Steve Albini isn’t too keen on modern dance music, has a bit of a rant at Powell

What started as an innocent sample approval request has turned into an absolutely golden opportunity for XL-signed producer Powell and his new single ‘Insomniac’.

Allow us to explain: ‘Insomniac’ starts with a recording of famous producer and studio-owner Steve Albini introducing a track at a Big Black gig. Powell, being the good boy that he is, emailed Steve to ask if he’d approve such use of his voice as a sample. Steve’s reponse? A slightly maddened rant at the state of dance music in 2015.

“I am absolutely the wrong audience for this kind of music,” he replied via email. “I’ve always detested mechanized 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,” he continued, citing “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”

The use of the sample though, Steve, what about that? “I have no problem with what you’re doing,” he confirmed, Powell no doubt breathing a sigh of relief as he read it. “I haven’t bothered listening to the links, mainly because I’m in a hotel with crappy internet at the moment but also because it probably wouldn’t be to my taste and that wouldn’t help either of us. 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.”

Powell, again, lovely polite young bloke that he is, asked if using the email exchange as promotion for the single would be alright. Steve’s next response? “Still don’t care.”

Charming.

And so, ladies and gentlemen, Powell has put up a billboard on London’s Commercial Street, near Shoreditch, which features the full reply from Albini, in all its ranty glory. You can see a picture of it below - The Quietus report that the upcoming video for ‘Insomniac’ will also feature the email in some manner. U ok Steve?