Customer Reviews

The Faust Tapes

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4 star:		(3)
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I always wanted music to sound like this, because it never gets boring (that is if it doesn't make you run screaming from the room). There are 2 or 3 "regular" songs here (I use the word regular in the broadest of terms) that kind of melt out of the surrounding haze and melt back in when done, though you can never really deliniate where one section ends and one begins in this surreal dadaistic masterpiece, though some parts do shockingly come out of nowhere. I'm intentionally writing this in a fairly non-linear fashion to give you some grasp of the swirling deeply strange music you're in for if you buy this cd which I do highly recommend you do, now). While I'm certianly glad all music isn't like this (or I'd slowly go mad), I sure am glad this album exists because it is quite unique in the world of music (I won't even call it rock, though it's related). I've played this for people who loved it, but it is only the adventurous hearty soul who will enjoy it, as it's extremely wierd and can be quite jarring at times, but for those who like that kind of thing, you're gonna fall in love with this. One of the best albums along with Can's Tago Mago, and Amon Duul II's Tanz der Lemmings to emerge from the Krautrock scene.

This recording is a good example of the innovations and wonders of Faust. There is only one track on this album (which is somewhat of an annoyance if anything else) which consists of about 25 or so "passages" which together create the mother of all sound collages. Faust's innovating and originality is staggering. There is nothing quite like Faust. It's a fun, but challenging listen to hear all of the crazy things Faust's members throw together. When I describe Faust's music to others I explain to them that their music is kind of like abstract expressionism for sound: a soundscape/collage that creates a dreamworld for the listener to explore, music that stirs up feelings and emotions inside of you. It's like exploring a dream you once had that was both curious and interesting but yet undescribeable and you wanted keep dreaming that dream and develop it more. It's very stimulating music. Music listeners with an open mind for experimental sounds and sound collage should check this out. Although I think that this particular recording (or set of recordings) is wonderful, try their first self-titled album out first (which you can only buy now as an import off of Amazon), or if you want to delve into Faust's more accessible outings, try Faust IV for a more song structure oriented (but still challenging) side of Faust. Great band. Great material. One of Germany's finest groups along side with the extraordinary Can and Kraftwerk.

A fantabulous collection of outrighteously mesmerated sounds, this was originally released for 50 pence (the price of a single) as part of Virgin Record's first four releases. Selling several thousand copies, it was a quietly revolutionary album which went on to influence a generation of post-rock, lo-fi lounge-core fanatics, most notably Stereolab and Tortoise.

Musically, it's a bit like Monty Python, in that it's a mish-mash of cut-up songs, sound effects and other noises, edited together with no real reason or rhyme. There are three or four proper songs buried in there, and a lot of odd, experimental stuff, but if you get bored of a passage you just have to wait for a minute or so and a new one pops along. I went through it and wrote down an index, once.

Bits of it seem to be amazingly modern - there's a short acid house piece, something else that has what sounds like a dentist drill, and lots of amazingly strange sound effects that you will try to reproduce. The proper songs include a ballad about leaving your place and walking in someone other's garden, and a riff-based thing in which somebody shouts lyrics about mind control. All in all it's a great thing.

After this came a concert tour (involving road drills, television sets and pinball), 'Faust IV', which was so named because it was their fourth album, and a long period of haitus followed by a return to producing music ('You Know FaUSt' and a newer album, the name of which I have forgotten) as if they had never stopped.

First released in 1973,this one track that lasts 43 minutes is dubbed by many as a krautrock classic.No arguement from me.It's quite enjoyable,progressive and innovating to say the least.There are,however brief portions here that show up on 'Faust IV' and '71 Minutes' tending to sound a bit different.For awhile this title was hard to find,should be easier to locate a copy now.Recommended.

If you can appreciate highly experimental, way-out excursions in sound, you should check this out. This is no-holds-barred avant-garde/avant-noise and essential Krautrock (for the uninitiated, Germany's 60's/early 70's "hippie" movement in music).

