Patchwork Review

Adam Sweeting

Guardian Online, 03 Jan 2003

Opening with a devastatingly negative review (in German) of Faust's live debut in 1971, Patchwork dips into the group's 30-year commitment to un-pop to assemble a sonic collage that "discloses the creative energy within Faust", according to the ineptly translated sleeve note.

Faust haven't pursued a 'career' so much as a monastic creative vocation, a social experiment mirrored in the apparently haphazard splinters of their recordings. From the naive folkisms of Psalter or Stretch Out to the unrelenting noise of Rittersleut and Anderes or the turbine hum of Tourbotrain, Faust have approached their work as a free forum of ideas rather than conforming to somebody else's preconceptions.

Let other people join 'the business' or make 'albums' - Faust preferred communal self-determination and random home-made bootlegs. That doesn't mean you have to like it, but music this stark and astringent seems astonishing in these rigidly conformist times.

ref: Guardian Review