SO FAR

Faust's second album is probably the best possible entry point to Faust's incredibly bizarre sonic world, So Far being the most accessible for uninitiated outsiders. Among all of the Krautrock movement that include so very bizarre group (like Kraftwerk, K/Cluster, Can), Faust was probably tops in the

Starting on the lengthy and binary Rainy Day (one of their longuest-lasting song in their live repertoire), this very minimalist piece gets most people to wonder WTF, but further down once the sax comes in, the "song" takes a more normal turn since there is a semblance of a melody. A shorter acoustic guitar piece Abamäe makes a welcome interlude to another lengthy repetitive track, JH Peron's No Harm. While repetitive and minimalist, the song is much more interesting than Rainy Day, while the highlight of the album, the title track has the same repetitive quality, but here it becomes hypnotic with great horn sounds and some space whispers.

Mama is blue is weirder tracks were the music become more concrete and comes with unbelievable noises that came to make music. The following I Got My Car & TV is a stooped spoof track at first but turns out to be their most virtuosity-minded track. Two short spoof tracks like Picnic, Space and Spirit are just more insanity bordering some ragtime jazz (the piano mostly) crossed with swing jazz (trumpet ala Louis Armstrong).

Best used as an introduction of Faust, this album iwill be only a warning to Faust's weird world, but it will not prepare you for some of the shocks the other albums will give you. In the meantime, So Far remains the only Faust album I return to every second year or so.

I don`t know if it`s fair to write a review about an album that I heard almost 20 years ago. But I`m writing this. In 1985 I was playing in a band which had 8 members (!), and the keyboard player, who is still playing in bands since then, lent me several albums of some bands/artists: Return to Forever, Vangelis, Banco, Peter Gabriel, Faust, The Dregs, and other albums that I don`t remember now.I liked some of those albums and I recorded them in cassettes, and I recorded some songs of the albums that I didn`t like very much in one cassette only. FAUST was one of the bands that I didn`t like very much. I still have the cassette where I recorded the only song which I liked from this "So Far" album: "On the Way to Abamäe", which is an instrumental piece with an acoustic guitar or classical guitar, in the style of Steve Howe or Steve Hackett, with an organ in the background. It is a sad song but it is very good. I remember that the rest of the music in this album is noisy, sometimes funny, with some funny lyrics, but not very interesting musically.Maybe the best memory that I have from this album is the cover design: it had the black cover which is included in this website, but it also had a booklet which included the lyrics and some good paintings that illustrated each song. I think that the record I heard was a re- issue of this album which was released by a British label called Recommended Records or something like that. "So Far" is only for the fans of FAUST and this kind of music called Krautrock.

A poor album by a magical musical tribe...sorry but here the alchimy dosen't work. Very far from the classic and powerful post-experimental pieces of Faust, BBC sessions and few others. It's a kind of concept album, with short pop, noisy and weird compositions. Too many vocals and structured songs here. There is however some nice uses of electronic and sound tape manipulations...but well if you don't want to waste your money and your time just pass the way and run on BBC sessions!!!

More accessible than the famous "clear" debut, "Faust So Far" is probably the best place to start for those unexperienced but daring and brave warriors who are prepared to face the music! Do not expect anything conventional about FAUST and be prepared for everything! "It's a Rainy Day" is a good choice for exemplary download from here, so you can test your ears and nerves. This type of "music" is hard to rate, because it falls outside the conventional prog music and even music in general. It is definitely not an excellent addition to any prog collection, since a typical prog fan would probably go fine without it. But it is also not a merely collectors/fans only category, since I would really recommend to any devout progger to give it a listen: you don't loose anything, but you may gain a worthwhile insight into the most avant-garde of the Krautrock. The choice is yours! "Daddy take a banana, tomorrow is Sunday!"

It seems like the band made a conscious attempt to record an album that would be more accessible and easier on the ears than their first record was.This still has it's experimental with silly moments, but they've shortened the songs, and replaced the trumpet with sax. Syd Barrett would be a good reference point to some of these songs, although this has more in common with Krautrock than Psychedelic.

"It's A Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl" has this simple, relentless beat that is joined by piano, then vocals, and finally by guitar. I like this song, it's addictive. "On The Way To Abamae" opens with some dark organ before some nice acoustic guitar and flute take over. Good tune. "No Harm" is the longest track at over 10 minutes. It opens with drums, sax and organ. The sound changes 2 minutes in as guitar, drums and sax create a nice sound. Another change 3 minutes in as the emphasis is on the drums and percussion. Vocals 4 minutes in with some great guitar and bass to follow as it gets a little crazy "So Far" opens with dissonant sounds before a good rhythm comes in with some spacey synths and sounds in the background. Good beat to this one as well.

