Faust

Faust

Since 1971 · Germany

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Faust IV (1973)

Faust IV opens with "Krautrock," a nearly twelve-minute wall of drone and motorik rhythm that turns a term critics used dismissively into a statement of purpose. The record moves between that kind of extended abstraction and surprisingly direct songwriting — "Jennifer" and "Just a Second (Starts Like That!)" are almost pop songs, played by a band that clearly didn't trust pop songs to stay simple for long. Recorded in England for Virgin at the tail end of the band's most productive run, it's the most accessible entry point into a catalog otherwise defined by its refusal of accessibility. Decades on, it still reads as an argument about what a rock record is allowed to be.

Sleeve notes

Faust IV · 1973

Faust formed in 1971 in the German town of Wumme, assembled somewhat artificially by producer Uwe Nettelbeck and bankrolled by Polydor on the theory that Germany needed its own answer to the counterculture excess American and British labels were selling. The label built the band an actual studio to work in, and Faust used it to make some of the strangest records of the era — tape edits, found sound, and abrupt genre collisions spliced together with none of rock's usual respect for a finished take. Their self-titled debut arrived on clear vinyl in a clear sleeve, a gesture as much about anti-commercial provocation as music.

By Faust IV (1973), recorded in England after the band's move to Richard Branson's fledgling Virgin label, the group had sharpened the chaos into something more listenable without losing its contrariness. Commercial failure and internal breakdown ended the group's original run soon after, but Faust's members and various later lineups have continued to record and perform on and off for decades, treating the band's name as a loose banner rather than a fixed lineup.