Faust  So Far/It’s a Bit of a Pain  Play Loud 7” Article written by  Kev O  - Sep 21, 2010 Faust’s 1972 single (their one and only) gets a re-issue, and a re-mix (by Hans Joachim Irmler, founder and current member), to coincide with the release of the Klangbad festival DVD (see separate feature). ‘So Far’ is an instrumental: a simple rhythm chugs along, a sax stabs away, guitars and synth wail in and out. It’s a mesmerising drone, that doesn’t sit still and never fails to please. ‘It’s a Bit of a Pain’ (said to be John Peel’s favourite Faust track) is another side of Faust: a gentle acoustic, piano-led ballad/song against which a noise momentarily intercedes and a piano tinkles and a fuzzy guitar trails away to the end. Both are sublime. Although nearly 40 years old these could be seen as historical [‘Krautrock’] curiosities and ones for the collection , but they sound fresh and modern even by today’s standards and a reminder as to how insipid much of today’s ...

Faust DVD twin film special: A Faustian pack Klangbad: Avant-Garde in the Meadows/ Faust: Live at Klangbad Festival  Play Loud! Article written by  Kev O  - Sep 22, 2010 This is two films on one DVD documenting performances at the second Klangbad festival, held outside the quiet German village of Scheer (where the Klangbad label is based) in 2005. The first film ' Klangbad: avant-garde in the meadows ' is 85 minutes of performances from nine artists - I use the terms 'performances' and 'artists' advisedly - including the legendary Faust. The second film ' Faust: live at Klangbad festival ' is 70 minutes of the Faust set from the same festival. The connection between the two films is one Hans Joachim Irmler, founder and current member of Faust, who runs the Klangbad record label and curates the festival. He invited the film-makers (a crew of three) to film the event: their approach was to be simple and direct, economic and non-tricksy, in the manner ...

DVD-Klangbad/Faust : Avant-Garde in the Meadows/Live at Klangbad Festival  Author:  Dominic B. Simpson Published: 06/09/2010 Who are the real Faust? That’s one of the conundrums that this DVD brings to mind when referencing the legendary Krautrock outfit. Is it the outfit currently spearheaded by original members Jean-Hervé Péron and Werner "Zappi" Diermaier, who have bedazzled audiences with their overloaded jazz-rock freakout and abuse of industrial machinery? Or is it the amorphous, freeform outfit that features another original member in the shape of Hans Joachim Irmler on keyboards joined by American guitarist Steven W Lobdell and several others? An answer of sorts comes from the band(s) Wikipedia page, who claim that “Faust now exists in two completely different incarnations, both active and each reflecting different aspects of the original group.” Exactly how they deal with royalty and copyright issues is unclear. The Péron/Diermaier guise of Faust performed ...

2005 avant-fest doc, plus live Krautrock brain-drilling. An annual outdoor festival in the German town of Scheer, Klangbad is for those who like their sounds underground. Dietmar Post and Lucia Palacios' film reveals its 2005 incarnation as an orderly place full of disorderly music. It's a close-up, unglamourised affair - it shows no-one watching Sydney synth oddballs Minit - and those who are on-stage invariably turn up as spectators later. For a five-year-old film there's still much that sounds fresh, such as Portland guitarist Steve Lobdell's crunchy sheets of noise, Finnish rock diabolists Circle and the splendidly annoying Nista Nije Nista, who mix clarinet and declaiming, and have a food mixer and pedal bin on-stage. The second feature is 70 minutes of the Hans Joachim Irmler-led Faust playing slow building, percussive obliquenesses to stage projections of revolving Vertigo swirls. On the ambient-to-rocking Feuerzeuge, this can manifest sublimely, and if it me...

Those groovy  play loud!   people are at it again. Having put The Monks on the map, their film-making exploits this time take in the  Klangbad festival   and also an extended Faust set. Faust  was one of the first German bands I ever encountered. Working in the local record store, everyone was fascinated by the clear vinyl in a clear sleeve with a hand x-ray visible through it. The music on it was way ahead of the curve to the point of being virtually scary. An odd kind of ambient that required an altered mindset to really get into. Or so it seemed. I can’t claim to be sophisticated now but way back then this was really exotic. Maybe it wasn’t even music, it sounded like notes from outer space. When Virgin launched their record label, they released The Faust Tapes, an album for the price of a single – 49p I think it was. Orbit, the shop I worked in did it for 43p if I recall correctly. Anyway, we sold bings of them to people of all ages. Strangely no-one ...