Reviews from Wonderful Wooden Reasons Magazine

[Andy Wilson]

From the Wonderful Wooden Reasons site

Faust - Collectif Met(z) 1996-2005
(art-errorist)
3CD & 1DVD box

A new Faust album is always cause for much rejoicing in this house (on my part at least). So, in the spirit of honesty and fair-play I make no attempt to hide my abundant joy at the prospect of new Faust music. And does it disappoint? Well, no, obviously. A live set from 1996, a disc of rehearsals from 2005, a disc of home recordings and a, frankly, inconsequential eight minute dvd which I'm going to ignore because it's a bit of a waste of plastic.

We'll start with the live disc, a recording from the Musiques Volantes Festival on 8/11/96 that showcases what I assume was, at the time, a new look Faust. Also, a very industrial sounding Faust with a set marrying abstract guitar noise and electronics with pummelling metallic rhythms. Occasionally a melody, or at least the promise of one, breaks through and shifts everything onto a new plateau but on the whole this is pretty uncompromising and intense.

By 2004 the (same) players have mellowed out considerably. Gone(ish) are the punishing rhythms and guitar squalls and in their place is a band that has matured into each other. The arrangements are looser, it's got a real feel for vintage era Faust and the band sound like they're thoroughly enjoying just playing. Raga style drones, string bending and repetition are in ascendence and abundance here.

The third disc features 9 home recordings by Zappi Diermaier and Jean-Herve Peron. More so than you'd imagine, each person's recordings reflect very strongly their place within the group being, in turn, very percussion centred and then very vocal orientated. As songs Zappi's contributions are the most fully realised although the drums are a bit too loud in the mix for my taste. JHP's 'Rund ist Schoen' worked far better in concert than it does here but his 'Melancholy on Three Strings' is beautiful.

Think of this album as the three sides of Faust. The overtly experimental side is here on the 'Personal' disc, The rehearsals disc brings us the hippy, folky, citizen of the world side and the live in 1997 is Faust at it's most industrial. What is present on every disc however is the all-encompassing joie de vivre and good nature that
characterises every note as being uniquely Faustian. While it's not the best thing they've ever done, if you're already a fan then it's definitely worth picking up otherwise try an early album first, 'So Far' or 'IV' would be my recommendation, and come back to this once you're hooked.
(www.art-errorist.de)

Faust - Coal Exchange, Cardiff 31/10/05

Midway through this gig Jean-Herve Peron, Faust's permanently smiling bassist / singer / trumpeter / horn player / cement-mixerist / etc / etc, relates a story of a friend who 'Buries metal in the ground. He waits 25 years. He is very patient. Then he digs it up and it is art.' (or words to that effect). This could almost be a metaphor for Faust itself only it was 35 years ago (or so) and rather than waiting patiently for their metal to rust they have been busily battering it into whatever shape takes their fancy. As a result, unlike that of the metal burier's, Faust's art is vibrant with the patination of a lover's touch.

In a set that lasted around the two hour mark we were taken on an excursion through both the band's back catalogue and the distant reaches of their collective improvisations. At times the proceedings threatened to disolve into farce (Peron ironing a shirt and yelling 'This is not music!' (he's right, it's definitely ironing) amongst collective banging, clanging, moaning, whooping and angle grinding) only to be brought back from the brink by the sheer good nature of the thing (he
gave the shirt to an audience member). Delicate psychedelic ballads are followed by pummelling one chord industrial assaults and shrieking noise attacks which in turn give way to a drone piece that had the hairs on my arms standing on end as it reverberated around the enormously high (in every sense of the word) room and then the cement mixer kicks in before we're back to ballads again. The encore of my dreams - It's a Rainy Day - was never likely to send me home unhappy but there were at least three points in the set where if they'd stopped I would still have gone home happy. Highlight followed highlight followed highlight in a set that was an absolute joy to behold. Wish you were there.

Faust - In Autumn
(Dirter)
3CD + 1 DVD box

A beautifully produced box set consisting 3 CDs and 1 DVD all recorded live on the October / November 2005 UK tour of a band I am utterly besotted with. No-one and I mean NO-ONE does it for me quite like Faust. Bear that in mind when reading this.

Upon opening I went straight to the DVD for the simple reason that 5 of the 15 songs featured are from the gig I attended - Cardiff, Coal Exchange. Imagine my joy as these turn out to be the highlights of the disc being both well lit, reasonably well shot and with clear sound.

