist methods, Albini was heralded as ‘the best damn audio engineer in the world’ by Steve Von Till of Neurosis, and handled everything from his studio at Electrical Audio in Chicago. More recently, he worked with black midi, Liturgy and Code Orange, not to mention that Shellac were due to release their first album in a decade, entitled To All Trains, next week.

It’s worth playing an Albini-produced album as loud as you possibly can today—the man played his part in creating some damn good noise. May he rest in peace.

words and thoughts of Gareth O’Malley

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