284. Faust - Faust IV (1973)

















Track Listing

1. Krautrock
2. Sad Skinhead
3. Jennifer
4. Just A Second (Starts Like That)/Picnic On A Frozen River/Deuxieme Tableux
5. Giggy Smile
6. Lauft... Heist Das Es Lauft Oder Es Kommt Bald... Lauft
7. It's A Bit Of A Pain

Review

Another very interesting album from Germany, albeit not as good as what came out of Can. Faust IV starts extremely well with the droning Krautrock, a droning statement on the style of music that they are supposed to be making, it gets even better with the second track, prefiguring Brian Eno's dadaist pop which would come to light one year later in Here Come The Warm Jets.

That said the album does seem to stop being as interesting after the two first songs, it is still very good but it seems to fall prey to the idea of having pop-music and sticking some weird synthesised sounds in there just to make it sound more avant-garde. Of course this is the easy way to do it, and they do it quite competently, but it is still a bit disappointing after the two great first tracks.

Faust IV is still an album that deserves to be listened to, but they will always come second place to Can in the vast halls of Krautrockdom. Get it from Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. The Sad Skinhead
2. Krautrock
3. Jennifer
4. Giggy Smile

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Faust experimented with the presentation of some of their records. Their first album was originally on clear vinyl in a clear sleeve with an X-ray of a human fist silkscreened on the outer sleeve ("faust" is German for "fist"). The second album, So Far made extensive use of black, though inside the sleeve were sheets with one illustration for each song. The Faust Tapes had a visually disturbing op art cover design by Bridget Riley, while that for Faust IV consisted of a series of blank music staves. The impact of these designs is largely lost in CD reissues.

After Faust's breakup, the group's whereabouts were unknown; the Recommended Records catalogues talked about the group's "disappearance". The official website lists three concerts during the 1980's, and the "Patchwork" album, a compilation of outtakes, feature three snippets that were recorded in the 80's, but apart from that, the groups' activities between 1975 and 1990 remain shrouded in mystery.

Trailer for a new documentary on Faust: