25: Faust - So Far

So halfway through and this blog has crossed the 1000 hits mark. And the second album from Faust - a bit more coherent than the first, and certainly more defined. Whereas the first came in a see through sleeve, this is none more black with an additional set of images (one per track) also included with the original record. The images are of the "interesting" variety and I'm sure they mean something but they do almost remind me of the Bad Art sketch on Portlandia (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3k8qWTn4Rg).

But this is Faust right? Masters of ideas, trickers of Polydor, makers of merriment. And this record is brilliant - bursting with genius, skewing all over the place but, like the previous, always enjoyable. Listening to this now you can hear the influences spread forwards. Gorky's Zygotic Mynci must have listened to this a lot - in fact blend Faust with the Soft Machine and you totally have GZM.

It's a Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl is close to a song, all drums and the lyrics said over and over. The next track sounds like an outtake from Look Around You. Both songs in that they don't change much over the course. But is this Faust's downfall? That they are the hyperactive child of Krautrock, never sitting still. No Harm goes a little all over the place - it's timid for a bit, falls into a whizz, then a beautiful refrain (which, with the horns is utterly GZM) and all of sudden into a funky locked groove. It's weird that the record that they're best known for - that was a bit of a throw away, use up stuff on the cutting room floor, is also how their sound is defined. It's a bloody good job that they can get away with it and make it work or they'd be screwed.

The title track has no vocals and poodles along. Then Mamie Is Blue with some super heavy electronic crunches with withering vocals - they're always at their best, and their best is so far out from anything before or after it that it almost defies music itself. The next one's like good music hall, with comedy synths and bouncing drums. I've got my car and my TV, what should I care about you and your fun. They do their fun vocal cut ups with Me Lack Space - a poem where every second or so is missing. The lyrics are fantastical nonsense and then it goes back down to some French and music hall again. It sounds almost like the Beta Band - another group that could sometimes get away with aping music hall and getting away with it. Sleeping right, Thinking of the past, I wonder how long, Is this gonna last?

It's infuriatingly good, has no agenda whatsover and is just magical. The sounds of a group who are reinventing what they think music is and are totally comfortable with it. A crazy blend of sounds and styles that seems to have appeared organically. So whereas Can's jamming felt pretty regimented - like Irmin gets them all together and explains what's going to go down - this feels like Rudolf and Gunther are pissing about with a football outside so the rest of them play any old shit to pass the time, Uwe collects this all together and makes an album out of it. Utter genius.