Steve Albini and Bill Laswell: Artists ya sorta have to respect but aren't sure why

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So I was just thinking that Steve Albini and Bill Laswell are both people who I respect, but I can't really figure out why given the regularly poor quality of the work they attach their names to. They're both what you might call "brands" whose names identify an album as representing certain characteristics - Laswell arty spacey dub jazz fusion; Albini raw uncompromised art-punk or something. But do they deserve their heavyweight status???

― DaveQ, Wednesday, 1 December 2004 18:50 (twenty-one years ago)

i like how albini makes things sound. mostly. ya gotta really like that drum sound he get though, cuz it's on almost everything. laswell i can take or leave. he has worked with a lot of people i like, but....yeah, i wouldn't call him a heavyweight.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 18:54 (twenty-one years ago)

and i KNOW why i respect big black. they were friggin' great.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 18:55 (twenty-one years ago)

i can live without rapeman. in fact i do every day. bought them when they came out and got rid of them over the years. i like the first and last shellac a lot. and the first two singles. i like how loud he makes things cuz i like loud things.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 18:56 (twenty-one years ago)

he's a good fit for neurosis too. even though i think gira would be just as good a fit and maybe even a better fit.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 18:58 (twenty-one years ago)

ive probably owned at least 50 records with laswell's name on them somewhere and none of them are faves of mine. (i do like the swans record he produced but i don't know how much of that was him and there are things to not like about the sound of that album and i always just blindly blame him for that.the songs are good and i kinda wish there was an alternate gira mix of it somewhere. the brit import singles i have from that album sound waaaaaaay better than the uni vinyl. i blame uni a bit for the not-great sound. they made their records on the cheap as anyone who has listened to a rap record on that label in the 80's will tell you. it's the only swans record that doesn't sound as good as every other swans record.)(i also love thejungle brothers album that he had a hand in making, but i don't know how much of the stuff he had a hand in actually ended up on the album! it's a mystery to me. i liked that one loud praxis album. it introduced me to da buckethead. and that one sly & robbie album that i think he was invloved with. a lot of his 80's stuff sounds kinda dated now.)

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 19:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I have everything by Pain Killer on my iPod, and three Last Exit albums (the s/t debut, Koln and Headfirst Into The Flames). Oh, and Panthalassa. Most of Laswell's stuff is a big fat waste of time, though.

I did like his production on Iggy's Instinct. I should pick that up on CD one of these days.

― pdf (Phil Freeman), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 19:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Ahhhh, Praxis!!!
Good one indeed. I guess Laswell does have a gift for orchestrating interesting collaborations... Apparently he has something in the works with the DnB producer Paradox. The strange thing is despite all the crappy albums he has produced, great musicians continue to get on board with his new projects. The Laswell-Herbie Hancock collabo from a couple years ago was complete crap!

― DaveQ, Wednesday, 1 December 2004 19:17 (twenty-one years ago)

PiL — Album/Cassette/Compact Disc. Possibly the best thing Big Bill has ever done. I've been meaning to a C/D on that one of these days...

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 19:24 (twenty-one years ago)

There's a long-standing superstition in indie-rock circles that having your album produced by Albini is the kiss of death for your band :)

― DaveQ (daveq), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 19:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Wouldn't that trigger the anti-cool/cool indie clause, though — rendering something awful ultrahip?

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 19:39 (twenty-one years ago)

I respect Steve Albini because he's so wrong that he's right. My approach to recording couldn't be more different than his, and his "The Problem With Music" essay has become an irritating meme, but he's so defiantly outspoken that I have to hand it to him.

― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 19:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh yeah, that PIL album. I forgot about that. I liked it when it came out, but i haven't heard it in years. betcha it sounds a little dated. those songs are cool though.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 19:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Laswell isn't as vocal as Albini is, or used to be, but Laswell's influence on pop and underground music in the early to mid 80s is quite grand.. up there with Arthur Baker and Jam & Lewis.
From Time Zone to Painkiller.. etc.

