Trying to make one of the most reviled albums in music history more "listenable" is a difficult task but that is what Cloudland Blue Quartet has attempted over the course of four volumes of variations on Lou Reed's 1975 double LP, "Metal Machine Music".
This is the first of the four.
Each volume is based on one side of the record and comprises four variations which, themselves, form a brand new double LP. The series thus expands the original work four-fold.
The variations each contain two elements. Firstly, a section of the "music" from the side in question, slowed to one quarter of its original speed, thereby revealing the true nature of the noise contained in the original groove and, secondly, a treated CBQ "Disquietmusik" guitarscape.
For downloaders, there are a further eight bonus tracks which may well reveal, for the first time, what Lou Reed actually played on "Metal Machine Music".
Lou was interviewed about it in the late 1970s. He revealed the original recordings date from around 1969, 1970 when he was still in the Velvet Underground.
"The basic tape of it was made like um...I dunno...oh, eight years ago. No, longer, nine years ago. When we were with Atlantic. And they wanted me to put it out then, the basic track of it.
And they were gonna give me a name like Joyn Holczek or something and say it was an electronic record made by a Czechoslovakian composer. Because people always respect things like that much more, rather than if they said it as me
But I passed on it, because the thing wasn't done. And at the time, they wanted it in stereo. They wanted me to go into the studio and get synthesizers and everything."
The original record comprised completely separate mono tracks in the left and right channels of each side. These have been converted to stand alone pieces, again slowed to one quarter speed and, then, treated, in order to produce artificially enhanced stereo versions of the tracks used to create the original work..
The bonus tracks on Volume 1 comprise the treated recordings of the material which appeared in the left and right channels of side one of the original double LP.
released February 4, 2022
Variations on Lou Reed's "Metal Machine Music" Vol I is the 32nd soundscapes album from Cloudland Blue Quartet (Crispycat 2201 - 4 February 2022)
Credits
Guitars, treatments, cover (“Variation on MMM", 18 November 2021) and production by David Reilly for Crispycat Recordings
Metal Machine guitars, feedback and treatment by Lou Reed (details here :
bit.ly/3romMpa)
Created at Crispycat Studio, Edinburgh, UK, 18 November, 2021
Disquietmusik guitarscapes recorded as follows:-
"The Moses Variation" 4 November 2018
"The Composition Variation" 8, 9 July 2017
"The F111 Variation" 10 November 2019
"The Antibes Variation" 22 November 2020
For best results, please listen on headphones, in the dark
(p) 2022 Crispycat Recordings © David Reilly 2022
Executive Producer : Anne Reilly
Bonus Material (Download Only)
New stereo treatments of quarter speed versions of the left and right mono tracks used on side one of "Metal Machine Music", over the equivalent of a further 2 double LPs or 2 CDs.
Tracks 5-8 Metal Machine Music (Side One Left Pts 1-4) (64:44)
Tracks 9-12 Metal Machine Music (Side One Right Pts 1-4) (64:07)