Faust emerged from the late sixties Hamburg music scene and consisted of Werner "Zappi" Diermaier, Hans Joachim Irmler, Arnulf Meifert, Jean-Hervé Péron, Rudolf Sosna and Gunther Wüsthoff, This lineup lasted from its founding in 1971 to 1975. After a period of being disbanded, Diermaier & Peron reformed Faust with a fluctuating collective of musicians from 1996 onwards.
If any band existed to scotch the notion of 'krautrock' as a cohesive genre of music it is Faust. Though the idea of non-musicians who nevertheless make music is often found to be the working premise of many bands as stylistically distant from Faust as Kraftwerk. The sound world that Faust inhabited was filled with a relentless search for new sounds by mangling conventional instruments or innovating cruder instruments out of salvaged machinery, pipes and industrial tools.
Though often called a rock band, these early albums rarely fully or consistently conform to any tradition without consistently veering wildly and chaotically away from its cliches or standard form. Theirs is an anarchic rag bag of influences from Syd Barrett, Velvet Underground to Stockhausen as if processed through a cement mixer. Hippie without being trippy or dippy, but not beyond being whimsical whilst being hard core deadly ernest experimenters, they defy categorisation, subvert styles and expectations more than any other band of this or any period. They're the very epitome of what an indie underground band was at that time.
Their first two albums Faust and So Far were released on Polydor and these laid down the template for the Faust musical approach. Here's a distinctly abrasive track from So Far called Mamie Is Blue.
Eager to ride the wave of new bands emerging from Germany a fledgling Virgin Records signed Faust in 1973. They attempted to open up a market for this distinctly non-conformist music, by releasing a budget album The Faust Tapes, renowned for being sold for the price of a single at 48p. The album though essentially a series of experiments and outtakes roughly edited together, probably captures the spirit of the Faust musical zeitgeist better than their more considerd albums. Having failed with their sales strategy, Virgin dropped them two years later.
This is one of the most famous tracks from The Faust Tapes , J'ai Mai Aux Dents. Just when you think you've understood the groove they inexplicably take a jazz break before returning to it. The vocals and style are reminiscent of the Velvet Underground's Sister Ray though with substantially more avant-garde slabs of noise and meaningless lyrics, there being no room for laconic streetwise sasseyness in Faust world
If any band existed to scotch the notion of 'krautrock' as a cohesive genre of music it is Faust. Though the idea of non-musicians who nevertheless make music is often found to be the working premise of many bands as stylistically distant from Faust as Kraftwerk. The sound world that Faust inhabited was filled with a relentless search for new sounds by mangling conventional instruments or innovating cruder instruments out of salvaged machinery, pipes and industrial tools.
Though often called a rock band, these early albums rarely fully or consistently conform to any tradition without consistently veering wildly and chaotically away from its cliches or standard form. Theirs is an anarchic rag bag of influences from Syd Barrett, Velvet Underground to Stockhausen as if processed through a cement mixer. Hippie without being trippy or dippy, but not beyond being whimsical whilst being hard core deadly ernest experimenters, they defy categorisation, subvert styles and expectations more than any other band of this or any period. They're the very epitome of what an indie underground band was at that time.
Their first two albums Faust and So Far were released on Polydor and these laid down the template for the Faust musical approach. Here's a distinctly abrasive track from So Far called Mamie Is Blue.
Eager to ride the wave of new bands emerging from Germany a fledgling Virgin Records signed Faust in 1973. They attempted to open up a market for this distinctly non-conformist music, by releasing a budget album The Faust Tapes, renowned for being sold for the price of a single at 48p. The album though essentially a series of experiments and outtakes roughly edited together, probably captures the spirit of the Faust musical zeitgeist better than their more considerd albums. Having failed with their sales strategy, Virgin dropped them two years later.
This is one of the most famous tracks from The Faust Tapes , J'ai Mai Aux Dents. Just when you think you've understood the groove they inexplicably take a jazz break before returning to it. The vocals and style are reminiscent of the Velvet Underground's Sister Ray though with substantially more avant-garde slabs of noise and meaningless lyrics, there being no room for laconic streetwise sasseyness in Faust world
Nevertheless they did produce Faust IV in 1973 whilst signed to Virgin. Now recognised as a classic 'must hear' album of the period it showcases an admittedly more refined version of their trademark mash up of styles. On the album's opening track Faust fully embrace the cliche of the by then recognisable new German sound as espoused by the likes of Neu!,taking it and leaving it somewhere it doesn't normally go, a track they've called rather toungue in cheek - Krautrock.
Here's another track from Faust IV, called Just A Second ( Starts Like That ), which starts off with what seems a very conventional riff based piece,which half way through slips into a rolling stream of tweeting cacophony. Apologies for the arty video but it was the only one I could find with this track on.
Faust IV proved divisive, whilst it attracted new fans, older ones thought they'd lost their edge and sold out by producing,what was for Faust, a relatively accessible album. The original band that was Faust parted ways in 1975, Whilst the reformed band carries on in the spirit of what the first Faust band stood for, their early work still stands head and shoulders above their subsequent albums.
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