99-738: Metal Machine Music (subtitled *The Amine β Ring ) is the fifth studio album by American rock musician Lou Reed . It was recorded on a three-speed Uher machine and was mastered/engineered by Bob Ludwig . It was released as a double album in July 1975 by RCA Records , but taken off the market three weeks later. A radical departure from the rest of his catalog, the Metal Machine Music album features no songs or recognizably structured compositions, eschewing melody and rhythm for modulated feedback and noise music guitar effects, mixed at varying speeds by Reed. Also in 1975, RCA released
198-486: A Quadrophonic version of the Metal Machine Music recording that was produced by playing it back both forward and backward, and by flipping the tape over. The album cost Reed his reputation in the music industry while simultaneously opening the door for some of his later, more experimental material and has generally been panned by critics since its release. In 2008, Reed, Ulrich Krieger , and Sarth Calhoun collaborated to tour playing free improvisation inspired by
297-587: A concert venue , at home, in the field, or a mix of places. The time frame for completely recording an album varies between a few hours to several years. This process usually requires several takes with different parts recorded separately, and then brought or " mixed " together. Recordings that are done in one take without overdubbing are termed "live", even when done in a studio. Studios are built to absorb sound, eliminating reverberation , to assist in mixing different takes; other locations, such as concert venues and some "live rooms", have reverberation, which creates
396-420: A "live" sound. Recordings, including live, may contain editing, sound effects, voice adjustments, etc. With modern recording technology , artists can be recorded in separate rooms or at separate times while listening to the other parts using headphones ; with each part recorded as a separate track . Album covers and liner notes are used, and sometimes additional information is provided, such as analysis of
495-789: A band named Metal Machine Trio as a noise rock/experimental side project. The language of the Star Trek aliens known as the Breen was inspired by Metal Machine Music , which the post-production sound staff were instructed to listen to when creating the electronic cackle that served as the Breen's voices. On Mystery Science Theater 3000 , Joel Hodgson 's character likened watching Mighty Jack to "listening to two hours of Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music ." Later on Mystery Science Theater 3000 Michael J. Nelson 's character says "Monster gets up and immediately puts on his Metal Machine Music" due to
594-458: A bound book resembling a photo album ; this format evolved after 1948 into single vinyl long-playing (LP) records played at 33 + 1 ⁄ 3 rpm . The album was the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption from the mid-1960s to the early 21st century, a period known as the album era . Vinyl LPs are still issued, though album sales in the 21st-century have mostly focused on CD and MP3 formats. The 8-track tape
693-458: A brown heavy paper sleeve with a large hole in the center so the record's label could be seen. The fragile records were stored on their sides. By the mid-1920s, photo album publishers sold collections of empty sleeves of heavier paper in bound volumes with stiff covers slightly larger than the 10" popular records. (Classical records measured 12".) On the paper cover in small type were the words "Record Album". Now records could be stored vertically with
792-412: A collection of pieces or songs on a single record was called an "album"; the word was extended to other recording media such as compact disc, MiniDisc , compact audio cassette, 8-track tape and digital albums as they were introduced. An album (Latin albus , white), in ancient Rome, was a board chalked or painted white, on which decrees, edicts, and other public notices were inscribed in black. It
891-403: A compilation of songs created by any average listener of music. The songs on a mixtape generally relate to one another in some way, whether it be a conceptual theme or an overall sound. After the introduction of Compact discs, the term "Mixtape" began to apply to any personal compilation of songs on any given format. The sales of Compact Cassettes eventually began to decline in the 1990s, after
990-424: A current or former member of a musical group which is released under that artist's name only, even though some or all other band members may be involved. The solo album appeared as early as the late 1940s. A 1947 Billboard magazine article heralded " Margaret Whiting huddling with Capitol execs over her first solo album on which she will be backed by Frank De Vol ". There is no formal definition setting forth
1089-561: A customer buys a whole album rather than just one or two songs from the artist. The song is not necessarily free nor is it available as a stand-alone download, adding also to the incentive to buy the complete album. In contrast to hidden tracks , bonus tracks are included on track listings and usually do not have a gap of silence between other album tracks. Bonus tracks on CD or vinyl albums are common in Japan for releases by European and North American artists; since importing international copies of
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#17327977099061188-479: A foreword by Weasel Walter ), and Thurston Moore and Byron Coley 's Harry N. Abrams No Wave: Post-Punk. Underground. New York. 1976–1980 (for which Lydia Lunch wrote the Introduction). Coleen Fitzgibbon and Alan W. Moore created a short film in 1978 (finished in 2009) of a New York City no wave concert to benefit Colab titled X Magazine Benefit , documenting performances by DNA, James Chance and