Albini is a smart, sweet guy who still gets held to the standards of his crabbier late 80s memes and quotes, unfortunately. He admits he has a very limited idea of what he considers "good" music, but he is indeed very good as a recording engineer, as far as the technical goes (his aesthetic approach is subjective, of course.) He's someone who's very happy working within the limitations/ethics he sets for himself, because he believes they work the best for him. He's actually quite anti-RIAA and argues that attempts to stop filesharing is fruitless and stupidly naive, despite him making part of his income out of Shellac (or at least used to.)

Define "luminary" however you want, but I can see why both Laswell and Albini would qualify in the minds of many music enthusiasts.

― donut christ (donut), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 20:21 (twenty-one years ago)

In their eyes they are so very, very important and there are those that believe them. That is why they get respect from people.

― nowhere, Wednesday, 1 December 2004 21:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Bill Laswell's legacy I think suffers from his RELEASE EVERY PROJECT stance. For every Transmutation-level awesome thing he manages to slap his name onto, there's at least like ten Hakim Bey albums.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 21:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I met Steve Albini once and he was super nice and super polite. I (very dorkily) gave him my old band's CD and he said thanks and put it in his pocket and didn't make me feel like a dick about it.

I actually do enjoy Shellac a great deal.

Donut Christ 1000% OTM.

Also, I think the charge that all Albini's recordings sound the same is pretty much bullshit....Listen to Low and then Neurosis and then Jesus Lizard and then Nina Natasia......he's definitely got a defined recording aesthetic that some people might not like (ie capturing the sound of a band in a room) but I think his reputation as someone that bullies people into making these horrid noise albums is fiction that came as a result of the whole In Utero thing....

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 21:42 (twenty-one years ago)

plus Albini maintains a what is by all reports a very nice, professional grade, and well maintained studio that still has rates that are fairly accessible for small time bands, which is something to celebrate.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 21:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I like the sound Lasswell gets, though a lot of his projects sound the same. (Search Material's Memory Serves or Mutatis Mutandis by Praxis). Albini I can take or leave. He's worked with some people I like...wouldn't call him a heavyweight.

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 21:47 (twenty-one years ago)

"wouldn't call him a heavyweight."

as an artist i would. as far as the influence he had on stuff that came after him. i don't know who laswell has inspired as a musician.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 21:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I think a more interesting pairing for this thread would be Bill Laswell and Rick Rubin.

― donut christ (donut), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 21:53 (twenty-one years ago)

and just because i don't know who he has influenced doesn't mean tha6 there aren't plenty of people who have been. probably lots of jazzy improv people i've never heard of.

but lots of stuff i've listened to since i first heard big black owes something to albini. it's a long list. i'll spare everyone. and i guess that makes him a heavyweight in my noisey universe.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 21:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Alternately, Steve Albini and Steve Fisk.

― donut christ (donut), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 21:54 (twenty-one years ago)

mabe dave already knows why he respects rick rubin. i know why i do. lots of reasons. johnny cash not being one of them.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 21:55 (twenty-one years ago)

(several x posts later)
well Laswell has played with a lot of great musicians, don't know how inspiring the experience was for them. sure, Albini has probably influenced a bunch of young indie rock bands that I don't care about (showing my age again). But I liked the original point -- there 's something sort of austere and generic about both their work.

― lovebug starski (lovebug starski), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 21:59 (twenty-one years ago)

fuckin' hell, i forgot all about Orgasmatron!!! I used to love that thing. okay, i respect him for that. that record is nuts, production-wise.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 22:02 (twenty-one years ago)

I never completely 'got' Big Black and assumed they had lapsed into semi-relevance. Sounds like I'm wrong (again).

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 22:04 (twenty-one years ago)

austere i will go with, lovebug. but i don't think there is anything generic about big black. and they influenced young metal, industrial, punk, noise, AND indie rock bands.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 22:05 (twenty-one years ago)

well, i don't know who listens to big black today. certainly bands now are big on shellac though.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 22:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I meant there was something generic about Albini's production style. Not generic like Celine Dion, generic like he does the same thing w/ everybody. Even not liking Big Black that much I can tell Albini's power-tools guitar tone is unique (if nothing else). Laswell is way less influential as a performer/recording artist in his own right.

