MOMENTAUFNAHME III

Didn't expect to see two more of these Momentaufnahme albums from Faust's catalog, but I do not quite mind it so much. The more Faust the merrier.

Compared to the second Momentaufnahme, this quite the improved collection of archived songs from the 70s. It's a lot longer than the prior releases, being nearly 50 minutes, as opposed to the 30 minutes that was shown before. It makes the album have a bit more meat on its bones than before, which I quite like, especially since a lot of the tracks here are quite great.

These are tracks from 71 Minutes, and some BBC sessions that the band recorded, so this isn't gonna be the most original release, especially for die hard Faust enthusiasts, but what is here works, and listening to some of these more rarer tracks in some nice quality is quite appreciated. I especially like Psalter and Baby, both quite groovy tracks, with Baby in particular reminding me a bit of the noisy, proto-punk sound of The Stooges. Guess Faust was punk before it was cool.

I also quite like the BBC sessions. They are pretty high quality, and feature three pretty good songs. However, I noticed Krautrock is a bit muddy in the drones, where you can barely hear the drums and guitars. Not a big problem, since Faust was known for doing stuff like that, and the original did something similar, so it's not the end of the world. Probably just noticed it now on that particular version.

There is still the issue of some tracks just not being good, at all, but it certainly has been toned down as opposed to I and II. There are only 3 tracks that I don't like, but that is only out of 9 other songs that I do enjoy, and they are very short so I don't really even pay attention to them. Still an issue, but certainly better than before.

A lot more quality is on here, so this is one of the better of these series of Momentaufnahme releases, at least to me. There are some great krautrock on here, and while it may not reach the heights of Faust IV or Ravvivando, I don't see the harm in seeing this as a great archival from a 50 year old band.

Best tracks: Psalter, Baby, Geister, die wir riefen (BBC Session), Stretch Out Time (BBC Session)

Worst tracks: Schwindebeck I, Schwindebeck II, Zwölf Meter unter der Oberfläche