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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Metal Machine Music Rises Again, 11 Aug 2007
On paper, the very idea of transcribing Lou Reed's 1975 extreme opus of analogue guitar feedback loops and distortion, sounds impossible. Leave it to Berliner-based avant-garde sax player, Ulrich Krieger, who quite literally transcribed Reed's original score into sheet music, and gave it a new lease of life for today's digital "I want it now" generation.
The result is a scorching, frenetic, physically compulsive and highly explosive live rendition feverishly performed by an 11-piece classical contemporary chamber music ensemble.
The pay-off?
A non-stop 50 minute plus roller coaster slab of industrial rock reinvented as a serious acoustic score which has to be seen and heard to be appreciated. If Lester Bangs were still alive today, I wonder what he would make of it.
The cool thing about this unique CD/DVD release is the DVD footage enables you to watch the original 2002 concert (performed live at the Berlin Opera House) with no slick cinematography. It's an arthouse affair.
For anyone that remembers Reed's original RCA album, you can't help but marvel at how precise Ulrich Krieger transformed the original feedback into a riveting avant-garde music performance.
The fascinating bit comes towards the end, when Reed ambles on stage to sit in a chair playing electric feedback guitar. Together with the chamber music ensemble's instruments (viola, cello, accordian, trumpet), you suddenly get a flashback to early Velvet Underground, when John Cale played the viola and Reed played drone guitar.
When Reed first formed the Velvets, Cale had already worked closely with experimental music composers John Cage and La Monte Young, but was also interested in rock music. Young's use of extended drones were a direct influence on the early Velvets' sound. Cale was pleasantly surprised to discover Reed's experimentalist tendencies were similar to his own: Reed sometimes used alternate guitar tunings to create a droning sound.
This drone guitar sound is evident on the third movement of Metal Machine which Reed performs with Zeitkratzer towards the end of the live album.
One of the highlights on the DVD is the 25-minute interview with Reed. It's a no-nonsense straight-forward Q&A. Reed goes into great detail talking about how he originally recorded Metal Machine Music in his New York City loft apartment. He explains how analogue feedback and loops created different sounds which were impossible to create with today's precise digital recording technology.
The big question is why has it taken five years for Zeitkratzer's live CD/DVD to get an official release? This is is an exceptional collaboration that transcends Reed's original '75 album.
Fans of Sonic Youth, John Cage, Glen Branca, Xenakis and La Monte Young, will marvel at this live recording. It's powerful, physical music that hits you in the gut, turns your head and knocks you for six.
Zeitkratzer have definitely pushed Lou Reed's musical envelope. This is dangerous avant-garde music territory. It's even more relevant today than it was upon first release 32 years ago.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Impossible achieved, 12 Sep 2007
I am one of those who thought this would not be possible but was really intrigued by the very idea. I had been googling Zeitkratzer since 2002 when I first heard about this event and have now seen the concert via the DVD with this CD. It is truly astonishing. I was one of the few people that bought, and kept(!) MMM when it came out in 1975. The record shop tried to stop me buying it and very reluctantly sold it to me saying that I could bring it back for a refund any time. But I never did and still think it is a truly amazing 'event' in the world of music. Yes, MUSIC! Zeitkratzer's orchestrated version really does bring out aspects of the 'sonorities' available in the original in unique and focussed ways. Thus, melodies are emphasised in particular places for example which in the original may appear less strident. On the other hand it is less 'edgy' in tonality than the original. We perhaps should remember that in 1975 the electric guitar, as an instrument, was only around 30 years old. Lou Reed has always worked with the novel tonality of the electric guitar and its amplification - in this regard he is its absolute master - what he did in 1975 was produce a tonal 'umwelt' which he felt was the lifeblood of the form of expression he has always been developing. I say umwelt because I understand he wanted to produce the record in quadraphonic sound. MMM was never a surprise to me as so many Lou Reed and Velvets bootlegs have extended explorations of drone, feedback etc. If you get the chance to hear Metal Machine Sound (a bootleg first available in the 1980s) you'll know what I mean.
This is not 'pop' music and should not be compared to it. Nor is it the Duchamp of the music world, though there are points of comparison - maybe it's closer to Pollock in that sense. I see MMM like Jackson saw paint: what does paint do and how does it express.
So, if you accept that the electric guitar is an instrument whose tonality is worth exploring then Lou Reed is your man and MMM is the sound; and Zeitkratzer is its contemporary revelation and commentary.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The new Metal Machine Music, 3 Sep 2007
I just watched the DVD of this set.
The dvd alone is worth your money.
You get to see the performance of Metal Machine Music by Zeitkratzer. Which is great.
As a cool bonus you get an interview with Lou Reed about Metal Machine Music
The interview is lovely to watch. Lou Reed really has something to say here, and it is funny at times too.
All I can say if you like Lou Reed, get this cd/dvd. Because the music is very good, and the dvd is a wonderful bonus!
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