Lou Reed
Metal Machine Music

At the end of lively discussions about whether or not there have been true musical frontiers to break down after the seventies, I would like to attempt to comment on an album that usually does not lend itself to this kind of analysis. Everyone knows, if only by name, this double vinyl from 1975, which Lou Reed managed, somehow, to have printed and distributed in many countries before a number of buyers returned their copy to the retailer, complaining about an evident defect in the edition.

There are two parallel stories that I can try to keep in mind in attempting to understand together how this album, unique at the time in history, was born. On one hand, one can briefly retrace the history of noise, from the early twentieth century with Luigi Russolo and the other futurists, through Schaeffer, Stockhausen, Cage, Xenakis, and Nono, in a journey that sees a sudden stop precisely in Metal Machine Music (an extreme and peremptory work) that will later legitimize the works of M.B., Merzbow, Throbbing Gristle, 23 Skidoo, and others, as if worse had already been done; on the other hand, the musical and personal history of Lou Reed, who already with the Velvet Underground had widely played with immersing his minimalistic music in noise (the historical flexi-disc "Loop," "Sister Ray," the dissonances of John Cale).

It is important to remember that Reed was in a dispute with RCA Victor in 1975 because he was behind on his recording obligations; therefore, it is very difficult to decide - then and now - if he wanted to play a cruel joke on RCA by providing the unlistenable double vinyl they demanded, or if it was a deliberately studied artistic work, and there are elements to decide in that sense as well. The fact remains that the four sides compose a single track, ideally divided into as many movements, in which different sources of extreme guitar feedback, but treated and equalized, were mixed, superimposed, amplified - so there was an editing operation - until forming a single tortured white noise, which, however, has peaks and valleys, differentiated minute by minute and that does not end because Side 4 (which should last 16'01'' like the others) flows into a groove loop that multiplies the last seconds indefinitely.

Today it may seem strange, but the double vinyl was purchased, commented on, reviewed (and there are people like Thurston Moore who still praises it today, obviously). Metal Machine Music, 64 minutes of sound torture, has been printed and reprinted in vinyl, cassette, 8-track, CD, DVD Audio, and even Blu-Ray Audio (I know because I have it, and tell me if I'm not crazy) representing a record product worthy of staying on the market even forty years later. Thanks to the English fanzine Punk, in 1976 MMM was declared stylistically the progenitor of the burgeoning punk phenomenon (together with the works of VU) and thus had higher artistic dignity, perhaps exceeding the expectations of its own author, who had wanted to release just one scornful interview to comment on the first edition of the album. There isn't much to review, naturally: the final result certainly testifies to a work of organizing sound sources, different environmental recordings, choice during mixing, equalization, and editing, but Lou Reed was admittedly wayward and may have found it stimulating to perforate his own eardrums and those of the studio technicians for a few weeks, risking career-wise, just to indulge and follow the impulse of the moment. Lou Reed's last performances with Zeitkratzer and Metal Machine Trio seem to testify to a rediscovery of the work by its author, but a definitive verdict is probably unreachable, and perhaps that's how it should be. It has been said that MMM represents the Rorschach test of modern music: everyone sees what they want to see, the layers of noise differentiate and identify themselves, and what each person wants to remain stays... I have the musical embarrassment to declare that I adore this album and listen to it with the same attention I reserve for Berg's Wozzeck. Tell me what problem I have.