| wwittman wrote on Thu, 26 July 2007 19:45 |
| RSettee wrote on Mon, 23 July 2007 00:30 |
..., as much as he really just stays out of the way. As far as i've been told and what he's said, he leaves alot of the fussing up to the band and just records them....
I do believe that he's admitted that he has a certain sonic imprint, though he really just goes in and gives bands what they want, rather than some producer suggesting alot of things. ...
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yeah. doesn't it SUCK when the producer actually tries to HELP the band?
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Haha, yes! Seriously though, his approach seems to cater to the underground/ indie mentality of leaving things as sparse and "live" sounding as possible (this being ironic, because Albini is a huge Zep fan, and you'd assume him to have an elitist attitude towards them). I wouldn't recommend his approach for every band--Butch Vig is a much better choice, he usually gets the most commercially out of bands, while retaining their edge, but then again, those bands are after that from him. I could swear that Vig got Albini on Chainsaw Kittens' "Flipped Out In Singapore"....
Getting back to the general discussion, the first record that Albini worked on that created a big buzz (he worked on records previous), was the Pixies stuff. Bands went after him to sound like that, and in Steve's case, he often had bands that were doing a similar style, musically (ie: the whole Scratch Acid, Rapeman, Jesus Lizard, and Urge Overkill--yes i'm serious! They used to be an abrasive artpunk noise act for the first 5 years of their existence, which Albini recorded them on). So in fairness, he often had bands that were using the same gear, playing the same way, looking for the same techniques that he got on certain records--you know, and the next band trying to be the Pixies, etc.
In fairness to Steve, he works mostly with rock bands, and let's face it, alot of people play through the same equipment, the same Marshall equipment, same Big Muff pedals etc. So it's kind of hard to capture a band's "unique sound" when they're using the same equipment (you could say the same about Jack Endino...half the bands he was working with were using Big Muffs, like Mudhoney, early Nirvana, Nebula, Fluid, etc...so alot of them end up sounding the same, tonally).
Really, honestly check out Dirty Three's "Ocean Songs". You simply
need to hear that in order to realize what i'm talking about. Steve captured the space on that record beautifully. It's arguably one of the most defining "audiophile" recordings that I own, and I use it to test out the limits and accuracy of stereos. It's a a beautiful, cathartic album that truly captures a sense of space in the recording. I'll try to post a track of the album somewhere so that it can be heard. I'd say that's his most underrated album--I don't usually hear people recommending it. There's tons of peaks and valleys and dynamic and room sound on it. When he's not working with bands that have the same equipment, he can really expand, IMHO.
Aren't the bricks in Steve's studio worth something insane to buy them? It's some rare terracotta or something. Though he's done some inferior sessions, I always respect what he's doing in theory, because he always tends to aim for something more, with the tons of mics that he uses, to the bricks, to the rooms, theory, etc.
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Topic: I just (tried) to make a record with Steve Albini (Read 53873 times)