There's actually a fair amount of music to be found among the wide variety of noises although most of the album consists of chopped-up segments laced together . . . limitations of song structure and the like are abandoned. Some do qualify as songs, namely "Flashback Caruso," "Stretch Out Time," "Der Baum" . . . "J'ai Mal Aux Dents" is a jarring but brilliant song. The translation from French (the band is actually German of course) is "My Teeth Hurt" which is appropriate because this is teeth grinding stuff, like a robot gone haywire or a crankhead on a mission. At one point, the song is invaded by a bizarre, urgent sax. If this description sounds unappealing, you might be surprised to find out how addictive it is.

The "Exercise - with voices" that precedes "J'ai Mal Aux Dents" is quite an intense piece in its own right and a foreboding precursor. There are so many wild sounds to discover and explore I couldn't begin to cover them all. But the synthesiser stuff (Moog or whatever they used) is incredible. "Untitled (track 16)" is a prime example of synth weirdness in flight and "Untitled (track 19)" sounds like "Pong" in the fourth demention.

Faust also excel at playing instruments, often piano or acoustic guitar, in a classical style, strangely incorporated into the chaos. More often these and many other instruments are drenched in echo and who knows what other sonic manipulations.

Back to the "songs," defined as having a vocal passage and some sense of order: some of them actually sound like they were made from brilliant 60's rebels who listened to the Beach Boys (couldn't sing like them but they made up for that - truth be told I'm no Beach Boys fan anyway) "Chere Chambre" features a narration from Jean-Hevre Peron in mostly french. His name and accent lead me to believe that he is, indeed, french. His contributions add a lot of color to TAPES.

Both the experiments and the songs are fascinating. They all have the unique Faust imprint that reflects a playful love of life and strange music. Highly recommended for the adventurous!

I had read some reviews of this mysterious early German progressive band and was thoroughly intrigued. I picked up a used vinyl copy of this around 1986 and couldn't stop playing it. Truly a sound collage of snips of various pieces. Their influences are broad (Velvet Underground, Pink Floyd, Zappa, King Crimson elements can be heard throughout)but they still manage to sound original. From what I understand this was originally sold for the price of a single when it was first released. A true avante-garde classic.

This record shows Faust at its height of patchwork studio reocrding. Only one track, the songs fading, sometimes chopping into eachother. May remind some of early Mothers of Invention, say Uncle Meat, but much less tongue in cheek. For more Faust info and similar bands, mail me. Darvon Jarvis

As the old saying goes, "there's no band more mythical than Faust". (If I remember well it was Julian Cope who used to say so). Faust are the quintessential Krautrock band (a term which refers to German underground music in the '70s). Arty (so arty that in fact they border on insanity or incomprehensibility), weird, eccentric. Simply put, mad! This is an excellent record but you'd better keep away from it unless you have a thing for experimental (or at least indie) stuff. It will take a while to grow on you but eventually you'll love it beyond love.

P.S. Please allow me a suggestion: buy all of their records (the first two are available on a single disc compilation unless you are willing to buy the extremely expensive and import-only originals) and also buy something by fellow seminal Krautrock band Can.

I was originally planning on giving the Faust Tapes a rating of 4 out of 5 stars, but you know, I'd actually feel like that would be a horrible and inaccurate mistake because, quite frankly, there is literally nothing else out there quite like this.

Yes, Captain Beefheart has Trout Mask Replica, Mike Oldfield has Tubular Bells and King Crimson has several insane albums in their arsenal but well... perhaps if someone were to combine BOTH Trout Mask Replica and Tubular Bells together the results would sort of sound as extraordinary as this. However, dare I say, even the roughest moments of Trout Mask Replica have trouble standing in the same league as a few moments on the Faust Tapes.

These moments would probably be the extremely gritty vocals that make an appearance about 8 minutes in. Then the horns... yes that's right- YOU remember the horns from Trout Mask Replica! They sounded like a flock of geese, remember? Well on the Faust Tapes, they're utilized in a more hazy, psychedelic kind of way reminiscent of early 70's Hawkwind perhaps, but the relentless of the background vocals is just too hardcore for words. I think this particular moment elevates the craziness a notch higher than Trout Mask Replica, seriously.

As you've probably read by now, the album is basically one 40-minute plus song since -as far as I know- there's no actual track names. Alright so amazon lists some song titles in their description but well... it's hard to actually THINK of this collection of sounds as anything other than a big sloppy pile of constant weirdness.