You're right, damn it!

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 22:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Laswell deserves mad respect for producing that Master Musicians of Jajouka cd.

― Felonious Drunk (Felcher), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 22:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I often get the sense that the people with the biggest preconceptions about Albini's production style and personality, etc are often the ones that have not actually heard that many records that Steve Albini has been involved with.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 22:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I probably haven't heard enough of his things, but so far I am usually able to safely assume that if Bill Laswell's name is on something, I will like it. (The Swans album may be the one exception.) He's had a hand in some recordings I consider totally essential - Ask the Ages, Massacre's Funny Valentine, and some really good ones - Tabla Beat Science, "Rockit" (Hancock), Psychonavigation.

Albini has his thing and does it. It's not really my thing per se and I don't concern myself too much with him one way or the other. He does fine for himself as far as I can tell. (And he's certainly technically masterful as an engineer.) I like the Nirvana, PJ Harvey, and GYBE, and to a lesser extent Neurosis records he produced. I don't know how much of my liking has to do with anything he did but he didn't do any damage for sure.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 22:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Forgot about Ask the Ages! For that alone...he also had a hand in some interesting 12 inch singles on Celluloid. And Sly & Robbie's Rhythm Killers (a Lasswell project in all but name) is classic.

― lovebug starski (lovebug starski), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 22:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Albini made the best damn Gore and Head of David records of their respective careers, dammit.

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 22:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Both supplied world class recording studios to musicians who hadn't traditionally had access to world class recording studios, and so got famous.

I like Laswell the bass player better than Laswell the producer; the other way around for Albini.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 22:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Laswell produced the Getovetts record. i love that thing.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 22:45 (twenty-one years ago)

okay, so this thread has made me remember things that laswell has done that i really liked. PIL, MOtorhead, Getovetts, Rhythm Killers.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 22:46 (twenty-one years ago)

My sentiments are the reverse of Colin's but he makes an excellent point about the studio thing. The comparison is apt, in a weird way.

― lovebug starski (lovebug starski), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 22:51 (twenty-one years ago)

bill's problem is that he does way way too much stuff so it starts to sound like an assembly line. never enuf time between projects to focus on one thing - he usually has 5-6 albums he's producing simultaneously while playing on others.

that said, the Gigi album "Gigi" he produced is one of the best Ethiopian albums (if not the best) of the last 20-25 years. (and Laswell is a great bass player)

While I can many tmes be unexcited abt his work I'm interested while albini just leaves me cold.

― H (Heruy), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 22:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Funny, I always used to be under the impression that Albini's productions tended to sound really cold and clinical, and pretentiously hid the vocals under some useless and immobile (though nonetheless impressive *sized*, on paper at least) idea of a "great guitar sound" or whatever; it also always bugged me how he'd creepily make the productions get loud and quiet for no emotional reason I could fathom. I still find that second PJ Harvey album completely unlistenable, and I will believe that until I die. But in the last couple years, I've noticed myself LOVING stuff he's done for bands I never heard of before -- Cordelia's Dad, Living Things, Red Swan. These are some of my favorite guitar-band records of the 2000s. So go figure. I don't know whether my ears have changed, or his ears have changed, or what. I was a pretty huge Big Black fan, too; never had any use for Rapeman or Shellac, but still. And I've liked stuff that Laswell (who can be even *more* clinical and cold, now that I think of it) has done all the way back to those early Material albums. They both have lots of records on my shelves. Which counts for something.

― chuck, Wednesday, 1 December 2004 23:04 (twenty-one years ago)

And oh yeah, I love Albini's Neurosis stuff, too. And Celluloid was probably one of the best forgotten indie labels of the early '80s.

