Faust Tapes / 71 Mins

David Cavanagh

Q Magazine, Jan 1993

The Faust re-issue blitz is completed with the arrival once again of The Faust Tapes. Coming just behind "The Basement Tapes" and "The Troggs Tapes" in rock mythology, it sold for 49p when released on Virgin in 1973 and achieved cult notoriety for being, after Can's "Tago Mago", the next big Krautrock statement of the early 70's. One 43-minute piece of music on CD (and therefore impossible to programme), it's a far-out, fantastic journey of teeth-grinding experimental machine-noise, beautiful piano sketches, syncopated-up funky bits and unclassifiable pop tunes. Rock music rarely comes more groovy or more compelling.

Seventy One Minutes Of... combines Münich and Elsewhere, a posthumous album of bits and pieces, and an unreleased album called Faust Party Three, much of it recorded after Faust's famous collective 'disappearance'. The results are oddball, intimidating and otherworldly sketches that only bolster the legend.