Faust - Faust IV (Reissue 2006)

"Push play and take the short route to the dizzying heights of Krautrock perfection.With a warped electronic whiplash you're suddenly drenched by a surging, pulsing drone ofthe most wondrous richness and majesty. A shining, rather warm mishmash of fuzzy,unpolished synth sounds dance and shimmer in layer upon layer, mixed with deeper, bassiermurmurings lurking in the background together with shorter, more playful (and ocassionallymore abrasive) phrasings that haphazardly pop in and out of the mix. After a while ahypnotic tambourine-like beat anchors the piece while mischievous distorted guitars wink,blink and glitch by like quick and sudden electrical impulses. The bass build on the beatwith a mantra-like repetitive zeal with room for discreet but delicious changes. Guitarsevolve into denser, more textural sounds and mingle with the keys in ever more intense,loose and multi-layered tapestries of fragile harmonies and noise before - suddenly - thedrums build up as for a crescendo with a proper beat and some power around the sevenminute mark. But nothing really changes, at least not drastically. Guitars break free fromthe instrumental hive-mind and start to form floaty and more melodic structures thatdominate the now airier soundscape for a while. It gets a bit ominous and hesitant rightabout here, where nervous, chaotic electronic sounds swoosh past or hover threateninglybefore dissipating. A final flutter of cymbals and the fading last remnants of theguitars...and it's all over. Just like that. Not with a bang, but with a whisper. Etcetera.

The contrast to what follows is what breaks and makes this album. The Sad Skinhead is a
groovy, off-beat-laden pop rock ditty with a scaled down and roomy arrangement of drums,
bass and guitar. Basic, primal, naked. Some eager marimba fill out the spaces along with
hints of the previous electronica and eventually makes this song more interesting than
when taken at face value.

This intrinsic conflict on Faust IV is ever present on all the remaining tracks. A
slightly lazy and curious love for easy-going pop and rock that makes me think of Robert
Wyatt, Kevin Ayers and The Velvet Underground. Love, yes, but also a flippant, humorous
detachment and a whimsical dismissal of it all. That same undeniable but mesmerizing
friction with harsher structural and sonic experimentation you can encounter in their
work. But Faust are even less focused. You get a feeling that the band felt bored with the
compositions while they were still being composed. Add to this an almost punky spirit of
DIY and a streak of simplicity and you end up with an intriguing and special end result.

Clear and roomy production and a pulsing, repetitive nature in both melody and rhythm is
inherent to many of the tracks, but like on the epic Krautrock, things are left to evolve
rather freely from this basic underlying pattern. Be it the dreamy pop-drone of Jennifer
with hypnotic, throbbing bass sounds up front, the heavy, driving psych of Just A Second,
a cheery, rollicking, Canterbury-esque pseudo-jazz theme in Giggy Smile, the
Can-channelling, faux-chanson Lauft or the delicate and folky psych-pop of It's A Pain -
all of them evolve into stranger, more convoluted territories as they run their course.
Twisting sheets of chafing, hissing electronics and guitars. Watery and percussive
oscillations over dark and aimless meanderings from guitar and piano. Loose, jam-like jazz
section with extended saxophone solo. Near-mechanical noise. Freaky, clicking percussion
and classical, string-infused guitar that dies off into minimalistic, proto-ambient. Sharp
and atonal sound manipulation and distortion blurted all over places it doesn't belong.

All of these disparate parts are juxtaposed and jumbled as if it's the most natural thing
in the world. There are no clear boundaries between what's a song and what's an experiment
or between what's a composition and what's an improvisation. Everything merges. It makes
Faust IV disjointed and fractured, but also very playful and inviting for anyone willing
to explore this strange little world. It's a carefree, loosely held together mess with
normal quality control and standards thrown out the window. But it still holds up as a
thoroughly enjoyable collection of music.

Wonderful.

4 stars." - LinusW · ProgArchuves

Tracks 1-3 recorded for John Peel session on BBC radio 1. First transmission date: 1st
March 1973.
Tracks 4-9 are original mixes by Uwe Nettlebeck at the Manor studios. Oxfordshire in June
1973.

• Werner Diermeier - drums
• Hans-Joachim Irmler - organ
• Gunter Wusthoff - synthesizer, saxophone
• Rudolf Sosna - guitar, keyboards
• Jean-Herve Peron - bass

01. Krautrock (11:48)
02. The sad skinhead (02:36)
03. Jennifer (07:13)
04. Just a second (Starts like that!)/Picnic on a frozen river/Deuxieme tableux (03:35)
05. Giggy smile (07:46)
06. Lauft...Heibt das es lauft oder es kommt bald...Lauft (07:46)
07. It's a bit of a pain (03:08)

01. The lurcher (07:51)

02. Krautrock (11:44)
03. Do so (02:33)
04. Jennifer - Alternative version (04:49)
05. The sad skinhead - Alternative version (03:21)
06. Just a second (Starts like that!) - Extended version (10:32)
07. Piano piece (05:58)
08. Lauft...Heibt das es lauft oder es kommt bald...Lauft - Alternative version (04:14)
09. Giggy smile - Alternative version (05:55)