They’re taking the piss. There was that German ( of course) band or collective who learned to play and, I think, performed it live. Now we have a remastered version. I am surprised there are no outakes and alternatve versions.
The attached article suggests that those deriding it have never heard it. I have a couple of times. It was absolutely awful. And Lou saying you had to listen on headphones was another piss take.
Lou needed to meet a contractual obligation. He put his guitar in a room , I dunno, maybe strummed it then shut the door and let his gadgetry , phase , strobe, loop whatever til he turned it off. Sliced it up et voila 4 sides !
Remastered FFS. I would love to know what Ludwig did. @Tiggerlion any chance of a review comparing tte original and the remastered version?
I have a six listen rule. I may be some time. 😉
And you may never be the same.
I only have the 1992 CD, bought for 50p in M&VE, Berwick St in That London. It sounds terrible which, for once, probably has very little to do with the PCM1630 transfer.
It was “remastered under Lou’s direct personal supervision” in 24/96, along with the rest of his albums, in 2015, but they didn’t bother making a fresh vinyl cut.
I maintain that if Lou Reed was German this would be hailed as a masterpiece.
Little known fact: If Lou Reed was German he’d be called Lou Schilf.
For you zer banana iss over.
Metal Machine Trio. I accept Lou but esp Cale were into avant garde, atonal etc pre Velvets.
But I reckon he just decided to “ go with it” when he did the Metal Machine trio tour.
When I read the inkies in the eighties and early nineties, MMM was a totemic record – supposedly terrible music that Lou Reed made out of contractual reasons – cultural shorthand for lazy journalists to riff on and joke about.
Andrew Eldritch reputedly made an album for contractual reasons in the 90s – deliberately intended to be unreleasable and was written about as his MMM:
SSV-NSMABAAOTWMODAACOTIATW
I’ve just found it, so might listen to it later. Here it is, in case you want to as well.
I had never listened to MMM until today, foreboding that it would be full of harsh atonal shrieks and ‘nail down blackboard’ sounds – ear drum threatening raucus. But it’s not. It’s quite pleasant in a meditative way. I’ve just listened once, but I can hear there are different tones in each channel, sounds come to the fore and then fade away. I like what it says in the linked OP article – that it’s a record for speed freaks by a speed freak. That was how Eldritch made FALAA, so they are kind spirits, and I can hear the same dark, murky beauty in both.
But what it reminds me of most is the sort of drone rock characteristics of Loop and Spacemen 3 – maybe less rhythmic or melodic, but clearly influential on both.
Huhuhuhuh – “Bellendir” – uhuhuhuhuh
Sorry? What? Pardon?
SSV-NSMABAAOTWMODAACOTIATW (abbreviated to SSV) was a short-lived musical project formed by the Sisters of Mercy singer Andrew Eldritch in 1997. The band consisted of Andrew Eldritch and the Hamburg-based techno producers Peter Bellendir (formerly of Xmal Deutschland) and T. Schroeder.
I actually followed the link you provided and it gave me an opportunity to do some Butthead-style sniggering. So thanks for that.
Hmm. Lazy journalism, that’s me. I posted the Wiki link as a reference without actually bothering to read it in detail. Credit to you for doing so and mining innuendo from it.
Fortunately you had the good taste to avoid references to the ‘organ transplant’ line.
It might be that MM were especially wary, given their form with more ‘experimental’ offerings from maverick popsters. When John and Yoko issued their ‘Wedding Album’ in 1969, the Maker had a review based on a promo copy.
I Googled the review: “Constant listening reveals a curious point: the pitch of the tones alters frequency, but only by microtones or, at most, a semitone. This oscillation produces an almost subliminal, uneven ‘beat’ which maintains interest. On a more basic level, you could have a ball by improvising your very own raga, plainsong, or even Gaelic mouth music against the drone.”
Trouble was, it had been a cock up at the pressing plant and the discs contained just test tones.
Shades of Ravi Shankar at the Concert for Bangladesh
MM wary about MMM?
@dai
mmmm…
Wonderful story. Maybe Marshall Mathers can be persuaded to do one of his raps over the top for a special edition remix.
Using Malcom McLaren’s music and featuring a manic Miriam Margolyes.
and featuring the Crash Test Dummies
All perfectily captured and played on 3M tape
As a fan of vintage hardcore hip hop I naturally assumed you were talking about Morris Minor and the Majors. I am d-d-d-d-disappoint.
Or Hanson can cute it up for MMM-Bop.
So, someone who doesn’t like, understands or »gets« a certain album, doesn’t even consider it as music, complains that the album gets a remaster.
I’m currently proof-reading a book about Bill Haley’s 1958 European tour, and the French and Italian Jazz critics had similar things to say about the Comets’ music and the »misguided youth who regard this throwaway abomination as some kind of music«.