― chuck, Wednesday, 1 December 2004 23:06 (twenty-one years ago)

This thread has been very interesting. Nothing much to add, except I love that whisper-to-a-scream volume dynamic on the first (title?)track of Rid of Me, and I well remember the micro-challenge of transferring it from CD to cassette and watching the needle hang out near absolute zero, then jump well into the red and finally return again to its initial near motionless position on the left. I increased by some powers of ten the magnitude of my tiny technical achievement to estimate his and thought "Man, this guy really knows what to do with this newfangled technology!"

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 23:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Chuck, what did you think of Orgasmatron when it came out? I thought the sound of the title track was truly inspiring at the time. I remember the IDEA of Laswell working with Motorhead was exciting to me at the time for some reason.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 23:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I put Orgasmatron in my top ten (around #5 I think), and gave it a rave review in Creem Metal, so I must have loved it then. (And the next year, or a couple years later maybe, I voted for albums by both Sonny Sharrock and Ronald Shannon Jackson, which Laswell may or may not have been involved with, not to mention the debut mini LP by White Zombie, who he would become involved with a year after that.)

― chuck, Wednesday, 1 December 2004 23:30 (twenty-one years ago)

I heard Orgasmatron for the first time a year or so ago and it sounded awesome. I think you guys would still like it.

― miccio (miccio), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 23:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Sonny Sharrock
Did he produce Ask The AGES?? Damn, that Laswell boy is good.

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 23:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh yeah -- I forgot all about Make Them Die Slowly -- that's a great record!! My favorite White Zombie rec. Another point for Laswell.

Also come to think of it, Supersonic Storybook is my favorite Urge Overkill record and Albini did that one.

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 23:45 (twenty-one years ago)

they have both produced their share of good ones. i don't have chuck's problem with the pj harvey album. i found her passive-aggressive 4-track demo thing to be the unlistenable one.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 1 December 2004 23:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Damn, I realized these guys were both prolific, but the responses have introduced me to some new stuff to look for, and also identified some things that I had no idea they were involved with. I gotta say, maybe a part of the reason I respect these guys despite not truly loving very much of their work is that they work so damn hard and seem to be genuinely devoted to making music knowing that almost nobody will be able to keep up with all of it.

― DaveQ (daveq), Thursday, 2 December 2004 00:10 (twenty-one years ago)

btw, from way up thread - sundar, have you listened to the Tabla Beat Science live album? much better than the studio one.

― H (Heruy), Thursday, 2 December 2004 00:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I've only heard the live one actually.

Maybe what's most remarkable about Albini is that he's managed to synthesize the intuitively opposed concepts of obsessively anal-retentive techy audiophilia and of 'raw' back-to-the-basics garage band guitar noise. Which is pretty cool now that I think about it. I'm starting to like him more.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Thursday, 2 December 2004 01:11 (twenty-one years ago)

i love steve albini's stuff.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Thursday, 2 December 2004 01:22 (twenty-one years ago)

and i KNOW why i respect big black. they were friggin' great.
-- scott seward (skotro...), December 1st, 2004.

O. T. M.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Thursday, 2 December 2004 01:33 (twenty-one years ago)

>>Even not liking Big Black that much I can tell Albini's power-tools guitar tone is unique (if nothing else).

Big Black were amazing, but Albini should write Andy Gill a check every time he straps on a guitar (and I bet he'd say as much, if asked).

― pdf (Phil Freeman), Thursday, 2 December 2004 01:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Albini produced Nirvana 'In Utero,' no?.. Which stands out in my mind for an odd quirk somewhere in the liner notes: A note instructing the listener how to set the EQ's for optimal listening... with said note requesting turning the bass down. That runs counter to my preferred sonic palette, but I remember it actually making a big difference in the album's sound. Anyway,..

― DaveQ (daveq), Thursday, 2 December 2004 03:26 (twenty-one years ago)

the first time i really noticed albini's production was on the breeders' pod, which unless my ears have changed in several years, is a great and terrifically-produced album!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 2 December 2004 04:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Albini produced Bill Rieflin's drum tracks on Nine Inch Nail's The Fragile! huh, i don't think i knew that. i just read it on the interweb. yeah, i love tons of stuff he has produced. surfer rosa, jesus lizard, pod is great. zeni geva. lots of stuff.

