Posted by Underground Rocker on February 13, 2010 at 11:57:55:
Not necessarily media related but many of us in media will know the name and impact.
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Iain Burgess dead; produced key Chicago underground bands
Iain Burgess, a producer who worked with many of the key Chicago underground bands of the �80s and was an architect of the post-punk scene�s brawny, brawling sound, has died.
Steve Albini, a Chicago recording engineer whose band Big Black worked with Burgess in the �80s, posted Friday on his studio Web site that Burgess fell ill while visiting family in Florida and died Thursday of a pulmonary embolism as a complication of liver and pancreatic cancer. Burgess� age was unavailable.
In addition to pioneering recordings by Big Black, Burgess� production credits read like a Who�s Who of Midwestern underground music in the �80s and early �90s: Naked Raygun, Effigies, Ministry, Bloodsport, Pegboy, Poster Children, Bhopal Stiffs, and dozens more. These recordings defined a �Chicago sound� built on no-nonsense elements: powerhouse drumming, prominent bass lines, bold guitars that split the difference between anthemic and anarchic.
Burgess moved to Europe in the early �90s, where he continued to work at his Black Box recording studio in the French countryside. While there he recorded bands such as Chicago�s Green and Shellac, Albini�s current trio.
�Iain was a dear friend and mentor, and I consider him responsible for a good many of the best things that have ever happened to me,� Albini wrote on his Web site. �As is the case when someone important dies, I find it hard to imagine the world without him.