Press Release

Chris Cutler

Recommended, 1996

The Faust Tapes RERF2CD

71 Minutes RERF7CD

Inventors of 'Kraut Rock', iconoclasts extraordinaire, Faust are key figures in 20th Century music. In the early 70's, along with Can and Kraftwerk, they re-invented pop music as a specifically European art-form. Virtually imprisoned by Polydor in their own studio for two years, they were able to revolutionize the whole process of musical production; they improvised with Industrial noise, generated bizarre hypnotic grooves, indulged in shockingly wilful studio-based collages, and dabbled with every conceivable musical genre, sometimes simultaneously! Every now and then they found time for a burst of satirical pop, or occasional waves of delicate ambience.

Amongst those Faust have strongly influenced we must count Brian Eno, Joy Division, Cabaret Voltaire, Test Department, Neubauten, My Bloody Valentine, Julian Cope and a host of Industrial and Techno bands. The music has lost none of it's immediacy or relevance - it sounds as if it was recorded last week, not last decade. The Faust Tapes explores the concept of the studio as a compositional tool, using all manner of quick-fire cuts and cross-fades; 71 Minutes, comprising the LP's Munic & Elsewhere and The Last LP, reflects the larger hypnotic structures of the group's live performances. These out-takes, improvisations and second thoughts were recorded after the group had left Polydor and Virgin, and have never before been widely available.Faust have begun to perform again after a break of fifteen years. Recent gigs in London and Hamburg have only bolstered the legend.

"A radical mix of Musique Conrete, Stockhausen, the Velvet Underground, and moments of almost pastoral beauty."

NME

"Faust were first!"

Time Out

"Anyone who's loved the last half-decade's re-invention of the guitar, (Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentineet al.), will instantly recognise Faust as a prime ancestor of 'our' music."

Melody Maker

"the greatest thing ever.... a source of INTENSE inspiration."

Julian Cope

ref: ReR Records