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 2 December 2004 04:15 (twenty-one years ago)

>Albini produced Nirvana 'In Utero,' no?.. Which stands out in my mind for an odd quirk somewhere in the liner notes: A note instructing the listener how to set the EQ's for optimal listening... with said note requesting turning the bass down.<

Oh yeah, and in his guide to metal albums, Martin Popoff (who loves In Utero regardless) asks how come, instead of telling us what stereo settings to use, Albini didn't just set the damn controls right in the first place! (Except it was funnier the way Martin said it.) Peronally I always thought that In Utero's two best songs were the two hits, though -- the only ones Albini DIDN'T produce, I believe.

― chuck, Thursday, 2 December 2004 17:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I do like Zeni Geva, though. Forgot all about them.

― chuck, Thursday, 2 December 2004 17:18 (twenty-one years ago)

turning the bass down
set the damn controls right in the first place
An interesting question since Buck Owens, as an example, did exactly that according to the man himself in a documentary aired on Trio last night.

Perhaps there is some little technical secret involved. Hopefully someone here will enlighten us.

― Ken L (Ken L), Thursday, 2 December 2004 17:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh yeah -- I watched that documentary last night too; just stumbled upon it randomly. It was pretty cool. It was cool to see the Flying Burritos performance footage. I had never seen any live-action Gram Parsons stuff before.

Did you keep watching afterwards, through the old Letterman show stuff they aired? I had completely forgotten how the old Letterman show used to open up with this big camera swoop that takes you up to the Trade Centers towers and INSIDE one and through the other side. God, seeing that was ... unsettling.

Um, anyway, yeah Zeni Geva were great! I was gonna mention them too but I figured I'd shot my obscurantist wad for one post with Gore. But yeah, actually if I had to think of two bands whose whole presentation and sound really shared an affinity with and benefited from Albini's recording methods, it's Jesus Lizard and Zeni Geva. I know he did the 2nd and 3rd records ... did he do the first as well? Maximum Money Monster? I can't remember. I never owned it. I remember that it had a really cool 16 minute track on it though.

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Thursday, 2 December 2004 17:39 (twenty-one years ago)

I had that Gore double album, I think it was called Wrede. Green cover right? Quite monolithic instrumental stuff, I think I might actually enjoy it more now. Beside a lot of stuff that's already been mentioned, I liked Albini's work with the Dirty Three and also Melt Banana. I know I'm forgetting a lot of other stuff too. And Surfer Rosa was the only Pixies record I kept, and that was mostly cos of the sound of the thing.

― NickB (NickB), Thursday, 2 December 2004 17:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I liked doc a lot up until Randy Travis, I have to say. Did not stay tuned for Letterman but did watch the one with Lou Reed the night before. Pleasantly surprised.

― Ken L (Ken L), Thursday, 2 December 2004 18:00 (twenty-one years ago)

In case you didn't know, I'm of the Velvets good, Lou mostly bad school of thought. Why do I think Laswell did some work with Lou or at least Quine?

― Ken L (Ken L), Thursday, 2 December 2004 18:04 (twenty-one years ago)

ha, i just noticed that gore's 1988 *mean's man dream* (from before they hooked up with albini, as i recall) shares a *stairway to hell* page with white zombie's 1987 *psycho head blowout* (from before they hooked up with laswell). what a coincidence. (i liked head of david's pre-albini stuff better than their albini stuff, too, i notice a few pages later. don't know whether i've ever heard gore's albini stuff. but what all this suggests is that i might actually have similar TASTES as these two guys, bizarrely enough. or at least we frequently tend to be impressed by the same unknown bands at the same time.)

― chuck, Thursday, 2 December 2004 18:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Randy is cool ... actually the worst part was when they threw Ryan Adams up there as emblematic of 'alt-country'. Ugh.

