At the time, back when it was released in 1975 as a double vinyl set, Metal Machine Music was seen as a two-fingered gesture by Lou Reed to his then record label, RCA, who many felt he wanted to leave, or the career suicide note of an artist who had started to resent the success his most accessible album, 1972’s Transformer, had bought him. In actual fact, it was neither, despite the return of thousands of copies of this album in the first week it went on sale. As Reed himself reveals on the liner notes for this unplugged interpretation of MMM,  he “made it out of love for guitar-driven feedback and the squall of the metal machine.”

Jump forward 27 years to 2002 and Lou was contacted by Zeitkratzer, a German 11-piece avant-garde orchestral ensemble, who wanted to play Metal Machine Music live. Ulrich Kreiger, Zeitkratzer’s saxophonist and the one who actually transcribed the music takes up the story: “He said it would be impossible.” “So we sent him a demo, and he was blown away.”

Indeed, so impressed was Reed by the group’s efforts he even agreed to play guitar when Zeitkratzer performed MMM at Berlin’s Opera House. You can hear the concert on the CD and, if you’re feeling particularly tolerant to arguably the most extreme example of noise rock, then watch it on the DVD. Mixed in 5.1 Surround Sound, the DVD also features an exclusive 25-minute conversation between Diedrich Diederichsen and Reed, an artist who has been known to reduce interviewers to tears, but here sparkles more then snarls. The music however, you’ll be unsurprised to learn, does the exact opposite.

(4/5)