Faust

Dave Morrison

Select, Feb 1993

In the introductory murk to Faust (1971), brief snippets of "All You Need is Love" and "Satisfaction" emerge before being swalled up again. A minor but telling detail. Faust were intent on producing a new german music that owed nothing to US or UK influences, or indeed to any established scene.

An understanding record company, a converted schoolhouse studio at their disposal and a year and a half later, voila! one astonishing debut. It set a blueprint of sorts in it's musical fission of rock, pastoral melodies, speech and abstract sounds. Anything that could be recorded, was.

So Far (1972) followed suit and this approach reached it's apogee on the sonic cut and paste of The Faust Tapes (1973), the band's favourite and an uncategorisable classic.

A lukewarm reception met the less abrasive Faust IV (1974) quite amazingly so, as the grasp of mood and atmosphere throughout has yet to be bettered. These trends continued through an aborted follow-up which, together with the erratically brilliant Faust Party Tapes, make up the Seventy One Minutes Of... compilation. These albums have been reissued on the heels of Can's recent gig, though the Polydor CD's are available on import only.

Faust demand your attention as their influence over the last 20 years has been immense - it still is - and there are threads yet to be taken up. These recordings are no museum-piece nostalgia but a library of possibilities. So why deny yourself access?