1287-694: A large role in the no wave scene, as visual artists often were playing in bands, or making videos and films, while making visual art for exhibition. An early influence on this aspect of the scene was Alan Vega (aka Alan Suicide) whose electronic junk sculpture predated his role in the music group Suicide, which he formed with fellow musician Martin Rev in 1970. They released Suicide , their first album, in 1977. Important exhibitions of no wave visual art were Barbara Ess 's Just Another Asshole show and subsequent compilation projects and Colab 's organization of The Real Estate Show , The Times Square Show , and
1386-560: A negative and nihilistic world view that reflected the desolation of late 1970s Downtown New York and how they viewed the larger society. In a 2020 essay, Lydia Lunch stated there were many problems in the years that led into the 1970s, and that calling 1967 the Summer of Love was a bold-faced lie. The term "no wave" might have been inspired by the French New Wave pioneer Claude Chabrol , with his remark "There are no waves, only
1485-468: A sense of community was a hallmark of No Wave Cinema. Avant-garde filmmakers like Andy Warhol , Pier Paolo Pasolini , Jean-Pierre Melville , Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Jack Smith were notable influences, as was French Nouvelle Vague cinema, Italian neorealism , early 1970s intimate low budget European films, such as Bernardo Bertolucci ’s 1972 film Last Tango in Paris , and a general interest in
1584-830: A single artist, genre or period, a single artist covering the songs of various artists or a single artist, genre or period, or any variation of an album of cover songs which is marketed as a "tribute". No Wave No wave was an avant-garde music genre and visual art scene that emerged in the late 1970s in Downtown New York City . The term was a pun based on the rejection of commercial new wave music . Reacting against punk rock 's recycling of rock and roll clichés, no wave musicians instead experimented with noise , dissonance , and atonality , as well as non- rock genres like free jazz , funk , and disco . The scene often reflected an abrasive , confrontational, and nihilistic world view. The movement
1683-522: A single case, or a triple album containing three LPs or compact discs. Recording artists who have an extensive back catalogue may re-release several CDs in one single box with a unified design, often containing one or more albums (in this scenario, these releases can sometimes be referred to as a "two (or three)-fer"), or a compilation of previously unreleased recordings. These are known as box sets . Some musical artists have also released more than three compact discs or LP records of new recordings at once, in
1782-433: A solo album for several reasons. A solo performer working with other members will typically have full creative control of the band, be able to hire and fire accompanists, and get the majority of the proceeds. The performer may be able to produce songs that differ widely from the sound of the band with which the performer has been associated, or that the group as a whole chose not to include in its own albums. Graham Nash of
1881-414: A studio. However, the common understanding of a "live album" is one that was recorded at a concert with a public audience, even when the recording is overdubbed or multi-tracked. Concert or stage performances are recorded using remote recording techniques. Albums may be recorded at a single concert , or combine recordings made at multiple concerts. They may include applause, laughter and other noise from
1980-490: A tendency to emphasize musical texture over melody—typical of La Monte Young 's early downtown music . In the early 1980s , Downtown Manhattan 's no wave scene transitioned from its abrasive origins into a more dance -oriented sound, with compilations such as ZE Records 's Mutant Disco (1981) highlighting a playful sensibility borne out of the city's clash of hip hop , disco and punk styles, as well as dub reggae and world music influences. No wave music presented
2079-406: A theme such as the "greatest hits" from one artist, B-sides and rarities by one artist, or selections from a record label , a musical genre , a certain time period, or a regional music scene. Promotional sampler albums are compilations. A tribute or cover album is a compilation of cover versions of songs or instrumental compositions. Its concept may involve various artists covering the songs of
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#17327977099062178-556: A tongue-in-cheek article about the album, titled "The Greatest Album Ever Made", in which he judged it "the greatest record ever made in the history of the human eardrum". In 1998, The Wire included Metal Machine Music in its list of "100 Records That Set the World on Fire (While No One Was Listening)", with Brian Duguid writing: Q magazine featured Metal Machine Music in its 50 Worst Records of All Time ... What higher recommendation could you possibly need? ... [ Metal Machine Music ]
2277-516: A trend of shifting sales in the music industry , some observers feel that the early 21st century experienced the death of the album . An album may contain any number of tracks. In the United States, The Recording Academy 's rules for Grammy Awards state that an album must comprise a minimum total playing time of 15 minutes with at least five distinct tracks or a minimum total playing time of 30 minutes with no minimum track requirement. In
2376-430: A way of promoting the album. Albums have been issued that are compilations of older tracks not originally released together, such as singles not originally found on albums, b-sides of singles, or unfinished " demo " recordings. Double albums during the seventies were sometimes sequenced for record changers . In the case of a two-record set, for example, sides 1 and 4 would be stamped on one record, and sides 2 and 3 on
