LOU REED レコード& CD

Review: Light In The Attic's continued series of Lou Reed reissues follows up the outstanding Words and Music, May 1965 with this wholly different side to the legendary singer-songwriter. As a devoted student of Tai Chi, Reed composed some ambient pieces for his own personal use while practicing. It was only as friends started to ask for copies that he decided to round the project out and present it as his last solo album - in his own words, "I then wrote two more pieces with the same intent: to relax the body, mind, and spirit and facilitate meditation." As well as the music, remastered and pressed onto double vinyl, there's bonus reading material in the form of interviews with people close to Reed in the context of his Tai Chi, yoga and meditation practice.

Review: Beyond his most famous work in The Velvet Underground and as a solo rock artist, Lou Reed lived many other lives in and outside of music. While he's not readily recognised as an ambient artist, his early foray into Metal Machine Music proved he was more than capable of leaving traditional song structures behind. The music on his final solo album, Hudson River Wind Meditations, was originally composed as a private soundtrack to his Tai Chi practice, until friends and fellow practitioners asked for copies and he rounded it out as a full album now faithfully presented on clear vinyl by Light In The Attic.

Review: A new early cornerstone for Velvet Underground fanatics, 'Words And Music May 1965' is Lou Reed in his earliest incarnation, spanning some of the artist's earliest-known recordings. Demo versions of 'Heroin' and 'Pale Blue Eyes' both make appearances, while seven further completely unreleased and unheard songs also come to fruition. The earliest is a doo-wop serenade recorded in 1958, when Reed was just sixteen years old.

Review: Remarkably, it's 25 years since the release of Lou Reed's seventeenth solo album, Set the Twilight Reeling. To celebrate this significant anniversary, Reed has decided to offer-up a fresh vinyl edition, this time on audiophile-friendly heavy wax with an accompanying booklet. To aid sound quality, the album has now been stretched over three sides of vinyl, with the fourth featuring an etched image of the album's artwork. It's a beautifully presented reissue all told, though it's the quality of the music - typically fuzzy, lo-fi and dominated by the twin attractions of Reed's proto-punk guitars and weather-worn vocals - that impresses most. While not one of the most celebrated sets in Reed's epic catalogue, Set The Twilight Reeling is still a hugely impressive and involving album.

Review: You can now get your hands on this superb live album from The Velvet Underground members Lou Reed, John Cale and Nico on plain black vinyl or, more excellently, this white limited edition version. This set was the first time the group members had all been up on stage together since the original band disbanded. It was first aired on French TV having been recorded at the Bataclan club in Paris, on January 29, 1972. It got a first official release in 2004 having been bootlegged for many years before that from a recording taken from the sound board at the gig. Due to a problem with tape transfers, the speed on some releases is slower than the original concert.

Review: Le Bataclan 1972 captures the moment at which Lou Reed, Nico and John Cale all came together at the legendary Paris venue for the first time since (the three founding members of) The Velvet Underground split up as a unified band. Proving that collaborative sovereignty can still go on strongly, despite the symbolic dissolution of what we call a 'band', this much-bootlegged gig was famous for the performers' conscious decision to perform each other's solo works, celebrating mutual individuality rather than complete unity. With 'Candy Says', 'Pale Blue Eyes' and 'All Tomorrow's Parties' all featuring, this isn't just a social experiment either - it has full appeal for new and old Velvet Underground fans alike.