MUNIC AND ELSEWHERE

It is really interesting I have made first review from this really great album! Well, one reason can be that this has released only as vinyl in the eighties and as fas as I know, it isn´t as streaming in the net. Anyway this was the first release from Faust after their "disappearance" in the seventies. There is mystery in that, no-one seems to know what happened, did they just get bored to poor sales of "Faust IV" or were there conflicts between members? Band members didn´t do anything else in this "hiatus"period before reunion in the nineties, somewhere I read they made few concerts as Faust in the eighties. Also Wikipedia claims there exists "Faust V"-cassette, that Virgin records had released in 1975, but there is no information about that in discogs. Anyway in this album there are unreleased recordings made before and after "Faust IV".

I believe first piece, "Munic/Yesterday" is one of those Faust recorded after "Faust IV". You can hear it immediately they were going into new direction. This long piece is really electro sounding and hypnotic. It´s somewhere middle of Can and Kraftwerk, specially repeated vocal parts reminds Can. Electro direction continues in "Don´t Take Roots", but it also has very distorted guitars. Also it´s same kind of collage piece as the ones in their first album and the whole "The Faust Tapes", so I believe it is earlier recording. First side ends into "Meer" that is really serene, but absolutely awesome sounding piece.

Second side starts with "Munic/Other" that really has lots of common with the first sides Munic-piece. First you hear some horn playing, then starts very fast rhythm. All the way this piece is as great as the other in A-side, really I can imagine it played in some experimental rave parties. "Baby" is the most ordinary song in this album, but in the middle song structure breaks and there comes strong rhythm and some distorted and feedbacked guitars. But in the end song goes back into it´s structure. As some other early Faust-songs this reminds a lot the Velvet Underground. Last piece "We Are the Hallo Men" is some kind of early "lazy rap", there is good drumbeat in it and in the back there are some samples, for example from Rolling Stones mellotron parts from "2000 Light Years Home".

There has been speculations about some albums in the pop history that never materialized would they have been the most ultimate masterpieces, I think the famous example is the Beach Boys Smile-project. From this album I can say next album after Faust IV would have been great! You could also wonder, would their later material have sounded same kind if they had continued in the seventies, but we never knew it. Anyway this album is just so balanced and full blooded Faust masterpiece, that I have to give it five stars!