RAVVIVANDO

With the 90s ending, Faust wasn't quite done with the decade just yet, and so amongst a sea of releases such as Nine Inch Nails' The Fragile, Botch's We Are The Romans, and Blur's 13, we would get the rather intriguing suite of Ravvivando.

This record would show a stylistic direction that the group would go through into the 21st century. Their 90s output had been a lot more industrial, most likely due to the golden age industrial music seemed to garner within the late 80s through 90s, though they felt more like experimentations that had a slight industrial backing. Here, though with Ravvivando, we get a full deep dive into the more industrial Faust sound that was slightly explored within Rien and You Know FaUSt. Imagine, if you will, if Na Sowas was an entire album.

This album is a nearly hour long jam of industrialized proportions, with each song going into each other in what I think to be rather seamless fashions, sort of making this a bit of Faust's late answer to The Dark Side Of The Moon, being this one massive epic of psychedelia, noise, and raw catharsis.

I feel like where You Know FaUSt suffered with the noise, Ravvivando truly enjoys it, creating this lo-fi soundscape of drones and climatic industrialization. While it is certainly loud, I never find myself fully out of sync with the music, as the tracks just have this edge that makes this entire workout feel a lot more right within its noisiness. The production work also helps I think, having this lo-fi aura around it that makes the noise rock of this record feel a lot more sublime, and certainly innovative as I could see some parallels from this to something of the caliber of more modern day slacker rock groups like Car Seat Headrest and The Microphones. Probably not to the same degree as those groups, but the parallels a lot of Faust records seem to have in modern experimental music is quite staggering.

The atmosphere of this album is also exciting too. A lot of Faust albums have this aura of mystery and intrigue to them, keeping you second guessing what the band might do next (aside from You Know FaUSt). Ravvivando, I feel like, flips this mysterious feeling on its head, having the mystery be less on what this crazy band might do from track to track, but rather what they'll do within the storm, and I find it to be really awesome as it allows the group to experiment in a more real time effort, much more than with prior albums, even in respects to my all time favorite of Faust Wakes Nosferatu.

However, there is one thing I think draws this album back and that is I find the more suite-like nature of this album to not be for the best. I certainly enjoy it when a band or group decides to make a full work that is one long song, but I find Faust to not really handle that idea properly to the same degree. I find when Faust does make a jam that is rather long, they're best marks are usually within the 20 minute marks, so having an album that is essentially one massive jam is exciting, but certainly after a while does start to feel tiring a bit.

I also think there is some fat on this album that might need to be trimmed. Carousel is honestly quite unnecessary, and the combo of Spiel and Dr' Hansl just doesn't quite work for me. They feel more like unnecessary gimmicks for this record, rather than playing within the overall experience.

However, the tail end of Livin' Tokyo and T-Electronique does make up for this record's shortcomings, as those are some of the better industrial Faust songs they have released within the 90s due to their rather mystical aura.

Overall, Ravvivando is one of the best Faust releases they made from their comeback in the 90s, and certainly one of the best since Faust IV and The Last LP. It is a bit on the bigger side, for better and for worse, but the experience is overall very positive. Certainly recommended for fans of more abrasive music, and for fans of the noise rock scene of the 20th century.

Best tracks: Wir brauchen dich #6, Livin' Tokyo, T-Électronique

Worst tracks: Carousel, Spiel, Dr' Hansl