The German »band or collective« is called Zeitkratzer and they’re a classical ensemble specialising in New Music and Classical Avantgarde compositions. They obviously hear a lot more than guitar feedback in »Metal Machine Music« – here’s an interview with the guy who transcribed Lou’s album for string quartet and piano: http://www.ulrich-krieger.de/projects/p_mmm.htm
Once revered and now only really remembered for this particular
clip, august Ron Mael doppelgänger Hans Keller took a similarly
dim view of “Zer Pink Floyd” in 1967
I love this clip. It looks like a kind of Day Today satire of “The Generation Gap in Swinging London”, with yer man with the tache laying on the disapproval with a trowel. What a flipping rotter. It takes some effort to make Roger Waters look like a reasonable human being so it’s quite an achievement. Kudos to Syd for the childish sniggering.
There’s a definite touch of Leonard Rigsby about Herr Keller as well
Hmmm… I can now see him morphing into that sinister Russian scientist in 2001 A Space Odyssey.
Never considered Helen Keller has a touch of Reggie Perrin about her
If experiencing problems distinguishing between Herrens and Dammens, you would be well advised to refrain from embarking on late night drinking sprees when visiting Bangkok “on business”
Fatima, I think I understand the record in the terms i stated. I cant remember , maybe it was Mike Rathke who described how it was made and the reason.why it was made.it wasnt just lazy. Journalism Salwarpe it was an eyewitness account that verified what may have been a lucky guess by music journos at the time. The rest is post facto rationalisation.
I am also bewildered as to what the mastering brought to the piece.
It doesn’t matter how it was made, or whether Mr. Reed sweated over the composition for months or if it came to him in a dream. Fact is, Reed issued it as one of his albums, and it seems to bring some kind of entertainment or intellectual fancy to some people… so, job done.
Whatever Reed’s intention was, in later interviews he mentioned his surprise (!) that Ulrich Krieger not only heard some kind of music in the album, but was also able to transcribe it for a classical ensemble – which obviously was total gratification for his desire to get recognised as a »serious« artist (just look up all his poncy and self-gratulatory exhibitions, lectures and gallery projects in his later years).
Arf! “poncy and self-gratulatory” …..this kind of thing is why I came back 😉
Your initial comments seemed to be chastising me for criticising the piece. On this forum anyone can criticise any music they like.
I am calling it out as a complete con.
I think artistic intention is relevant.
Re. »On this forum anyone can criticise any music they like.« Of course you can, you can even criticise the music you don’t like. 😉
As I mentioned, Uncle Lou probably couldn’t believe his luck when he found out about the late recognition of the piece as an avantgarde »work«.
And for the record, I have absolutely no intention of ever listening to »Metal Machine Music« again. Even if the Ludwig remaster digs up more cowbell.
Clever – any music they choose.
Junior, when I mentioned lazy journalism, I was referring to the Melody Maker and NME staff in the 80s/90s – it seemed to me to be de rigueur to trash the album. I was not intending to trash the article you posted, which I found rather interesting and informative.
Think Junior was questioning Fatima and not you?
And, by the way, MMM is indeed a complete con and the “remastering” is surely some kinda joke?
Ear of the beholder. I quite like it.
Are you sure?
“it wasnt just lazy. Journalism Salwarpe it was an eyewitness account that verified what may have been a lucky guess by music journos at the time”.
Questioning rather than criticising. I dont see what was lazy about their characterisation of the album’s content and the contractual motivation behind it’s creation. On the latter they were right and as to its awfulness that view hardly seems one borne of laziness. You are the only person I know who has any time for it at all. Fair enough.
I’m happy to have that unique position. Though I don’t care much for prog, extreme forms of metal, or many varieties of jazz, I will admit to enjoying drones of all sorts. For example, I don’t suppose there’ll be many here so would put themselves through this, but I get a tickling pleasure from its uncanny weirdness
Anything listened to enough can become familiar enough to be music.
👍
Is this a buke on pointyheaded commie funster Theodore Adorno, whose insight into the dictatorship of the proletariat was that the revolution needed modern classical music rather than The Beatles and jazz? Love to have heard his take on “The Redskins”.
Fact is, enough tin-eared collectorists will buy this so, having done their sums, it’s been deemed to be a commercially viable project. I do wonder how much actual effort was put into remixing this cacophonous trash.
Fools and their money.
It sounds a bit like an ice cream van with the speaker turned up too loud.
Perfect observation.
@Arthur-Cowslip
Should have called it the Morecombe and Wise remix
It’s Morny Stannit Machine Music!
After a morning spent listening to Merzbow, I find MMM is a rather tuneful and jolly pallette cleanser.
Merzbow?
Akita has cited a wide range of musical influences from progressive rock, heavy metal, free jazz, and early electronic music to non-musical influences like dadaism, surrealism and fetish culture
Apart from electronic music, that ticks absolutely none of my boxes. It’s a ‘no’ from me.
Dada wouldn’t buy me a Bauhaus. My immediate kneejerk reaction whenever I hear or read the word Dadaism.
Me neither, really, but it goes to show MMM has been an influence (and isn’t the worst tuneless noise out there).
I have a friend who used a Merzbow track to try out some new studio monitors. The salesman was round the back of the speakers, wiggling the cables, trying to work out where the horrible buzzing sound was coming from.
The real speaker test is of course Black Shape Of Nexus. Try »Microbarome Meetings«!