Metal Machine Music

Metal Machine Music (sometimes abbreviated MMM) is an album by Lou Reed. It was originally released as a two-disc LP by RCA Records in 1975. It was reissued on a single compact disc by BMG in 1998 and again by Buddah Records in 2000.
As a radical departure from the rest of Reed’s catalog, Metal Machine Music is generally considered to be either a joke, a grudging fulfillment of a contractual obligation, or an early example of noise music. Reed himself has said of the album “I was serious about it. I was also really, really stoned.”[1]. In the album’s liner notes he claimed to have invented heavy metal music and asserted that Metal Machine Music was the ultimate conclusion of that genre. Despite Reed’s artistic seriousness, his decision to release Metal Machine Music may have been a reluctant rejoinder to his contractual obligations with RCA.

Style

According to Reed (despite the original liner notes), the album entirely consists of guitar feedback played at different speeds. The two guitars were tuned in unusual ways and played with different reverb levels. He would then place the guitars in front of their amplifiers, and the feedback from the very large amps would vibrate the strings - the guitars were, effectively, playing themselves. He recorded the work on a four-track tape recorder in his New York apartment, mixing the four tracks for stereo.