2475-453: A way that felt true to myself, constantly pushing the limits of idiom or genre and always screaming "Fuck You!" loudly in the process. It's how I felt then and I still feel it now. The ideals behind the (anti-) movement known as No Wave were found in many other archetypes before and just as many afterwards, but for a few years around the late 1970s, the concentration of those ideals reached a cohesive, white-hot focus. In 2004, Scott Crary made
2574-580: Is any vocal content. A track that has the same name as the album is called the title track. A bonus track (also known as a bonus cut or bonus) is a piece of music which has been included as an extra. This may be done as a marketing promotion, or for other reasons. It is not uncommon to include singles, B-sides , live recordings , and demo recordings as bonus tracks on re-issues of old albums, where those tracks were not originally included. Online music stores allow buyers to create their own albums by selecting songs themselves; bonus tracks may be included if
2673-461: Is at once the pre-eminent deranged noise record, an impossibly cacophonous screech of electric torment, and also a classic of Minimalism ; some of the most enigmatic, exquisite harmonies ever documented. It's a pity the CD reissues can't include the original double LP's locked groove , but even if it doesn't last forever, the music is infinitely convoluted. It still awaits a proper critical reappraisal—even
2772-555: Is not necessarily just in MP3 file format, in which higher quality formats such as FLAC and WAV can be used on storage media that MP3 albums reside on, such as CD-R-ROMs , hard drives , flash memory (e.g. thumbdrives , MP3 players , SD cards ), etc. The contents of the album are usually recorded in a studio or live in concert, though may be recorded in other locations, such as at home (as with JJ Cale's Okie , Beck's Odelay , David Gray's White Ladder , and others), in
2871-402: Is recorded on both the "A" and "B" side of the tape, with cassette being "turned" to play the other side of the album. Compact Cassettes were also a popular way for musicians to record " Demos " or "Demo Tapes" of their music to distribute to various record labels, in the hopes of acquiring a recording contract . Compact cassettes also saw the creation of mixtapes , which are tapes containing
2970-603: The Island of Negative Utopia show at The Kitchen . No wave art found an ongoing home on the Lower East Side with the establishment of ABC No Rio Gallery in 1980, and a no wave punk aesthetic was a dominant strand in the art galleries of the East Village (from 1982 to 1986). In a foreword to the book No Wave , Weasel Walter wrote of the movement's ongoing influence: I began to express myself musically in
3069-606: The freely improvised noise of songs such as "Destroy The Nations" and "Dog Face Man". The band plastered the word "NO" on much of its equipment and handmade instruments and recorded a film between 1965 and 1966 titled "NO Movie". Member Bill Exley would sometimes wear a monkey mask on stage to conceal his identity. They've been cited as an influence by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth . Captain Beefheart's polarizing brand of avant-rock music has been cited as laying "the groundwork for post-punk , new wave , and no wave, allowing
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3168-520: The iPod , US album sales dropped 54.6% from 2001 to 2009. The CD is a digital data storage device which permits digital recording technology to be used to record and play-back the recorded music. Most recently, the MP3 audio format has matured, revolutionizing the concept of digital storage. Early MP3 albums were essentially CD-rips created by early CD- ripping software, and sometimes real-time rips from cassettes and vinyl. The so-called "MP3 album"
3267-524: The 1970s. Appraising the concept in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau said most "are profit-taking recaps marred by sound and format inappropriate to phonographic reproduction (you can't put sights, smells, or fellowship on audio tape). But for Joe Cocker and Bette Midler and Bob-Dylan -in-the-arena, the form makes a compelling kind of sense." Among
3366-443: The 25-minute mark. The album Dopesmoker by Sleep contains only a single track, but the composition is over 63 minutes long. There are no formal rules against artists such as Pinhead Gunpowder referring to their own releases under thirty minutes as "albums". If an album becomes too long to fit onto a single vinyl record or CD, it may be released as a double album where two vinyl LPs or compact discs are packaged together in
3465-735: The Avenues is considered the climatic apogee of low-budget production values of no wave filmmaking as the film’s dialogue track was dubbed over the 35mm film in editing. For many years the scene was centered around the Mudd Club and Colab 's New Cinema Screening Room on St. Marks Place in the East Village. No Wave Cinema actors included Patti Astor , Steve Buscemi , Cookie Mueller , Debbie Harry , John Lurie , Eric Mitchell , Rockets Redglare , Vincent Gallo , Duncan Hannah , Anya Phillips , Rene Ricard , Arto Lindsay , Tom Wright , Richard Hell , and Lydia Lunch . Visual artists played
3564-584: The Contortions as well as collaborate with Lydia Lunch of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks in 8 Eyed Spy . In 1978, a punk subculture -influenced noise series was held at New York's Artists Space . No wave musicians such as the Contortions , Teenage Jesus and the Jerks , Mars , DNA , Theoretical Girls and Rhys Chatham began experimenting with noise, dissonance and atonality in addition to non-rock styles. The former four groups were included on