"Mamie Is Blue" is kind of odd with the machine-like pulse. What is that ? I don't know but it sounds amazing ! Vocals 2 1/2 minutes in. "I've Got My Car And My TV" is a Barrett-like psychedelic tune with the silly lyrics and sounds, there is children singing as well. It's surprisingly catchy late. "Picnic On A Frozen River" is a catchy little number with sax, drums and keys, with the guitar coming in late. Good song. "Me Lack Space..." is experimental with sax and dark piano sounds with no real melody. I like it. "...In The Spirit" is a silly closing track with someone speaking strangely to open with freaky sounds all around. You can hear someone trying to find a radio station. It ends with bass, sax and yelling.

These guys still had lots of great ideas at this point and they aren't repeating themselves at all.

"So Far" is the 2nd full-length studio album by German Kraut/psychadelic/avant garde rock act Faust. The album was released through Polydor Records in 1972. Faust self-titled 1971 debut album is a wildly experimental avant garde rock album featuring electronic experiments and sound collages mixed with psychadelic rock sections. "So Far" is ultimately a very different sounding release.

"So Far" is a much more structured album and the trademark repetitive krautrock beats are much more a part of the sound on this album than they were on the crazy debut. Compared to the difficult listening experience of the debut, "So Far" is generally much more accessible. This time around it´s audible that the band employ ordinary rock instrumentation like guitars, bass, drums, keyboards/synth/organ and saxophone. The vocals are mostly chanting the same lines over and over again as if they are more an instrument than actual vocals but there are more ordinary vocal parts on the album too. The album is greatly varied and in addition to repetitive krautrock sounding tracks like "It's A Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl", "So Far" and "No Harm" (which features an almost mellow symphonic prog intro), we´re also treated to a classical inspired acoustic guitar piece in "On The Way To Abamäe", the cold almost industrial sounding "Mamie Is Blue" as well as the last four tracks on the album "I've Got My Car And My TV", "Picnic On A Frozen River", "Me Lack Space..." and "...In The Spirit" which to my ears sound heavily influenced by the avant garde/experimental rock of Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention.

The musicianship are on a high level and "So Far" features a very well sounding production, which suits the music perfectly. So the album is a quality release in every way possible. "So Far" is generally a more easily accessible way to enter the world of Faust than the group´s much more challenging debut album, so if you´re new to the band, this would be a great place to start your Faust journey. This shouldn´t be misunderstood though, and compared to mainstream music "So Far" is still a very challenging release full of experimental ideas and innovative playing. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

After their accomplished expression of extravagance delivered on their debut album, the Faust combo created yet another manifestation of kraut weirdness on their sophomore release "So Far". This musical work continues on that combination of bizarre joy and rebellious humor that defines the craft of this peculiar ensemble. In this album, we have a larger number of shorter pieces, and you can also notice some nods to the mainstream roads of rock, but by no means does this mean that Faust gave up on their artistic goals of experimentation and surrealism ? mostly, what takes place in this album is a stronger focus on the elaboration of specific moods for each individual track. All in all, the group's sound bears a more robust feel, which may be perfectly due to the fact that the guitar inputs are more worked on and, subsequently, enhanced in the mix. The band's style, as a whole, has a more kaleidoscopic variety, in this way providing an unequivocal impulse to the band's eclectic disposition. 'It's a rainy day, sunshine girl' opens up the album with a joyfully poppish vibe, comfortably relying on a mechanic tribal drum pattern that serves as a sort of homage to the immediate catchiness of your regular pop song. The ostensibly silly lyrics seem to reinforce this aura, which in my mind works as a resource of parody against the pedestrian simplicity of pop music. 'On the way to Amabae' shifts to a very different area: this 2 ¾ minute long nocturne on dual acoustic guitars brings a moment of serious, ceremonious solace ? this is a lyrical facet of the band that doe not usually show. But well, things don't take too long to "go back to normal", and this is exactly what happens in 'No Harm'. This piece starts with a Gothic-like motif that states a somewhat dense motif heavily relying on the mixture of organ layers and guitar progressions. Once we get to the 3 minute mark, the track shifts to a frantic exhibition of R 'n' B-infected rock and roll with heavy-like undertones and happy psychedelia. And you really can't lose with the sort of poetry that proclaims "Daddy! Take the banana! Tomorrow is Sunday!" over and over again ? this is the sort of progressive craziness that works no one knows how. So far, this is the album's first half, and the second half starts justly with the eponymous track ? 'So far'. This piece is quite vibrant, joyful, based on a monotonous use of a jazz-rock motif punctuated by sparse horn chords and featuring a solid endeavor by the rhythm duo. The tricky presence of spacey ornaments gives it a moderately weird twist. 'Mamie is blue', despite the pop- related suspicions instilled in its title, happens to be the one with biggest leanings toward the scary side of psychedelic rock: with its menacing industrial overtones and oppressive utilization of sound effects to recycle synth and guitar effects, it provides a contrast of darkness against the easy-going vibe of the preceding number. 'I've got my car and my T.V.' retakes the happy mood of previous tracks and takes it to its most refined expression in the album: with two distinct motifs that alternate comedic ambiences and jazzy jamming, this piece is quite effective in its attempt to generate colorful, classy frivolity. With the sequence of the last three tracks we are back into Faust crazy territory: 'Picnic on a frozen river' is an exercise on minimalistic chamber, 'Me lack space?' is a snippet of radio interference and '? In the spirit' is a fake cabaret piece augmented with psychedelic effects. This is how this album ends, completing yet another picture of the definitive sonic spectrum that Faust made its own.

