Marc Urselli is a 5-time nominated 3-time Grammy Award winning engineer, producer, mixer, and sound designer based out of New York City. He has recorded the likes of Mike Patton, Laurie Anderson, and has recorded all of John Zorn’s albums since 2007 (as well as some on Zorn’s label Tzadik). We asked of him the ridiculously unfair task of picking 10 of his favorite albums, or just 10 albums that were influential, or perhaps 10 albums that fit one theme or another, but there are some musical tastes that cannot be bound by such lists. However, on a trip to visit his parents in Italy, Marc was reunited with his old collection of tapes and CDs from his youth as a kid in the 80s. It’s from this trove that he has selected for us 50 of the albums that shaped his musical tastes at a young age.
“With over 7000 physical albums in my collection, I have never even wanted to attempt to make a desert island top 10 list. I just would not be able to do that. Too many. Wouldn’t know where to start. But recently I challenged myself to make a list of the 50 albums that were most influential in my most formative years. As I was looking at the release dates of these albums I realized they are mostly from between 1988 and 1993. Those, I guess, were the prime years of my musical awakening. I’ve listened to all sorts of things ever since but these roughly 50 records (here in no particular order) defined the shape of things to come in my record collection.”
Guns’n’Roses – Appetite for Destruction
Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon & The Wall
Young Gods – TV Sky
Nine Inch Nails – Broken & Pretty Hate Machine
Stabbing Westward – Ungod
Sisters of Mercy – Floodland
Pearl Jam – Ten
Soundgarden – Superunknown
Tool – Undertow
Type O Negative – Bloody Kisses & October Rust
Les Tambours Du Bronx – Ca Sonne Pas Beau Au Bidon??
Body Count – Cop Killer
Björk – Debut
Biohazard – State of the World Address
Rage Against the Machine – s/t
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Mother’s Milk & Blood Sugar Sex Magic
Alice In Chains – Dirt
Pat Metheny – Imaginary Day & Secret Story
Jeff Mills – Waveform Transmission vol 1
Helmet – Meantime
Sepultura – Chaos AD & Roots
Joe Satriani – The Extremist
Die Krupps – II: The Final Option
Laibach – Opus Dei
Einsturzende Neubauten – Tabula Rasa & House Der Luege
My Dying Bride – Turn Loose the Swans
Faith No More – The Real Thing
Pantera – Vulgar Display of Power
Van Halen – For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge
Das Ich – Die Propheten
Front 242 – Tiranny (For You)
Beck – Mellowgold
The Cult – Sonic Temple & Love
U2 – Rattle & Hum
Prong – Cleansing
Paradise Lost – Icon
Suicidal Tendencies – Lights Camera Revolution
Prodigy – Firestarter
Delerium – Euphoric
Primus – Sailing the Seas of Cheese
Ozzy Osbourne – No More Tears
Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works 85-92
Dive – First Album
Stone Temple Pilots – Core
Screaming Trees – Sweet Oblivion
Pitchshifter – Industrial
Aerosmith – Pump
Michael Jackson – Dangerous
Madonna – Like A Virgin
Prince – Purple Rain
Metallica – …And Justice for All & Black Album
Quireboys – A Bit of What you Fancy
Megadeath – Countdown to Extinction