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Faust

I've wanted to like Faust right from the start. I had been listening to Can and loved it. Since Faust were often mentioned alongside them as being the most important krautrock artists in history, I just had to check them out. Besides, Stereolab were also name-dropping them as a huge source of influence, how could that be a bad thing? So without thinking any further, I went ahead and purchased their first eponymous album. When I got home and popped it into my CD-player I was in for a shock. I've always liked strange and difficult music, I was a devout Residents fan for christ's sake, but Faust just didn't do it for me. Well, at least not after listening to the first album. The strange wink towards The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, the child-like melodies and the constantly morphing songs just made me frown, scratch my head and press the fast-forward button. This didn't sound remotely like Stereolab, Can, Neu! or any of the other krautrock legends. Maybe my expectations were too high, but to this day, I still don't enjoy this album as much as I should. Maybe I'm lacking the proper "knowledge" I need to enjoy it.

Well, as I've said earlier, I was bent on liking Faust; there was just something about the imagery they used and the name of the band, an ode to their fellow countryman J.W. von Goethe's famous early nineteenth century tragedy (which I also had read recently at the time). So even after this first experience, I went ahead and purchased So Far. Whatever it is I did not "get" from listening to the first album, I "got" this time. The child-like melodies were still there at times, but the whole thing was definitely more consistent than it had been on the other album, no need to nervously morph the songs every two seconds anymore. However, I was still clueless as to what the fuck they were singing about, the lyrics were still as goofy as ever. Humor is a big part of Faust's music, something I had trouble getting used to, having been confused by the bleak imagery used by the group. From then on, I was hooked and the other albums soon followed.

Faust are definitely a rare bird. A bunch of hippies (à la Amon Düül), making very psychedelic music with a humorous, if dark, edge. Not afraid to use electronic instruments, you would never know what to expect from one song to the other: a folk tune? Maybe. A droning pop song? Why not? An experimental pastiche under one minute in length? Of course. No matter what you would get however, you could rest assured you had never heard anything quite like it before. Check out The Faust Pages for all your faustian needs.

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