Lou Reed - Metal Machine Music Performed By Zeitkratzer Live

Metal Machine Music, this time by humans

MMM, possibly the most contentious album on the planet for serious musos, has always been given short shrift, but those who didn’t return it to stores were on to something… So what if its sounds came about by accident in 1975, without human input other than laying three guitars by two amps and turning them on? Happy accidents always happen. Sam Phillips didn’t really understand the era-defining sound he’d discovered from day one, but he had an idea of something, just like Reed when he recorded an album of feedback waves crashing off each other, creating loops and melodies. Recorded live in 2002, Reed and an 11-piece orchestra give the machine flesh. God knows how they scored it, but now naysayers can hear and see (on the DVD) how intense MMM really is, being played by people in real time. Familiarity can’t breed contempt, only open up new melodies, hidden sounds and unanswerable questions (“How could they…?”). The knee-jerk reaction is to laugh Reed off the planet. But with the Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys reuniting, which would you prefer: anodyne nonsense or something to challenge you? It took 20-odd years for post-rock to make this sound acceptable. If you’re really that open-minded, you need to hear this now.

Asphodel | 3009

Reviewed by Jason Draper
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