SO FAR

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.