3663-672: The Contortions, and Boris Policeband . Shot in black and white and edited on video, the film captured the gritty look and sound of the music scene during that era. In 2013, it was exhibited at Salon 94 , an art gallery in New York City. In 2023, the No Wave movement received institutional recognition at the Centre Pompidou with a Nicolas Ballet curated exhibition entitled Who You Staring At: Culture visuelle de la scène no wave des années 1970 et 1980 ( Visual culture of
3762-607: The Fall , Sonic Youth, Lydia Lunch , Mofungo , Ilona Granet , pre-rap Beastie Boys , 3 Teens Kill 4 , Elliott Sharp as Carbon, Swans, the Ordinaires , and Arto Lindsay as Toy Killers. On May 10, the San Francisco noise-punk band Flipper closed the series out with a live concert at Studio 54 . This event also included performances by Zev and Eric Bogosian and a video presentation by Tony Oursler . Speed Trials
3861-496: The Hollies described his experience in developing a solo album as follows: "The thing that I go through that results in a solo album is an interesting process of collecting songs that can't be done, for whatever reason, by a lot of people". A solo album may also represent the departure of the performer from the group. A compilation album is a collection of material from various recording projects or various artists, assembled with
3960-591: The United Kingdom, the criteria for the UK Albums Chart is that a recording counts as an "album" if it either has more than four tracks or lasts more than 25 minutes. Sometimes shorter albums are referred to as mini-albums or EPs . Albums such as Tubular Bells , Amarok , and Hergest Ridge by Mike Oldfield , and Yes's Close to the Edge , include fewer than four tracks, but still surpass
4059-548: The Velvet Underground (MacLise left before the group began recording). The Theatre of Eternal Music's discordant sustained notes and loud amplification influenced Cale's subsequent contribution to the Velvet Underground in his use of both discordance and feedback. Recent releases of works by Cale and Conrad from the mid-sixties, such as Cale's Inside the Dream Syndicate series ( The Dream Syndicate being
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4158-471: The album a "woof!" rating (signifying "dog-food"), and opined: "The spin cycle of a washing machine has more melodic variation than the electronic drone that was Metal Machine Music ." In 2005, Q magazine included the album in a list of "Ten Terrible Records by Great Artists", and it ranked number four in Q 's list of the 50 worst albums of all time. It was again featured in Q in December 2010, on
4257-424: The album as Metal Machine Trio . In 2011, Reed released a remastered version of Metal Machine Music. A major influence on Reed's recording, for which he tuned all the guitar strings to the same note, was the mid-1960s drone music work of La Monte Young 's Theatre of Eternal Music , whose members included John Cale , Tony Conrad , Angus MacLise and Marian Zazeela . Both Cale and MacLise were also members of
4356-413: The album can be cheaper than buying a domestically released version, Japanese releases often feature bonus tracks to incentivize domestic purchase. Commercial sheet music is published in conjunction with the release of a new album (studio, compilation, soundtrack, etc.). A matching folio songbook is a compilation of the music notation of all the songs included in that particular album. It typically has
4455-567: The album is mentioned in the Bruce Sterling short story "Dori Bangs".) The first issue of the seminal New York zine Punk placed Reed and the album in its inaugural 1976 issue, presaging the advent of both punk and the discordance of the New York No Wave scene. Reed biographer Victor Bockris wrote that the recording can be understood as "the ultimate conceptual punk album and the progenitor of New York punk rock". The album
4554-526: The album's artwork on its cover and, in addition to sheet music, it includes photos of the artist. Most pop and rock releases come in standard Piano/Vocal/Guitar notation format (and occasionally Easy Piano / E-Z Play Today). Rock-oriented releases may also come in Guitar Recorded Versions edition, which are note-for-note transcriptions written directly from artist recordings. Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one-half of
4653-511: The album. If a pop or rock album contained tracks released separately as commercial singles , they were conventionally placed in particular positions on the album. During the sixties, particularly in the UK, singles were generally released separately from albums. Today, many commercial albums of music tracks feature one or more singles, which are released separately to radio, TV or the Internet as
4752-440: The alternative name given by Cale and Conrad to their collective work with Young) testify to the influence this mid-sixties experimental work had on Reed years later. In an interview with rock journalist Lester Bangs , Reed stated that he "had also been listening to Xenakis a lot." He also claimed that he had intentionally placed sonic allusions to classical works such as Beethoven 's Eroica and Pastoral Symphonies in
4851-479: The amount of participation a band member can solicit from other members of their band, and still have the album referred to as a solo album. One reviewer wrote that Ringo Starr 's third venture, Ringo , "[t]echnically... wasn't a solo album because all four Beatles appeared on it". Three of the four members of the Beatles released solo albums while the group was officially still together. A performer may record
4950-412: The art world influence of Andy Warhol's Factory , this seminal band provided a comprehensive model for No Wave." Yoko Ono , a Japanese multimedia Fluxus artist married to John Lennon of The Beatles released an album called Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band in 1970. This record was later assessed as a precursor to punk , post-punk , new wave and no wave – "It's a record dense with ideas and sonics;
