Iain Burgess was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 record producer

Record producer

A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...

 and audio engineer. He helped define the sound of the Chicago post-punk

Post-punk

Post-punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...

 music scene in the 1980s and early '90s, working with a number of key underground bands, including Big Black

Big Black

Big Black was an American punk rock band from Evanston, Illinois, active from 1981 to 1987. Founded by singer and guitarist Steve Albini, the band's initial lineup also included guitarist Santiago Durango and bassist Jeff Pezzati, both of Naked Raygun...

, Naked Raygun

Naked Raygun

Naked Raygun is a Chicago-based punk rock group. Initially active from 1980 to about 1992, Naked Raygun had several short-lived reunions afterwards and a full-time reformation in 2006....

, The Effigies

The Effigies

The Effigies is an early post-hardcore group from Chicago. The band, first formed in 1980, was active for approximately a decade, undergoing multiple personnel changes, with frontman John Kezdy the only constant, before disbanding in 1990 . The band released 5 LPs and several EPs, most on...

, Get Smart!

Get Smart! (band)

Get Smart! was a three piece band formed in Lawrence, Kansas in 1980 consisting of Marc Koch, Lisa Wertman Crowe and Frank Loose.-Career:The band formed while at University of Kansas in Lawrence, KS in 1980 and, along with bands like the Embarrassment and the Mortal Micronotz, they were prominent...

, Ministry

Ministry (band)

Ministry is an American industrial metal band founded by lead singer Al Jourgensen in 1981. Originally a synthpop outfit, Ministry changed its style to industrial metal in the late 1980s. Ministry found mainstream success in the early 1990s with its most successful album Psalm 69: The Way to...

, Bloodsport, Pegboy

Pegboy

Pegboy is an American punk band from Chicago, Illinois with a relatively large cult following. They were founded in 1990 by John Haggerty , along with his brother Joe Haggerty , Larry Damore , and Steve Saylors...

, Poster Children

Poster Children

Poster Children are an indie rock band formed at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in 1987. They have issued eleven studio albums. Known for their strong DIY ethic, the band members continue to drive their own tour bus, create their own artwork and T-shirt designs, and operate their...

, and Bhopal Stiffs

Bhopal Stiffs

Chicago hardcore outfit the Bhopal Stiffs was formed in 1985 by singers/guitarists Larry Damore and Vince Marine, bassist Steve Saylors, and drummer Dave Schleitwiler. The band name is a reference to an ecological disaster which took place in Bhopal, India in 1984...

.

A native of Weymouth, Dorset, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, Burgess defined a “Chicago sound”, described by the Chicago Tribune

Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...

as "built on no-nonsense elements: powerhouse drumming, prominent bass lines, bold guitars that split the difference between anthemic and anarchic"; the Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun-Times

The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...

described it as a "massive, crunching, live-and-in-your-face sound". It was a sound that influenced Burgess' friend and student, Steve Albini

Steve Albini

Steven Frank Albini is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, audio engineer and music journalist. He was a member of Big Black, Rapeman, and Flour, and is currently a member of Shellac...

.

Burgess also worked with the Defoliants, Heavy Manners, the Cows

The Cows

Cows are a post-hardcore/punk blues band from Minneapolis, Minnesota. The band formed in 1987 and disbanded in 1998. They were known for a unique mixture of punk rock and blues played with large amounts of noise and surreal humour; their music is often considered noise rock...

, the Didjits

The Didjits

The Didjits were an American punk rock band formed in Sullivan, Illinois in 1983, comprised Rick Sims on guitar/vocals, Doug Evans on bass, and Rick's brother Brad Sims, on drums. Didjits were known for the aggressive guitar playing and persona of Rick Sims, who often baited the audience between...

, Breaking Circus

Breaking Circus

Breaking Circus was a postpunk band from the 1980s, based in Chicago and later Minneapolis, led by guitarist and vocalist Steve Björklund.-History:...

, Jawbox

Jawbox

Jawbox was an alternative rock band from Washington, D.C., U.S.. Its original members were J. Robbins , Kim Coletta and Adam Wade...

, Papier Tigre and many others. Burgess moved to Europe in the early ‘90s, working at Black Box, his own recording studio in rural France.

Burgess died in France on February 11, 2010 of a pulmonary embolism

Pulmonary embolism

Pulmonary embolism is a blockage of the main artery of the lung or one of its branches by a substance that has travelled from elsewhere in the body through the bloodstream . Usually this is due to embolism of a thrombus from the deep veins in the legs, a process termed venous thromboembolism...

, a complication of pancreatic and liver cancer.

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