Asphodel (label)
21 August 2007 (released)
21 August 2007
Will Lou Reed please stop making me feel like I spent ten years with my head in a bucket!
In 1975 Metal Machine Music was released to almost universal catcalls and boo’s. I was one of the voices raised against this total waste of time and effort by the leader of Velvet Underground and the creator of 'Transformer’. Surely he was cheapening his legacy by creating this 'noise’. Well actually – no. Zeitkratzer took it and scored it for a full orchestra and have proved to the world that 'Metal Machine Music’ is the avant-garde spectacle that Reed always claimed it to be.
In many respects it is unlistenable to even now; it is discordant, fractured and occasionally piercing and underlying all there is a drone of viols and other strings as well as a static of guitar feedback and percussion but the listener finds that in the middle of this mayhem there are sounds – maybe a triangle or a woodwind or a chainsaw – that draw the listener in to the musical and melodious aspects of the piece and force understanding of the interplay between the instruments and the tools and the rest.
There are waves – almost tsunamis - that sweep through the second piece, creating crescendos but never letting the listener down from these artificial peaks and the listener is forced to look for peace in the mayhem issuing out of the speakers. The sense of relief when the piece finally ends is palpable but then the silence is uncomfortable, needing to be filled with the chaos and the cacophony. The sense of unease at the finish may well be part of the reason that the album was so reviled in the first place – there is no comfort zone here, no desert island to rest on.
I listened at first at low level and was faintly disturbed by the buzz that was issuing forth and I found that as I advanced the volume level so the all-enveloping sense of the piece grew with it to the point where I was inside the music and almost listening through 360 degrees in all directions. It simply cannot be listened to in the background and I defy anyone to listen as a relaxing piece but there is music here – just not as we maybe expect it.
Reed has always been an artist with interests placed well away from the mainstream and this is probably his least accessible work – more difficult even than 'Berlin’ – but this performance is exceptional and delivers a most unsettling but ultimately worthwhile experience. Not for the many but for those prepared to work as hard as the performers to understand the music it is truly rewarding.