5049-510: The audience, comments by the performers between pieces, improvisation, and so on. They may use multitrack recording direct from the stage sound system (rather than microphones placed among the audience), and can employ additional manipulation and effects during post-production to enhance the quality of the recording. Notable early live albums include the double album of Benny Goodman , The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert , released in 1950. Live double albums later became popular during
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#17327977099065148-527: The background music during the mutation scene in The Horror of Party Beach . Side one Side two Side three Side four On the original vinyl release, timings for sides 1–3 were stated as "16:01", while the 4th side read "16:01 or ∞ ", as the last groove on the LP was a continuous loop, known as the locked groove . On CD, this locked groove was imitated for the final 2:22 of the track, fading out at
5247-406: The best selling live albums are Eric Clapton 's Unplugged (1992), selling over 26 million copies, Garth Brooks ' Double Live (1998), over 21 million copies, and Peter Frampton 's Frampton Comes Alive! (1976), over 11 million copies. In Rolling Stone ' s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time , 18 albums were live albums. A solo album , in popular music , is an album recorded by
5346-760: The compilation No New York , often considered the quintessential testament to the scene. The no wave-affiliated label ZE Records was founded in 1978, and would also produce acclaimed and influential compilations in subsequent years. In 1978, Rhys Chatham curated a concert at The Kitchen with two electric guitar noise music bands that involved Glenn Branca ( Theoretical Girls and Daily Life, performed by Branca, Barbara Ess , Paul McMahon, and Christine Hahn) and another two electric-guitar noise music bands that involved Chatham himself ( The Gynecologists and Tone Death, performed by Robert Appleton, Nina Canal, Chatham, and Peter Gordon ). Tone Death performed Chatham's 1977 composition for electric guitars Guitar Trio , that
5445-448: The distortion, and that he had attempted to have the album released on RCA's Red Seal classical label. He repeated the latter claim in a 2007 interview. Metal Machine Music confounded reviewers and listeners when it was first released. The Stranger ' s Dave Segal later claimed it was one of the most divisive records ever, challenging both critics and the artist's core audience much like Miles Davis ' Agharta album did around
5544-425: The documentary Kill Your Idols , including such no wave bands as Suicide, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, DNA and Glenn Branca as well as bands influenced by no wave, including Sonic Youth, Swans, Foetus and others. In 2007–2008, three books on the scene were published: Stuart Baker's (editor) Soul Jazz Records New York Noise (with photographs by Paula Court), Marc Masters' Black Dog Publishing No Wave (with
5643-450: The end. On later CD, DVD, and BluRay reissues, the tracks are retitled as "Part 1", "Part 2", "Part 3", and "Part 4." Studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music ) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track or cassette ), or digital . Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records (78s) collected in
5742-624: The field – as with early blues recordings, in prison, or with a mobile recording unit such as the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio . Most albums are studio albums —that is, they are recorded in a recording studio with equipment meant to give those overseeing the recording as much control as possible over the sound of the album. They minimize external noises and reverberations and have highly sensitive microphones and sound mixing equipment. Band members may record their parts in separate rooms or at separate times, listening to
5841-728: The forays into noise music abrasive territory. For example, Noise Fest was an influential festival of no wave noise music performances curated by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth at the New York City art space White Columns in June 1981. Sonic Youth made their first live appearances at this show. It inspired Speed Trials, the noise rock five-night concert series held May 4–8, 1983, that was organized by Live Skull members in May 1983, also at White Columns (then located at 91 Horatio Street). Among an art installation created by David Wojnarowicz and Joseph Nechvatal , Speed Trials included performances by
5940-500: The form of a prototype. Compact Cassettes became especially popular during the 1980s after the advent of the Sony Walkman , which allowed the person to control what they listened to. The Walkman was convenient because of its size, the device could fit in most pockets and often came equipped with a clip for belts or pants. The compact cassette used double-sided magnetic tape to distribute music for commercial sale. The music
6039-480: The form of boxed sets, although in that case the work is still usually considered to be an album. Material (music or sounds) is stored on an album in sections termed tracks. A music track (often simply referred to as a track) is an individual song or instrumental recording. The term is particularly associated with popular music where separate tracks are known as album tracks; the term is also used for other formats such as EPs and singles . When vinyl records were
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#17327977099066138-455: The gleefully enthusiastic Lester Bangs didn't fully 'get' Metal Machine Music . In a December 2017 review, Mark Richardson of Pitchfork gave Metal Machine Music a score of 8.7 out of 10. He describes the album as an "exhilarating" listen. Despite the intense criticism (or perhaps because of the exposure it generated), Metal Machine Music reportedly sold 100,000 copies in the US, according to