Well I think Maher produced New York at least, right? and he was in Material...

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Thursday, 2 December 2004 18:09 (twenty-one years ago)

And oh yeah, speaking of these two guys' a&r/scouting skills, didn't Whitney Fucking Houston, of all people, make her first on-record appearance on Material's '82-or-so *One Down* album? (Unless she did gospel stuff with her mom before then, which she may well have.)

― chuck, Thursday, 2 December 2004 18:13 (twenty-one years ago)

when they threw Ryan Adams up
Robbie Fulks to thread!

― Ken L (Ken L), Thursday, 2 December 2004 18:18 (twenty-one years ago)

I've always wanted to hear All Right You Little Bastards, the Zeni Geva album with Albini on guest guitar. Anybody ever heard it?

― pdf (Phil Freeman), Thursday, 2 December 2004 18:54 (twenty-one years ago)

didn't Whitney Fucking Houston, of all people, make her first on-record appearance on Material's '82-or-so *One Down* album?

Whitney Fucking Houston and Archie Fucking Shepp, doing a Soft Fucking Machine song. This, all by itself, is reason to like Laswell.

― Marcel Post (Marcel Post), Thursday, 2 December 2004 19:44 (twenty-one years ago)

WTMFF?! I'll have to find that now. That's so absurd.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Thursday, 2 December 2004 21:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Personally, there've been Laswell productions I've loved (Motorhead, Last Exit, Sonny Sharrock), hated (White Zombie), and in between (Pil, Iggy); and the one common thread is that I NEVER liked the way any of 'em sounded. I give Laswell credit for some of his ideas (John Lydon, Ginger Baker and Steve Vai together! for the first time ever!), but sonically...forget it. So many things I disliked about '80s record production...artificially inflating the drums, coating Sonny Sharrock's guitar with tinsel like he was one of the Cocteau Triplets, tossing those Linda Blair demon-imitations every which way...like a high-tech Uptown Manhattan attempt to recreate what Hawkwind or Blue Cheer achieved through sheer accident. (And which the Butthole Surfers did better than anyone in the '80s, but that's irrelevent here.) I much preferred Rick Rubin's concurrent productions.

Steve Albini: Yeah, he indeed could capture a great guitar sound, but that's about the extent of his value, production-wise. (Big Black were still pretty great, tho. As someone opined on another recent thread, I can't believe that "Kerosene" hasn't been sampled yet.)

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Thursday, 2 December 2004 23:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I forgot about Last Exit and Ginger Baker! Laswell's the man!

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Thursday, 2 December 2004 23:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Did he do any of those Golden Palominos records?

― Ken L (Ken L), Thursday, 2 December 2004 23:26 (twenty-one years ago)

yes

― H (Heruy), Thursday, 2 December 2004 23:45 (twenty-one years ago)

of course i can't remember which ones but still

and Whitney fucking Houston has a great voice, sadly (imo) she has done mostly shit with it. i'd be intersted in hearing this Whitney/Material stuff.

(and Sundar, if you have the live Tabla Beat the female singer is GIgi, check out her solo stuff - she has a gorgeous voice - but that is if you like vocalists)

― H (Heruy), Thursday, 2 December 2004 23:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Trying to remember which records Bill Laswell has produced is like trying to remember which aged celebrities have died and which you only think died.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 3 December 2004 02:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Supersonic Storybook is my favorite Urge Overkill record and Albini did that one.
I'm not sure about this.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 3 December 2004 05:01 (twenty-one years ago)

What, that it's my favorite, or that Steve did it?

He did it; just listen to it! It might not have his name on it -- is it one of those "produced by 'Fluss'" records? I don't have my copy to hand. It's buried somewhere under a pile of vinyl. He never allows himself to be listed as "producer" anyway, as we all know...

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Friday, 3 December 2004 05:10 (twenty-one years ago)

It says "produced by URGE OVERKILL of the CHICAGO RECORDING COMPANY," but I believe what you say.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 3 December 2004 05:16 (twenty-one years ago)

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