Jim Newberry

What sad news this morning to learn that production/engineer genius Steve Albini has left this mortal coil, at just 61 years of age.

Albini was responsible for recording many of Triple R’s favourite artists, including Pixies, Breeders, PJ Harvey, Nirvana, Low, Dirty Three, Helmet, Boss Hog, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Joanna Newsom, Mclusky, Superchunk and so many more.

He was also the front man for Big Black and Shellac, the latter of whom are due to release their first album in 10 years next week.

Renowned for speaking out about the exploitative nature of the music ‘industry’, Albini was committed to keeping his rates low, would record whoever wanted to pay for him and never took royalties from any records.

In November 2014, Albini visited Melbourne to deliver the keynote speech at the Face the Music conference. Tristen Harris (host of The Golden Age of Piracy) was lucky enough to chat to him at the time about his Formative Five records of all time. You can listen back to that conversation here.

An exceptional talent gone way too soon. RIP Steve Albini.