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Nirvana - In Utero (1993 Steve Albini Mix) [German Universal UK 2003 LP RIP]
The production of In Utero
Nirvana chose Steve Albini as the engineer for In Utero because he managed one of Kurt's favorite Pixies albums, Surfer Rosa. Albini is someone who is also similarly mocked in the industry for not compromising his beliefs. He was a member of Big Black and many other bands and is currently in Shellac. He's also engineered albums from The Stooges, Slint, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Joanna Newsom, PJ Harvey, Low, Cloud Nothings, and many more. He's known for mixing however he wants and not being polite about it and he will only take projects that interest him.
In Come as You Are, Albini said that Nirvana was “R.E.M. with a fuzzbox” with “an unremarkable version of the Seattle sound.” This is exactly what Kurt thought about how Nevermind sounded. He took the job because he said that they seemed like “the same sort of people as all the small-fry bands I deal with,” who were abused by their record company. (A must read article by Albini is called "The Problem with the Music Industry" and you can check it out here). As an example of how Albini's recording process was different, Kurt was specifically interested in using a technique that Albini was known for. It was as simple as setting up microphones around a room to capture natural ambience, something that other producers refused to even try.
Of course, when the record label heard these mixes for In Utero, they hated it. The band eventually decided that the vocals and bass were too low in the mix and asked Albini to tweak it, but he refused as he was satisfied with the sound and didn't want to be trapped into endless remixing. So, unfortunately there were a couple of remasters to the album by other engineers before the final album was released. In the end, Albini said that the album “doesn't sound all that much like the record that was made” (from the book Verse Chorus Verse By Gillian G. Gaar).
There are only 2 tracks from the 1993 Albini mixes that have been publicly released. For the 20th anniversary of the album, Albini took the original masters and remixed them. He was able to capture and bring out little flourishes that, for me, makes it a great way (if not the best way) to listen to the album. That version can be heard on Spotify.
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