_Metal Machine Music_ -- the symphonic tribute!

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I really don't know how to take this.

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 16 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

And granted, it's only a ten-piece ensemble and not a full symphony, but still.

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 16 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I don't know either. But Liza looks like she's lost some weight. That's good, I was worried about her.

― Arthur, Saturday, 16 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

There are always upsides. :-) Now, if she sang *with* the ensemble, imagine the hilarity.

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 16 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

That's a show I'd travel across the country, no THE WORLD, to see!

― Arthur, Saturday, 16 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

That would be the greatest thing ever.

― Sean, Saturday, 16 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I seriously think this sounds great. Someone let me know if a recording will be released.

― sundar subramanian, Saturday, 16 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Don't get me wrong, I dig MMM (although I sure can't listen to the whole thing straight through), but won't this just be like Glenn Branca without any beats?

― J, Saturday, 16 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

see here

― geeta, Saturday, 16 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Astounding!

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 16 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

This won't be like Branca's guitar symphonies because a) it's not on electric guitars, b) Branca's stuff is all about tension/release, slow builds to a massive climax a la 19th c symphony whereas MMM is pretty much a steady-state piece. It won't be like Branca's orchestral works because it will be better.

― sundar subramanian, Saturday, 16 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It's not all that different than Bang On A Can's renditions of _In C_, _Music For Airports_ etc., but what I find remarkable is that these German guys managed to transcribe a score for it. Heck, I wish I was there. But I like MMM too.

― Chris Barrus, Saturday, 16 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

more of it - anyone gonna bootleg it for us?

plus new patti smith album - hoooray!

― Queen G, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Chris B: You live? Hooray;>!

Seriously though, I'd heard others talk about MMM. But I've never been able to hear a copy, myself. Not surprised it had such a short shelf life; people wouldn't have been ready for its sound in the decade of "Freak Out" and "Electric Bugaloo".

I'd not have felt safe going to Berlin, but it would have been worth the road trip. Damn.

― Nichole Graham, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Aw, Berlin is awesome, East Berlin especially. Definitely worth visiting, regardless of whether you check out Zeitkratzer. I was really struck by that city. It's so divided, still, which is really interesting. And it's got this strange cinematic quality to it.

― geeta, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

a year plus on ILM and i STILL haven't located my copy of MMM: any ILX-ers wanna come and help me look? Upside: my flat is uberkewl and you get coffee and cake, maybe. Downside: you springclean while I wave my arms around.

― mark s, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

mark- As long as it's not cake with any pieces of fruit then why not...but still, never ceazes to amaze me how things turn around for such records that are at first regarded as a joke by the 'press'.

Nicole- try second hand shops. The good ones always have a copy.

― Julio Desouza, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

mark- What an invitation? Haven't had cake in a long time. Don't know abt hand waving though.

But still, never ceazes to amaze me how things turn around for such records that are at first regarded as a joke by the 'press'.

Nicole- try second hand shops. The good ones always have a copy.

― Julio Desouza, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

JULIO YOU FRUIT PIECES SNOB!

― mark s, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Sundar -

I read right past this little tidbit: "Members of the ensemble painstakingly transcribed the original record to be played by a classical string, wind, piano and accordion ensemble."

I just assumed that anyone silly enought ot do this would actually use electric guitar feedback to do it. I can't see how an accordian is going to give you that wall-of-feedback sound, but whaddya got, I guess. And "painstakingly transcribed"? Huh?

As for Branca, it seems to me that not all of his guitar symphony stuff is that tension-release; he's definitely got bits that drone for a few minutes at a stretch, and that's what I was talking about. Perhaps I would have done better to mention Pat Metheny's "Zero Tolerance for Silence."

― J, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Damn! It's the second time I have been called a snob today (see MC5 thread for the other).

― Julio Desouza, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

'I can't see how an accordian is going to give you that wall-of- feedback sound, but whaddya got, I guess. And "painstakingly transcribed"? Huh? '

Yeah. Hopefully a recording of this might come out someday.

― Julio Desouza, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

MMM is an hour-long steady-state piece. While isolated sections of a few minutes' length from one of Branca's symphonies might definitely resemble this, the overall large-scale (even if you took an excerpt as long as a single side of MMM) structure is still generally oriented around climaxes, tension, and release. (Often the tension is built very gradually so it may just seem like a drone for a while.) Unless you just meant that the live MMM would sound like the droney sections of Branca (without the rest) extended for an hour.

― sundar subramanian, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I remember the hype around MMM the first time around (in retrospect of course, since I think I was 5 or 6 when it came out) stating that Lou had consciously put quotes of a lot of other famous pieces of "classical" music in there, which you could hear if you listened hard enough. (Kinda like seeing patterns in clouds or something.) Haven't read all the material pertaining to this orchestral version, but it would be kinda neat if they actually finally made that happen for real.

― Sean Carruthers, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Unless you just meant that the live MMM would sound like the droney sections of Branca (without the rest) extended for an hour.

That is precisely what I meant. As I noted, I misread the piece and assumed it would be done with guitars.

― J, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I know this is probably both smarmy and ignorant, but do people really still think MMM was a joke? A big fuck-you? I was expecting it to be really ugly and bleak before I heard it the first time, but instead I heard millions of musical light-splinters and shards of harmonics (god my writing is fruity today). I don't even get the "wall of feedback" talk - it sounds very gorgeous, albeit in an overwhelming, midrange-full, intense way.

― Clarke B., Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

in the paper today there was an reuturs(sp) wire article that said MMM was a failure and this chamber thing was meant to revive it artisticly. Now i think its a cult thing and defaintly not a failure.

― anthony, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yeah, Clarke, that's how I felt the first time I heard it. It was really instantly accessible. If he'd wanted to make something really obnoxious, he could have at least made it as nasty as some of the electroacoustic discs on Deutsche Grammophon.

― sundar subramanian, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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