6237-957: The history of film noir . Handheld Super 8 film cameras were initially the means to shoot the films often in the street, in downtown nightclubs, in cars, or apartments using available light. The first No Wave film was Ivan Kral and Amos Poes 1976 film The Blank Generation that explored the No Wave music scene in CBGB's with the Ramones , Talking Heads , Blondie and Patti Smith , among several others. No Wave filmmakers included Amos Poe , Eric Mitchell , Scott B and Beth B , Jim Jarmusch , Jamie Nares , Coleen Fitzgibbon , Diego Cortez , Charlie Ahearn , Tom DiCillo , Lizzie Borden , Susan Seidelman , Vincent Gallo , Charlie Ahearn , Adele Bertei , David Wojnarowicz , Vivienne Dick , Kiki Smith , Michael McClard, Andrea Callard and Seth Tillett. Eric Mitchell’s 1985 film The Way It Is or Eurydice in
6336-645: The idea of a compilation album, No New York , with himself as a producer. By the early 1980s, artists such as Liquid Liquid , the B-52's , Cristina , Arthur Russell , James White and the Blacks and Lizzy Mercier Descloux developed a dance-oriented style described by Lucy Sante as "anything at all + disco bottom". Other no-wave groups such as Swans , Suicide , Glenn Branca , the Lounge Lizards , Bush Tetras and Sonic Youth instead continued exploring
6435-588: The later '30s, record companies began releasing albums of previously released recordings of popular music in albums organized by performer, singers or bands, or by type of music, boogie-woogie , for example. When Columbia introduced the Long Playing record format in 1948, it was natural the term album would continue. Columbia expected that the record size distinction in 78s would continue, with classical music on 12" records and popular music on 10" records, and singles on 78s. Columbia's first popular 10" LP in fact
6534-539: The likes of Brian Eno and David Bowie to pick up from where Beefheart had left off". The Godz were a New York City-based psychedelic noise band connected to ESP-Disk . John Dougan opined in AllMusic : " the three squalling bits of avant-garde noise/junk they recorded from 1966-1968. Sounding like a prototype for Half Japanese or the Shaggs .." Cromagnon were a 1960s New York City band whose sole album Orgasm
6633-769: The liner notes of the Buddah Records CD issue. The original edition was withdrawn within three weeks of its release. Lou Reed did not perform Metal Machine Music on stage until March 2002, when he collaborated with an avant-garde classical ensemble at the MaerzMusik festival in Berlin. The 10-member group Zeitkratzer performed the original album with Reed in a new arrangement by Ulrich Krieger , featuring classical string, wind, piano, and accordion. Live recordings with (2007) and without (2014; all-acoustic) Reed are available commercially. A few years later, Reed formed
6732-492: The longer 12-inch 78s, playing around 4–5 minutes per side. For example, in 1924, George Gershwin recorded a drastically shortened version of his new seventeen-minute composition Rhapsody in Blue with Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra. The recording was issued on both sides of a single record, Victor 55225 and ran for 8m 59s. By 1910, though some European record companies had issued albums of complete operas and other works,
6831-541: The magazine's "Top Ten Career Suicides" list, where it came eighth overall. The Trouser Press Record Guide referred to it as "four sides of unlistenable oscillator noise", parenthetically calling that assessment "a description, not a value judgment". Mark Deming's review for AllMusic said that while noise rock groups "have created some sort of context for it", Metal Machine Music "hasn't gotten any more user friendly with time", given it "paus[ed] only for side breaks with no rhythms, melodies, or formal structures to buffer
6930-483: The mid-1930s, record companies had adopted the album format for classical music selections that were longer than the roughly eight minutes that fit on both sides of a classical 12" 78 rpm record. Initially the covers were plain, with the name of the selection and performer in small type. In 1938, Columbia Records hired the first graphic designer in the business to design covers, others soon followed and colorful album covers cover became an important selling feature. By
7029-487: The mid-1960s to the late 1970s when the Compact Cassette format took over. The format is regarded as an obsolete technology, and was relatively unknown outside the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. Stereo 8 was created in 1964 by a consortium led by Bill Lear of Lear Jet Corporation , along with Ampex , Ford Motor Company , General Motors , Motorola , and RCA Victor Records . It
7128-563: The ocean". There are different theories about how the term was coined. Some suggest Lydia Lunch coined the term in an interview with Roy Trakin in New York Rocker . Others suggest it was coined by Chris Nelson (of Mofungo and The Scene Is Now ) in New York Rocker . Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth claimed to have seen the term spray-painted on CBGB 's Second Avenue Theater at 66 Second Avenue before seeing it in
7227-406: The onslaught". Rock critic Lester Bangs wrote of Metal Machine Music : "as classical music it adds nothing to a genre that may well be depleted. As rock 'n' roll it's interesting garage electronic rock 'n' roll. As a statement it's great, as a giant FUCK YOU it shows integrity—a sick, twisted, dunced-out, malevolent, perverted, psychopathic integrity, but integrity nevertheless." Bangs later wrote
7326-443: The other parts of the track with headphones to keep the timing right. In the 2000s, with the advent of digital recording , it became possible for musicians to record their part of a song in another studio in another part of the world, and send their contribution over digital channels to be included in the final product. Recordings that are done in one take without overdubbing or multi-tracking are termed "live", even when done in