The music only lets up momentarily before leading into something equally bizarre and highly experimental. Go on, just NAME something experimental and it's probably featured somewhere among all the chaotic noise and brilliance. That's how creative it is. Sometimes an album goes a little *too* insanely far with their constant experimenting that it'd simply be impossible to put into words what exactly makes it so unbelievably fascinating. The Faust Tapes fits that description. I can't stress enough how important it is to hear this album. Don't worry about the fact it's not popular like the Captain Beefheart album. Perhaps it's lack of popularity is a telling sign that most people can't handle it.

No, this doesn't really resemble Amon Duul II or Can because neither of those bands ever went *completely* crazy like Faust has done here. This is in a league of its own, believe me.

What's most surprising about the entire thing is that for the first 5 minutes, you're treated to a really beautiful and melodic psychedelic Floyd-like vocal melody leading directly into an atmospheric set of piano notes. You're probably thinking to yourself at this early part of the listening experience "What's the big fuss? I can handle this!" but then... yeah, it quickly morphs into chaotic... not necessarily "nonsense" because there is, contrary to belief, quite a few listenable sections ahead. It's just that, hearing numerous musical instruments shift and weave into all kinds of different sections without letting up for over 40 minutes is a HECK of a difficult challenge for even the most diehard of krautrock, progressive rock, or noise rock fans.

About 10 minutes before the album finally finishes up, you're treated to a very listenable and lengthy Kinks-inspired vocal melody that's *definitely* a breath of fresh air after the amazing ordeal you just had to go through (I mean that as a compliment, too!).

The interesting part about the whole thing is that at first I thought the album sounded horribly dated, but after a few more careful listens I actually stopped thinking about how dated it sounds because I eventually warmed up to the flow and experimentation of the whole thing. Perhaps that was the intention the band members had all along. You will get caught up in the album too. Give it time.

Just expect *anything* at ANY time. That's the best advice I can give on how to listen to the Faust Tapes. Enjoy! Oh, and be very very patient, haha.

I once described this album to someone as "the Anti-Tubular Bells", and it's stuck with me as perhaps the easiest way to explain it to people before they've heard it. It exists in the same format, and was released at the same time, by the same people, but other than that it contrasts pretty much everything to its polar opposite. Hence, another easy way to explain it is "mad".

'The Faust Tapes' is an awkwardly-glued collage of Faust's most avant-garde outtakes, spread over two anonymous sides of vinyl. Only three or four 'sections' of this album can even be adequately described as "music", the others being experiments with synthesised effects as well as manipulations of sound from an array of acoustic instruments. Faust, for a band so genuinely progressive and challenging, can be rather light and playful with their experimentalism, but on 'The Faust Tapes' these facets of their character are not in abundance. Most of this album is... well, scary, to be honest. A lot of the pieces have a truly unsettling feel about them, and even the cut-and-paste-style editing has a menace of its own. It's like a rollercoaster with square, ninety-degree corners. Everything, even the softest of passages, comes as a sharp shock.

It's safe to say that if you want a comfortable listen, go elsewhere. You don't even need to go very far - 'Faust IV' or 'So Far' will do fine. This album has been accused of pretentiousness of the highest order, it's been accused of being utterly unlistenable... but I hear none of that. In its weird sections I hear a free-spirited madness that has clearly not been pompously overthought, and in the more conventional songs like the classic 'Flashback Caruso' I hear a talent for concise but slightly skewed pop music.

The one that always blows my mind, and anyone else's that I play it to, is the 7-minute track known variously as 'J'ai Mal Aux Dents' or 'Schempal Buddha' (one 'name' is chanted wildly into the other as the the song progresses, and then back again). It is an absolute stormer - a choppy, aggressive guitar riff repeated ad nauseum over stomping tribal-ish drums, with freak-out sax and fizzing, washing synths. And, yes, it ends with a hard cut. Shame.

'The Faust Tapes' is great because it is an example of the outermost limits in that ocean of German strangeness that was the 'Krautrock' movement. Faust are, in fact, the longest lasting band of their country and era, a band whose output has never dipped in quality and who continue to work with genre-busting artists to this day (see: "Derbe Respect, Alder" (2004) featuring experimental hip-hop group Dalek).