Faust: Faust IV 1973 (2 CD Special Edition 2006)

 

Since 2004 two different bands, both having original members, carrying the name Faust are active.

German for "fist", and also the protagonist of Goethe's eponymous play, Faust were one of the first bands to use the recording studio as an instrument. After two albums for Polydor, they signed with the fledgling Virgin label. Priced as a single, "The Faust Tapes" album sold a staggering 50,000 + copies - amazing since it is one amazingly weird pastiche.
                                                   

Their live appearances were explosive (literally), as the pinball machines and jack-hammer legends

detail. The band carried on for nearly two years after "IV", however that album, recorded outside the Wümme studio, was their last. Faust came back in 1995 with a new series of albums and live appearances.
                                                   

Jean-Hervé Peron, former bassist and vocalist with Faust, would like to get something straight about his old band – specifically, the period in the early 1970s when they were living in a commune in Wümme, a rural area outside Hamburg. Faust’s time in Wümme is one of the great sagas in the history of

experimental rock, which begins with their wily late manager, Uwe Nettelbeck, somehow convincing Polydor that they were signing not a recently formed collection of Hamburg musicians who would prove to be the most uncompromising band in an uncompromising era for German rock – even by the standards of fellow travellers Can, Kraftwerk and Amon Düül II, Faust’s eponymous 1971 debut album was a provocative, revolutionary, flat-out weird listen – but “the German Beatles”.
                                             

["There is no group more mythical than Faust," wrote Julian Cope in his book Krautrocksampler, which detailed the pivotal influence the German band exerted over the development of ambient and industrial textures.
                                            

The group's initial run during the early '70s produced a series of albums which radically reimagined the role of the recording studio, introducing tape cut-up techniques and Dada-ist whimsy to freewheeling psychedelic rock. The band's releases earned a cult following, particularly 1973's Faust IV, a more accessible set which gradually attained classic status.
                                                

The group disbanded in 1975, and some of the founding members reconvened in 1990. Faust continued performing and releasing albums which demonstrated how the group had become a lasting influence on

industrial, techno, noise-rock, and even hip-hop, as evidenced by their 2004 collaboration with Dälek, Derbe Respect, Alder. Two separate lineups of Faust, both centered around original members, subsequently became active, with the incarnation featuring Jean Hervé Péron and Werner Diermaier becoming the most prolific, touring often and releasing albums such as 2017's Fresh Air.
                                      

Producer/overseer Uwe Nettelbeck, a one-time music journalist, formed Faust in Wumme, Germany, in 1971 with founding members Hans Joachim Irmler, Jean Hervé Péron, Werner "Zappi" Diermaier,

Rudolf Sosna, Gunther Wusthoff, and Armulf Meifert. Upon receiving advance money from their label, Nettelbeck converted an old schoolhouse into a recording studio, where the group spent the first several months of its existence in almost total isolation, honing their unique cacophonous sound with the aid of occasional guests like minimalist composer Tony Conrad and members of Slapp Happy.
By Jason Ankeny]

FAUST IV  1973

                                                        

[Coming on the heels of the cut-and-paste sound-collage schizophrenia of The Faust Tapes, Faust IV

seems relatively subdued and conventional, though it's still a far cry from what anyone outside the German avant-garde rock scene was doing. The album's disparate threads don't quite jell into something larger (as in the past), but there's still much to recommend it. The nearly 12-minute electro-acoustic opener "Krautrock" is sometimes viewed as a comment on Faust's droning, long-winded contemporaries, albeit one that would lose its point by following the same conventions.
                                           

There are a couple of oddball pop numbers that capture the group's surreal sense of whimsy: one, "The

Sad Skinhead," through its reggae-ish beat, and another, "It's a Bit of a Pain," by interrupting a pastoral acoustic guitar number with the most obnoxious synth noises the band can conjure. Aside from "Krautrock," there is a trend toward shorter track lengths and more vocals, but there are still some unpredictably sudden shifts in the instrumental pieces, even though it only occasionally feels like an idea is being interrupted at random (quite unlike The Faust Tapes).
                                             

There are several beat-less, mostly electronic soundscapes full of fluttering, blooping synth effects, as

well as plenty of the group's trademark Velvet Underground-inspired guitar primitivism, and even a Frank Zappa-esque jazz-rock passage. Overall, Faust IV comes off as more a series of not-always-related experiments, but there are more than enough intriguing moments to make it worthwhile. Unfortunately, it would be the last album the group recorded (at least in its first go-round).
By Steve Huey]
                                                                

Faust – Faust IV (Special Edition 2 CD) 2006
Label: Virgin – CDVR 2004, Virgin – 0946 356362 2 2
Format:    2 x CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Stereo 2006
Country: UK
Released: 1973   
Genre: Rock
Style: Krautrock, Prog Rock

TRACKS

CD 1.

               

01. Krautrock    11:46
02. The Sad Skinhead    2:34
03. Jennifer    7:10
04. Just A Second (Starts Like That!) / Picnic On A Frozen River / Deuxieme Tableux    3:35
05. Giggy Smile    7:45
06. Läuft...Heisst Das Es Läuft Oder Es Kommt Bald...Läuft    8:06
07. It's A Bit Of A Pain    3:09

MP3 @ 320 Size: 106 MB
Flac  Size: 264 MB

CD 2.

                                                    

01. The Lurcher    7:52
02. Krautrock    11:44
03. Do So    2:32
04. Jennifer - Alternative Version    4:47
05. The Sad Skinhead - Alternative Version    3:19
06. Just A Second (Starts Like That!) - Extended Version    10:30
07. Piano Piece    5:56
08. Läuft...Heisst Das Es Läuft Oder Es Kommt Bald...Läuft - Alternative Version    4:12
09. Giggy Smile - Alternative Version    5:55

MP3 @ 320 Size: 134 MB
Flac  Size: 340 MB

Recorded at The Manor, Oxfordshire, England June 73.
Tracks CD1-1 to CD1-7 originally released on LP in 1973.
Tracks CD2-1 to CD2-3:
Recorded for the John Peel Show on BBC Radio 1.
First transmission date: 1st March 1973.
Released by arrangement with BBC Music.
Tracks CD2-4 to CD2-9:
Original mixes at The Manor Studios, Oxfordshire in June 1973.