The second album by Germany's answer to the Mothers of Invention is the most accessible of their early (and best) efforts, and yet still wildly creative in a typically dissident Krautrock way. But it's an odd choice of title for a band with only one previous album to their credit, unless the intended message was, "So Far, we've really screwed Polydor Records, ha ha!"

Here the group made a genuine effort to manage the sometimes slapdash anarchy of their 1971 debut, but without compromising any of that album's tongue-in-cheek, anti-establishment attitude. The packaging of the original LP even reversed the cover concept of the first album in a way that reflected the music within: in this case a model of opaque artistry instead of the earlier all-transparent weirdness. (Included with the original vinyl was a lavish portfolio of artwork illustrating each song, happily intact in my own music library.)

Their collective nose-thumbing was more discreet, better crafted, and is still amusing to listeners in on the joke. That trademark dry German wit underpins the willful simplicity of the album opener, "It's a Rainy Day (Sunshine Girl)", a prototypical pop song reduced to its most basic elements: a steady beat (to say the least) and a silly lyric. Both are repeated in a robotic monotone for over seven minutes, eventually reaching a climactic mock saxophone solo that never fails to make me smile.

Even more radical (for this group) was the tasteful acoustic guitar melody of "On the Way to Abamäe". Faust was often many things, but rarely so pretty. Compare that brief interlude to the driving rock 'n' roll posturing of "No Harm", with its shouted nonsensical mantra ("Daddy, take the banana...tomorrow is Sunday!"), or to the more unsettling "Mamie is Blue", sounding like the earth-shaking footfalls of some great Teutonic behemoth lumbering across the Lower Saxony countryside.

The title track meanwhile works like a Faust playbook, opening on a drunken stumble of overlapping acoustic guitars before settling into one of the most hypnotic Krautrock grooves this side of CAN, played in a flat-footed but swinging count of seven. And the consumer parody "I've Got My Car and My TV" is the band at its iconoclastic best, complete with rinky-dink melodies, children singing (and coughing), and arguably the catchiest instrumental break ever recorded. It might have been a satirical take on the post-war Wirtschaftswunder, and was apparently good enough to merit a revisit, on the "Faust IV" album in 1974.

The balance of the disc is pure ZAPPA, ending in a Dada cabaret deconstruction blended from equal measures of pure craft and tacky pastiche.

I'm not the only ProgArchive reviewer to recognize "So Far" as the ideal port of entry for newcomers to the off-kilter universe of Faust. But I'll go a step further and award the album an unreserved five stars, for quality and longevity, and for marking an essential pit stop along the winding Krautrock autobahn.

Faust's second album finds the band casting about for something to do after their bizarre debut and not finding much beyond weird for weird's sake. They'd eventually succeed in adapting to shorter songs and creating a sound which is accessible enough for newcomers whilst still retaining their own bizarre attributes on Faust IV; here, we find them fumbling in the general direction of that album but not quite making it. The thing about being a highly experimental rock band is that sometimes experiments, no matter how well-conceived, fail to actually work - and that's the case here a little too often for me to recommend the album to anyone other than collectors.

After the band's ground-shaping debut, it would be criminal to not keep going and experiment more. With a fairly great yet commercially inaccessible album, Faust decided to step away a bit from less of their sound collage and highly Avant Garde style and instead try to be more accessible. Not pop, since I doubt they'll ever be pop, but accessible enough to draw in more crowds. For me, this worked for the band's benefit. Experimenting with song lengths and album run times to draw more crowds into their bizarre sound would become pretty critical, especially when you take into consideration the massive popularity their next two albums after this one, The Faust Tapes and Faust IV would receive to the public. With that, everything starts somewhere, and after their self-titled debut, they made So Far, comprising 9 tracks, each with interesting musical styles that twist and turn into new directions, though some not for the better.

