Faust - Faust

In 1969, German record producer Uwe Nettelbeck was given the task of finding Germanys version of The Beatles, but for electronic music. The record company, Polydor, must have had no fucking idea what they got themselves in to with Faust. Faust were not equatable to The Beatles in any way imaginable. Faust were experimental musicians willing to break down any traditional ideas of rock music and play music they wanted to play, and it seems everyone knew this except Polydor (This 2009 BBC4 documentary 'Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany' is well worth a watch for a pretty great history of krautrock).

Faust's 1971 self titled debut is one of the ultimate deconstructions of rock music ever recorded. The border between avant garde and rock music is pushed on this album, with nothing on this record sounding like anything before it, and certainly not like any British of American rock music. Faust had torn apart rock music, and glued it back together with an adhesive made of surrealist electronics.

Within the first minute of the opening track, Faust have already literally torn apart rock and roll, by playing fractions of The Rolling Stone's 'Satisfaction' and The Beatles' 'All You Need Is Love', and drowning them in electronics (almost laughing in the face of their recording contract only coming in to existence because of a search for The Beatles of electronic music). As old mate Scaruffi points out that British rock and roll was just American rock and roll repackaged for a different audience, Faust are essentially throwing out the old and coming in with the new (as practically every krautrock group did, which is probably the only link between any of them). On this track a Frank Zappa influence can firmly be heard. But where Zappa had a penchant for satire and not taking himself too seriously, Faust replace that with electronics and musique concrete. Piano, drums, and horns then join for a jam, with the horns taking over the roll of guitar in traditional rock music, eventually being joined by loud distorted guitar, which then plays it all again in a crazy psychedelic jam. The surrealism continues with a strange German conversation being dropped in the middle of the music. Their twisted take on minimalism is one that, even for krautrock, is out there.

Meadow Meal follows, which opens with what sounds like a duet of piano and a flute made out of a rusted pipe, one of many odd sounds. The musique concrete continues over these quirkly piano and percussion lines for a little while, until the haunting horns cut everything out, and the 'interesting' lyrics (me is a meadow meal / and the guess I get it / and the gate I get it / and the game I get it) sung so over a instrumental track which just cries of helplessness. The jam that follows it is easily the best part of the album, and the most 'rock' like thing on the album, which is saying a LOT. A huge storm over a powerful organ finishes the track, one of the few nods to classical music.

A colossal five minute jam opens Miss Fortune, one which is firmly European in mentality, and free formed rather than a progressive rock jam in a British style. It slowly morphs in to a voice chanting over a sombre piano ballad, before forming once again in to another colossal jam between piano, drums, and electronics. The album closes with a strangely haunting and surprisingly poetic little bunch of lyrics (Are we supposed to be / or not to be / said the angel / to the queen) over a simple folky guitar, not the end anyone would have expected, but after listening for the first 30 minutes, expecting anything isn't a good idea.

The surrealist collage that is Faust's debut album is one that is not beautiful in the traditional sense. And, as is the spirit of krautrock, that is the point of it. This is not rock and roll, this is not blues, this is not classical. Krautrock was made by German artists that were sick of the old way of thinking, and in the late 60s and early 70s, created this abstract, free formed music which is totally of themselves. This album is certainly not for everyone, but if you want to listen to an important point of rock music, then this is certainly one of them. Strap yourself in and enjoy.

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Track list:

1. Why Don't You Eat Carrots (9:35)
2. Meadow Meal (8:05)
3. Miss Fortune (16:35)

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320 kbps mp3 - Germany - 1971

Download - Sample

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omg more english! I wish I could read Spanish it looks so cool with upside down question marks

Popol Vuh - Einsjäger und Siebenjäger

Popol Vuh is a band unlike any other. The music stems from the genius mind of Florian Fricke, the only constant member of the project through its 30 year life span. Over the span of four short years (1970 to 1974), Fricke managed to create some of the most beautiful and diverse music of the era. What began as a cosmic journey to space on the first two albums - Affenstunde and In den Gärten Pharaos - by employing synthesizers and electronic effects, as was the German thing to do, quickly morphed in to the new age, acoustic experience of Hosianna Mantra. From this, Popol Vuh set out Seligpreisung, which contained 'songs', rather than long cosmic soundscapes or beautiful ethereal hymns. As the electronics were toned down for the acoustic instrumentation, those too shown less emphasis on the fifth album - Einsjäger und Siebenjäger. Here, the star of the show is the electric guitar, played on this album by Daniel Fichelscher (also providing percussion), who would later go on to play drums for another seminal krautrock group, Amon Düül II.

Einsjäger und Siebenjäger is easily the most 'rock' album they released up to this point, but still shares very little resemblance to other (at least, mainstream) rock acts of the period - take for example some 1974 hit singles like Band On The Run, You Aint Seen Nothin Yet (bbbbbbbbbbbbaby you jjjjjjust aint seen nnnnnnothin yet DOOOOO DOOOOOO), or The Joker. Then again, I doubt anyone expects a German experimental group to release pop songs. While the guitar provides most of the heart of the tracks, the other instrumentation - the drumming and of course Fricke's piano - are equally as important in making this album sound and feel how it does. Einsjäger und Siebenjäger is, above all, a blend of the Hosianna Mantra style ethereal beauty, of (other important krautrock group) Neu!'s clean electric guitar sound, and of the psychedelic acid jams of years passed.

The opening track, 'Kleiner Krieger', is a short piece of guitar, essentially acting in the same way a film would have opening credits or something like that. The meat of the album begins with 'King Minos' - opening with a huge drum and piano duet, as the guitar slowly creeps in, playing slick bluesy licks over and over. The beautiful beast keeps pulsing and slowing down and speeding up over four and a half minutes which seem to just fly by. 'Morgengruß' is a relatively short piece composed by Fichelscher, and harks back to Kleiner Krieger except with the addition of acoustic guitar. 'Würfelspiel' follows, an adds a flute to the cosmic jamming of Fichelscher and Fricke, with drumming sounding so modern it almost sounds like Gustav Ejstes of Dungen listened to this song and decided to drum like that on every album. 'Gutes Land' moves far away from rock music, and more to the works of previous Popol Vuh albums, with a 3 minute introduction of just haunting piano which is then joined for the remaining two minutes by languid drums and guitar tones.

All of that takes up only 17 minutes of this album, though it feels like much, much more. The remaining 19 minutes is devoted to the centrepiece and one of Popol Vuh's masterpieces - the title track, Einsjäger und Siebenjäger. The only track with vocals (wordless though), by Korean singer Djong Yun (who was part of the band), its length allows the three to blend together the ideas previously touched on in the album and expand them to huge extents. In all of rock music, this song is up there in terms of beauty and quality. To think that this was done by only two people playing instruments is surreal. The movements between internal sections are simply breathtaking, and there simply isn't a boring moment in this 19 minute monster. Words simply can't do it justice.

All of these songs have cinematic qualities - be them uplifting or haunting - which indeed led Fricke to compose music for a whole host of Werner Herzog's films (I think they were school friends or something, they knew each other at least), most notably 'Aguirre, the Wrath of God'. Fricke was even a film critic in his later years. Very few bands manage to jump around styles of music in such a short time, and create phenomenal works like Popol Vuh has (only really Soft Machine, Frank Zappa, and The Velvet Underground come to mind). The Popol Vuh sound is one that is truly unique.

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320 kbps - mp3 - Germany - 1974 - 2004 edition, includes two bonus tracks

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Ahhhhhh English!