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Faust - The Faust Tapes
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Artist...............: Faust
Album................: The Faust Tapes
Genre................: Psychedelic Rock
Source...............: Vinyl
Year.................: 1973
Tracklisting
1. (00:43:44) Faust - The Faust Tapes
Playing Time.........: 00:43:44
This is the 1996 reissue on Recommended Records. It features excellent mastering.
As far as the German experimental rock movement of the early 1970s goes, Faust were the definite wild
cards. If you are expecting something similar to the metronomically relentless groove of Can, Neu! or
even Kraftwerk then Faust's random, almost ramshackle style comes as a complete surprise. All of the
music recorded by the group in its original '70s incarnation is essential, but if one album has to be
singled out then it is The Faust Tapes. Originally a continuous suite of stitched together fragments
with no track listing (though the CD now separates the tracks), it flows between gentle accoustic folk-
psychedelia, musique concrete, jazz rock jamming and random found sounds. Minutes will pass without any
kind of 'song' to be heard, then out of the blue a wistful melody will appear. Gradually the group will
lock into a ferocious instrumental passage before being interrupted by.... the German telephone
operator!!! Even better, the album closes with just what you'd expect from a German avant rock
masterpiece, a solo accoustic guitar ballad spoken (not sung) in French!!! Throughout the madness the
standard of the music is fantastic, while the contrary nature of the album only accentuates the band's
originality and establishes it as a tower in the canon of underground music.
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