The album begins with a more baroque pop song called It's A Rainy Day Sunshine Girl. I think in the grand sea of weirdness Faust employs, this is an interesting turnout. We get a very new style from the band here, focusing on acoustics and a more, almost more western style in their playing. It has that acoustical psychedelic feeling that you could spot in the early ages of the whole psych-rock movement of the 60s and 70s, which I think adds a lot of charm to the record as a whole. Added onto this is a good bit of the band's signature, more distorted sound that they were kinda known for in their early years. It is all built upon a looping acoustic strumming with pretty much only one chord. It is a very interesting song and one that gives off some interesting vibes that I do not think Faust has ever done before. Neat stuff.

While the last song was acoustic in a sense of the instrumentation, it was not purely acoustic. On The Way To Abamae remedies that by comprising only one instrument, an acoustic guitar. It is a lovely melody that comprises the whole 2 minutes of this song's run time. It gives you a breather after the distorted and repetitive strums of the last song, giving some relaxation to the listener, especially me. The folk tone of the song and how it all feels so peaceful makes this a nice song to listen to, and relax to. It is a good, admittedly short song that I think helps carry the first side of the album.

After that, we get back into the fray with No Harm, and this song is chaotic. Movements and moments go from different points at different times every other minute and it all makes for a wild ride throughout these next 10 minutes. It goes from a more symphonic progressive rock to something more big band-like, to straight-up intense jamming that ends off with weird sounds. Where it is due, this is the highlight of the first side. It leaves you guessing, and it rewards you throughout its run. It is never boring, and that is how I like my Faust songs, stuff that never leaves me bored, stuff that allows leaves me to guess, and stuff that deserves its credits that it's due. Side 1 is the signature treat for this album, filled with three impressive and really good songs that always leave me wanting more.

To some respect, side 2 also continues this weight with the next song of So Far. I think this title track is good at starting side 2. It continues the more jazzy sound the band had remnants of in their debut and refined them to a fun degree that reminds me of some contemporary jazz legends like John Coltrane and Miles Davis. Even though it is inherently repetitive, I never really feel bored listening to this song as it is still very good no matter what. It's 6 minutes of some bountiful jazzy wonder.

On the complete flip side, we get Mamie Is Blue, which is kind of a predecessor to harsh noise that'd be influential among artists like Merzbow. For my stance on this type of music, this song does drag on me. I am into this more annoyingly distorted and bare-bones type of music that only serves the purpose of being loud and messy rather than nice and expertly made. This is sort of my whole stance on harsh noise in general, it feels noisy and messy without a purpose. It is just weird for the sake of being weird, nothing more and nothing less.

Though the song afterward, Car and TV, experiment a bit more on the side of established music genres. This song is very Canterbury-like, especially with the tone of the organ found here and the bass guitar. It is to the point where I feel almost like I am hearing the result of if you combined the more eccentric folk of Gryphon and the fun and almost pop-like feeling of Caravan, sprinkled in some of Faust's signature weirdness, and you got yourself a very fun track that does deliver in many ways. I love how joyful it is throughout the track's run. It never relaxes and it results in probably the most fun song the group has made in their career. Some really good stuff.

On the contrary, we get into weird territory with two very short tracks, that being Picnic On A Frozen River and Me Lack Space. To me, these two songs feel like filler. These are the most filler songs the band has made to where it feels like a waste of space on the record. I do admit that Me Lack Space is interested in trying to mesh their early sound collage style into this record, but I think it is just a waste of space.

Despite the few hiccups, the album ends with a high in Put On Your Socks. It gives you that fun 50s-styled swing music that was popular among ragtime musicians. It harkens to that very fun style of music that makes you want to dance, and while Faust would never advance this more bebop style of music, it is a great showcase of them trying new styles to find out what can stick. For me, this is a great ending for this album, and it makes the journey all the more worthwhile.

Where the debut was the band's prototype stage, So Far is the band's searching stage. It is where they find what they really wanna do and what captures their audience's attention. This album is highly accessible not only in some of the songs but in the band accessing new ways of sound that were pretty unknown in the underground Krautrock scene. While I wouldn't say it holds a candle to their first album, I cannot say it wasn't a worthwhile experience when I listened to this. Some pretty good stuff for the most part.