jcjeff@ihlpg.UUCP (jeffreys) (03/10/85)
References:
Ok you guys, I've posted a few articles on long and varied pieces of music to
the net, but I've been holding back with this one! This is probably the most
unusual group that I've ever heard. The band comes from Germany and is called
Faust.
Not only is the music unusual, but so was their first album. It was pressed
in clear vinyl. You can see right through the sleeve even with the record in
it, as the sleeve was also transparent. Looks very good until you want to put
the stylus down in-between tracks!
The album, also called Faust, was released in 1971. It contains two long
pieces: "Meadow Meal" (18:32) and "Miss Fortune" (17:55). I find it difficult
to describe the music adequately, so I have taken the liberty of taking a few
bits from some of the reviews that appear on the back of their third album,
"The Faust Tapes" :
New Musical Express, March 1973
Noting all the minor innovations in rock since Lennon and McCartney
hauled the music bodily out of the twelve-bar trap of rock-and-roll
and rhythm-and-blues - noting Brian Wilson's visionary production job
on "Good Vibrations", noting the experiments half-completed by the
Velvet Underground and the United States of America into the
sound-limits of a Late Sixties rock group, noting Captain Beefheart's
casually suggested fusion of primitive blues with free jazz ("free
rock", in fact) on "Trout Mask Replica", and forgetting neither "A Day
in the Life", "Tomorrow Never Knows", or "I Am The Walrus" - taking
all of these contributions into account, I have to say that the
implications of what Faust are doing form the most significant
conceptual revolution in rock for ten years.
Ian MacDonald
Rock & Folk, February 1972
The term Rock-and-Roll isn't adequate to describe something which
transcends all the limits of contemporary music. New and outlandish
sounds assembled with a remarkable grasp of the aesthetics of
sonority. .... The result is some of the most intense and
authentically innovative music in the history of rock. Faust is
indisputably a group to be seen and heard.
Philippe Paringaux
Disc, 1972
The fist time I heard tell of Faust was when I saw their extraordinary
first LP in it's equally extraordinary sleeve and felt that regardless
of the music within, I had to acquire one. When the music turned out
to be highly original and very exciting that was a welcome bonus.
John Peel
I do not know if this album, or any other Faust albums, were released in
America, but their first, "Faust" (Polydor 2310 142) is now a collectors item.
About two years ago I noticed an article in a music paper, which said that
the record had been re-released and that the original release was worth $50
(at todays exchange rate). The re-released version had the red Polydor (normal
color) where as the original version (the one I have) has a silver Polydor
label. I wonder how much it is worth now ? It is certainly the most valuable
record, in terms of hard cash, I own.
This posting now poses a new question:
1. What is the most valuable record you posses ?
I will be happy to summarize a list, if I get any responses to this question.
Answers by mail please together with an approximate value of your record/s.
Path ..ihnp4!ihlpg!jcjeff
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------pjt@BRL-VOC.ARPA (Paul Tanenbaum) (03/13/85)
I own their first album "Faust" and (one would presume their fourth) "Faust IV". They're both great, and I think they're both domestic. I'll check when I get home tonight. +++paul