When Diagonal label boss Oscar Powell, who also releases music under his surname via the XL label, decided to reach out to infamous producer Steve Albini to clear a vocal sample for his latest single “Insomniac,” he didn't expect a response at all, but he REALLY didn't expect the response he got.
The email read thusly:-
Hey Oscar
Sounds like you've got a cool thing set up for yourself. I am absolutely the wrong audience for this kind of music. I've always detested mechanised dance music, its stupid simplicity, the clubs where it was played, the people who went to those clubs, the drugs they took, the shit they liked to talk about, the clothes they wore, the battles they fought amongst each other. Basically all of it: 100 percent hated every scrap. The electronic music I liked was radical and different, shit like the White Noise, Xenakis, Suicide, Kraftwerk, and the earliest stuff form Cabaret Voltaire, SPK and DAF. When that scene and those people got co-opted by dance/club music I felt like we'd lost a war. I detest club culture as deeply as I detest anything on earth. So I am against what you're into, and an enemy of where you come from but I have no problem with what you're doing. In other words, you're welcome to do whatever you like with whatever of mine you've gotten your hands on. Don't care. Enjoy yourself.
Steve
Some people might have felt a little upset to receive such a message from one of their idols, but Powell, who wrote in his initial email how much Albini's band Big Black meant to him, obviously knew enough about Steve Albini to not take this rant to heart. In fact, he was so stoked by it, that he managed to convince XL to use the email as an ingenious piece of advertising, plastering the message (in its entirety) on a gigantic billboard on London's Commercial Street as a means of working up hype for the single. Albini's response when asked for permission? “Yeah, fine, whatever, still don't care.” Brilliant.
It's obvious that the man is completely apathetic towards the idea of his material being used in a dance track, because he feels so far removed from it. To those not familiar with Albini and his uniquely acerbic sense of humour, this might read like a baby throwing his toys out of the pram, but this man has produced some of my favourite records of all time. Low's “Things We Lost in the Fire,” Pixies' “Surfer Rosa” and Nirvana's “In Utero,” as well as many of his own albums with Shellac and Big Black, helped shape my formative years, and his bare bones, emotionally led production is one of the reasons why I loved, and continue to love those albums so much.
An emailed response from Steve Albini to producer and label boss Oscar Powell, has been turned into a billboard on London's Commercial Street
As a personality, he's also something the entertainment world is sorely in need of in this age of sickeningly PC, positive reinforcement; a classic curmudgeon with an actual opinion, and one that (in this case) I happen to agree with. Yes, I loathe dance music (at least the kind of dance music you can actually dance to) and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I also resent club culture, and the fact that it's almost impossible to stay out past 2AM on a Saturday night without having to be dragged to one of these soulless, sweaty cattle pens to listen to music that has absolutely zero emotional value.
That's just me though, I understand other people like it so I keep my mouth shut (in polite company at least), but Albini is that rarest of things; a pop culture figure (well, a fringe pop culture figure anyway) who legitimately doesn't give a fuck, and by co-opting his statement as a form of advertising, XL have shown that they feel likewise, and it's a little bit inspiring.
Benjamin Hiorns is a freelance writer and struggling musician from Kidderminster in the UK. His favourite Steve Albini album is “Songs About Fucking,” because it's the most honest album title of all time. Also, it rocks rather hard.
