Damn…
He introduced me to
He could write music that would sound to the listeners like they were being bullied, but they kinda liked it and wanted more. MENACING YET INVITING…
He also captured music like a pre digital SLR camera, depth of field, focused only on certain elements, grainy and noisy but with resolution where you want the story to be told. No photoshop post edit fix, honest capture of a moment in time…
Fucn loss
I listened to Big Black for years before finding out
It. Was. A. Drum. Machine.
And a 606 at that.
Massive inspiration to me. Especially in his later years where he displayed contrition and wisdom. Really gutted… he was still puttingout excellent videos etc on his (unfettered) process right to the end. His “I’m an engineer not a producer/ I just record what’s happening as closely to what it sounds like in the room” have resulted in some of the best records ever made.
Edit : I’ve just read some pretty unpleasantness dating back to the eighties.
Enough to make me question. I do stand by his contribution to music though
Beautiful and succinct words.
I just loved the man. Future of music looks even more like utter shit.
Wow, that hurts. RIP
The difference is that Keith Richards can afford yearly trips to Switzerland for blood transfusions.
Life Metal and Pyroclasts sound huge! Just few days ago I was listening it and was amazed by the sound: it truly breaths, it’s alive and hits hard! Albini + Sunn o))) was a dream team… 
Had the chance to see Shellac live once.
The sound of this guy and his ethos as an engineer were uncomparable. The only sound engineer i would recognize the sound of throughout various productions.
Rare enough to precise, as a guitar player he would release the guitar in the back when mixing the albums.
Here’s a scan of a letter he adressed to Nirvana’s members at the time of recording In Utero, if that can be of some interest for some of you:
The letter says he would be expected to get a point and a half, which on projected sales of 3 million would net him $400K, and he considered that too high as a flat fee. I wonder what he did get. In Utero has sold 15 million, so this principled stand cost him almost two million dollars.
Also here:
A good friend of mine posted a photo on Facebook of him playing Scrabble with Albini (his band was recording at Electrical Audio at the time) with the caption “getting Shellac-ed by Steve”.
A true renaissance man.
Surprised to see so much love for him here. Don’t know too much about him, the only time I heard him speak was during some interviews in a documentary where he was speaking of sampling and electronic music in a pretty pejorative way. Don’t remember the words or exact source, but my takeaway was that he seems like an old dude who did great stuff during the heydays of alternative guitar music but looks down on pretty much everything that came afterwards. Just my uneducated first impression of him, feel free to correct that.
Of course still sad he died and feeling with all of you to whom he meant a lot.
Edit: that mail on the billboard posted above kinda reaffirms my impression. I guess I’d even agree with him about what kind of electronic music I like. But just brushing over the whole club scene as “the enemy” and telling the guy that he didn’t even listen to his stuff but calling him the enemy, I don’t know. That sounds like black and white thinking I had as a teenager thinking everything that more than a few people listened to was bullshit mainstream evil stuff. Not a person I’d like to hang out with or look up to I guess.
He can certainly rub people the wrong way. He likes to share his opinion on stuff, in a ott manner. You don’t have to agree with him, and I’m pretty sure he will listen to your opinion (without agreeing). I think he likes a world where people have opinions and share them, and he often did it with wit, so don’t take everything too literally.
Many others in “the business” would’ve either ignored the mail, or demanded some form of payment/contract/licence agreement.
He took the time to respond, and gave him the go-ahead to do whatever he wants. Can’t think of anything more generous than that (sharing his time, and his creative output).
He helped a lot of up and coming artists by making his services affordable. Across all genres. One of his tenets was that if an artist did something in the studio that he didn’t ‘get’ and would consider a mistake for his own music, his first instinct should be to trust that artist and let them express themselves. Something many, many other top producers/engineers could’ve learnt from.
If you approach it as “actions speak louder than words”, he might be more palatable. And definitely you have to keep a sense of humour when listening to or reading some of his words. He often spoke hard truths, sprinkled with lots of humour.
I’d rather deal with someone as confrontational as he was back in the days, at least you know were the person stands. I kind of distrust inclusive behaviour for the sake of it, makes me feel like we live in a world of poor little things. I might be a huge asshole too but who cares ?
Anyway RIP Steve, you will be rembered, here’s one one my favorite of your productions.
Fair enough. Cool that he let them use his material and cool he helped artists early on in their career.
Without knowing the context of his rant on club culture, it sounds like someone having a hot take on something they don’t seem to really know a lot about. I don’t feel like that’s something we have a lack of today. And Elektronauts and the people here embody the opposite spirit, being very open, kind and tolerant without a lack of different opinions.
RIP - 
He was a notorious big mouth. More contrite in middle age. As for music taste, he openly stated that The Ramones were his favourite band of all time. If you could quantify what he cared about in music it would probably be best summed up by the word ‘earnestness’. For instance he thought fellow Chicagoan Billy Corgan was a massive poser.
Living in Chicago through the 80s and not getting into House may seem to some to be a bit of a missed opportunity though. Perhaps he was subconsciously influenced by the Disco Sucks movement which had its home in that same city.
No need to be against Disco to dislike House when you’re an alternative rock aficionado. I come from rock and to be honest I still have a lot of disdain for the House music but it’s more for a mindset and a class opposition rather than for the principle. You can’t really ask a working class person who’s been fan of punk to revere an era where the ego is put in front after pressing the Play button.
Anyway, don’t wanna give into a sterile debate. To each one my own tastes 