7425-414: The other. The user would stack the two records onto the spindle of an automatic record changer, with side 1 on the bottom and side 2 (on the other record) on top. Side 1 would automatically drop onto the turntable and be played. When finished, the tone arm's position would trigger a mechanism which moved the arm out of the way, dropped the record with side 2, and played it. When both records had been played,
7524-516: The personal and the political". Suicide was a New York City band that was formed in 1970 by Alan Vega and Martin Rev . It has been cited by Pitchfork's Marc Masters as having "the biggest influence on no-wave". Nihilist Spasm Band was an early noise music / noise rock band from the 1960s. Its debut record, No Record, released in 1968, has been described as being a '60s precursor to no wave, with its nihilistic worldview and complete disregard for any sort of musical structure, as evinced by
7623-464: The practice of issuing albums was not widely taken up by American record companies until the 1920s. By about 1910, bound collections of empty sleeves with a paperboard or leather cover, similar to a photograph album, were sold as record albums that customers could use to store their records (the term "record album" was printed on some covers). These albums came in both 10-inch and 12-inch sizes. The covers of these bound books were wider and taller than
7722-560: The press. There is a well-known origin story of punk rock - thus no wave - that traces it back to the influence of three American bands: MC5 , The Stooges , and The Velvet Underground , a 1960s New York City band seen as early contributors to the New York City-based no wave movement. As described by Pitchfork's Marc Masters: "Mixing the noisy rock leanings of Lou Reed , the minimalist drones of John Cale (via his work with avant-garde pioneer LaMonte Young ), and
7821-406: The primary medium for audio recordings a track could be identified visually from the grooves and many album covers or sleeves included numbers for the tracks on each side. On a compact disc the track number is indexed so that a player can jump straight to the start of any track. On digital music stores such as iTunes the term song is often used interchangeably with track regardless of whether there
7920-404: The record industry as a standard format for the "album". Apart from relatively minor refinements and the important later addition of stereophonic sound capability, it has remained the standard format for vinyl albums. The term "album" was extended to other recording media such as 8-track tape , cassette tape , compact disc , MiniDisc , and digital albums, as they were introduced. As part of
8019-623: The record not touching the shelf, and the term was applied to the collection. In the early nineteenth century, "album" was occasionally used in the titles of some classical music sets, such as Robert Schumann 's Album for the Young Opus 68, a set of 43 short pieces. With the advent of 78 rpm records in the early 1900s, the typical 10-inch disc could only hold about three minutes of sound per side, so almost all popular recordings were limited to around three minutes in length. Classical-music and spoken-word items generally were released on
8118-451: The recording, and lyrics or librettos . Historically, the term "album" was applied to a collection of various items housed in a book format. In musical usage, the word was used for collections of short pieces of printed music from the early nineteenth century. Later, collections of related 78s were bundled in book-like albums (one side of a 78 rpm record could hold only about 3.5 minutes of sound). When LP records were introduced,
8217-497: The records inside, allowing the record album to be placed on a shelf upright, like a book, suspending the fragile records above the shelf and protecting them. In the 1930s, record companies began issuing collections of 78s by one performer or of one type of music in specially assembled albums, typically with artwork on the front cover and liner notes on the back or inside cover. Most albums included three or four records, with two sides each, making six or eight compositions per album. By
8316-452: The release and distribution Compact Discs . The 2010s saw a revival of Compact Cassettes by independent record labels and DIY musicians who preferred the format because of its difficulty to share over the internet . The compact disc format replaced both the vinyl record and the cassette as the standard for the commercial mass-market distribution of physical music albums. After the introduction of music downloading and MP3 players such as
8415-497: The same time. On release, it was reviewed in Rolling Stone magazine as sounding like "the tubular groaning of a galactic refrigerator" and as displeasing to experience as "a night in a bus terminal ". In the 1979 Rolling Stone Record Guide , critic Billy Altman said it was "a two-disc set consisting of nothing more than ear-wrecking electronic sludge, guaranteed to clear any room of humans in record time". (This aspect of
8514-410: The scene pursued an abrasive reductionism which "undermined the power and mystique of a rock vanguard by depriving it of a tradition to react against". Anderson claimed that the no wave scene represented "New York's last stylistically cohesive avant-rock movement". There were, however, some elements common to most no-wave music, such as abrasive atonal sounds; repetitive, driving rhythms ; and
8613-517: The show featured DNA and the Contortions on Friday, followed by Mars and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks on Saturday. English musician and producer Brian Eno , who had originally come to New York to produce the second Talking Heads album More Songs About Buildings and Food , was in the audience. Impressed by what he saw and heard, and advised by Diego Cortez to do so, Eno was convinced that this movement should be documented and proposed
8712-416: The user would pick up the stack, turn it over, and put them back on the spindle—sides 3 and 4 would then play in sequence. Record changers were used for many years of the LP era, but eventually fell out of use. 8-track tape (formally Stereo 8: commonly known as the eight-track cartridge, eight-track tape, or simply eight-track) is a magnetic tape sound recording technology popular in the United States from
8811-592: Was Frank Sinatra's first album, the four-record eight-song The Voice of Frank Sinatra , originally issued in 1946. RCA's introduction of the smaller 45 rpm format later in 1948 disrupted Columbia's expectations. By the mid-1950s, 45s dominated the singles market and 12" LPs dominated the album market and both 78s and 10" LPs were discontinued. In the 1950s albums of popular music were also issued on 45s, sold in small heavy paper-covered "gate-fold" albums with multiple discs in sleeves or in sleeves in small boxes. This format disappeared around 1960. Sinatra's "The Voice"
8910-548: Was a further development of the similar Stereo-Pak four-track cartridge created by Earl "Madman" Muntz . A later quadraphonic version of the format was announced by RCA in April 1970 and first known as Quad-8, then later changed to just Q8. The Compact Cassette was a popular medium for distributing pre-recorded music from the early 1970s to the early 2000s. The first "Compact Cassette" was introduced by Philips in August 1963 in
9009-405: Was characterized by a rejection of the recycling of traditional rock aesthetics, such as blues rock styles and Chuck Berry guitar riffs in punk and new wave music . No wave groups drew on and explored such disparate stylistic forms as minimalism , conceptual art , funk , jazz , blues , punk rock , and avant garde noise music . According to Village Voice writer Steve Anderson,
9108-567: Was cited by AllMusic 's Alex Henderson as foreshadowing no-wave. Jack Ruby were a New York City band that formed in 1973, they were an early influence on Sonic Youth and Thurston Moore , and are seen as early pioneers of the aesthetic, philosophy, and sound of no wave. Additionally, members included Randy Cohen on drums and synthesizer as well as Boris Policeband who played viola through an FM transmitter and strapped police walkie-talkies around his waist. Subsequently, bassist George Scott III would join no wave group James Chance and
9207-828: Was followed by the short-lived after-hours audio art Speed Club that was established by Nechvatal and Bradley Eros at ABC No Rio that summer. No Wave Cinema was an underground low-budget film scene in Tribeca and the East Village from the late-1970s to the mid-1980s. Rooted in the gritty, rebellious ethos of the Lower East Side’s no wave post-punk art scene, No Wave Cinema was marked by its DIY approach, low budgets, and an unpolished aesthetic that rejected mainstream filmmaking conventions. Musicians, visual artists, and filmmakers converged, regularly working across multiple mediums. This interdisciplinary collaboration and
9306-414: Was from this that in medieval and modern times, album came to denote a book of blank pages in which verses, autographs, sketches, photographs and the like are collected. This in turn led to the modern meaning of an album as a collection of audio recordings issued as a single item. The first audio albums were actually published by the publishers of photograph albums. Single 78 rpm records were sold in
9405-628: Was inspired by La Monte Young 's minimalist masterpiece Trio for Strings and Chatham's exposure to The Ramones at CBGB via Peter Gordon. This proto-No Wave concert was followed a few weeks later when Artists Space served as a site of concrete inception for the No Wave music movement, hosting a five night underground No Wave music festival, organized by artists Michael Zwack and Robert Longo , that featured 10 local bands; including Rhys Chatham 's The Gynecologists , Communists, Glenn Branca 's Theoretical Girls , Terminal, Rhys Chatham 's Tone Death. and Branca's Daily Life. The final two days of
9504-399: Was issued in 1952 on two extended play 45s, with two songs on each side, in both packagings. The 10-inch and 12-inch LP record (long play), or 33 + 1 ⁄ 3 rpm microgroove vinyl record, is a gramophone record format introduced by Columbia Records in 1948. A single LP record often had the same or similar number of tunes as a typical album of 78s, and it was adopted by
9603-571: Was ranked number two in the 1991 book The Worst Rock 'n' Roll Records of All Time by Jimmy Guterman and Owen O'Donnell. Village Voice critic Robert Christgau referred to Metal Machine Music as Reed's "answer to Environments " and said it had "certainly raised consciousness in both the journalistic and business communities" and was not "totally unlistenable", though he admitted for white noise he would rather listen to " Sister Ray ". Writing in MusicHound Rock (1999), Greg Kot gave
9702-423: Was short-lived but highly influential in the music world. The 1978 compilation No New York is often considered the quintessential testament to the scene's musical aesthetic. Aside from the music genre, the no wave movement also had a significant influence in independent film ( no wave cinema ), fashion, and visual art. No wave is not a clearly definable musical genre with consistent features, but it generally
9801-446: Was the first tape format widely used alongside vinyl from 1965 until being phased out by 1983, being gradually supplanted by the cassette tape throughout the 1970s and early 1980s; the popularity of the cassette reached its peak during the late 1980s before sharply declining during the 1990s. The cassette had largely disappeared by the first decade of the 2000s. Most albums are recorded in a studio , although they may also be recorded in
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