Surely this gig deserves a DVD of it's own (hint hint). Some of the other tracks suffer somewhat in the production stakes but the sheer joie-de-vivre of the performances carry them through admirably. These same issues apply to the audio discs with the sound quality dipping and rolling throughout. Be aware however that I'm only mentioning this for the sake of completeness because it really doesn't impact on the listening pleasure to any great degree. The 'rough and ready' quality found on many Faust releases is a great part of their charm - here it's just slightly more apparent. The opportunity to hear new versions of many classic Faust tunes (Rainy Day, Chromatic, It's a Bit of a Pain, Talk to the Fish & J'ai Mal Aux Dents amongst many others over the 4 discs) played loud and live (and well) is a joy that's just too good an opportunity to pass on.

The sun is shining, the birds are singing and I'm listening to Faust. Life is good.
(www.dirter.co.uk)

Faust - In Autumn (Taster CD)
(Dirter)
CD
The 'In Autumn' taster cd consists of 5 live tracks (Chromatic (from London), Skinhead (from Newcastle), Caruso (also Newcastle), Baby Is Blue (from Bangor) & Slide (also Bangor)) the last two of which are exclusive to this CD. It was originally intended as a promotional item given away at the London screening of the Faust concert film 'Nobody Knows if it Really Happened', the book 'Stretch Out Time' and the box set. Those not at the launch will have to pay inflated prices from greedy shops or be really lucky and rely upon the kindness of strangers (you know who you are and you have my thanks). My advice would be if you're the obsessive completist type (cough) then invest in this little gem. If not just buy the box set as it's worth every penny.
(www.dirter.co.uk)

Faust with Nurse With Wound - Disconnected (limited edition)
(Art-Errorist)
CD

Wow! Talk about dream pairings. The two 'bands' that have been at the centre of my musical tastes for the last 10 years and they do not disappoint in the slightest. Disconnected (the limited edition version at least) is a stunning album of two unequal halves. The first half being the actual album wherein the NWW duo mixed, produced, augmented the a set of Faust recordings to create what is possibly the finest work either outfit has produced in recent years (and that's not intended as a slight on either outfits recordings either. It's just that good). The second 'half' comes in the shape of a contentiously included live Faust track.

I had read, on the NWW Myspace, that the NWW twosome were unhappy with the inclusion of the bonus track on the special edition version of this album on the grounds that it "destroys the concept and atmosphere they have tried to create". I don't really want to go into any detail on this issue but I will say that I think the use of the word 'destroys' is a little strong. It's true that the first four tracks have a cohesion and flow to them that excludes utterly the final live track with it's crashing atonalities, but to my mind this has always been a characteristic of Faust, albums full of beautiful and unexpected jarring inconsistencies. From a purely listener based standpoint I really don't think the inclusion of this track detracts from the album in the slightest. The collaborative tracks are a complete article. Taken as a whole they are compelling and compulsive, a fact which nothing can demean. The bonus track is individual from the others in terms of it's sonorities and it's execution and such becomes simply the next (very welcome) piece of music on the playlist.

(www.art-errorist.de)

[ian holloway]

hello. i just found this page. made me chuckle to see my blatherings on the site. Thought i'd post the two most recent reviews i did. also i've just found out that I'll be seeing them again in a couple of weeks at the Point in cardiff so i'm pretty stoked at the moment.
peace - ian

Faust - Od Serca Do Duszy
(Lumberton Trading Company LUMB2CD008)
2CD
The last few years has seen this current incarnation of Faust (JHP, Zappi & Amaury Cambuzat) reinvent the band for the 21st century as a prolific live entity. Re-discovering themselves as a band unafraid to play and play with the music that established them alongside some very challenging experimental forays into the outer limits of live music. This CD, following hot(ish) on the heels of the 'In Autumn' box set (on Dirter), was recorded live in Krakow in November 2006 and in many places ploughs the same ground as those shows that made up the earlier box. This slightly stripped down line-up however offers an even rawer take on the music than that played on the UK tour. There is a gloriously shambolic feel to the proceedings with the trio trading sounds, riffs, rhythms, ideas and words. Occasionally things do get a little too 'out there' to be fully appreciated on record (I'm sure live it was a different matter) but on the whole there is an admirable collective consciousness on display that allows the interplay to create such gems as the improvisation that opens CD2 as well as the reinterpretation of The Sad Skinhead. As with all live albums, this should probably be treated primarily as a collectors piece. This recording, I suspect, isn't going to bring anyone new into the fold but for established fans it holds another fascinating snapshot of 21st century Faust.
(www.lumbertontrading.com)


Faust - Trial and Error: Audio und Video Experiments 2005
(Funfundvierzig)
DVD
The title clearly states that these are 'experiments'. If you are looking for 'polished' professional videos then you'll need to look elsewhere. This is Faust at play.
On a music level what we find here is Faust at their most wilfully obtuse. Atonal, angular, precocious and always gloriously anarchic. The very idea of 'song' is pushed to it's limits taking all preconceptions with it. As ever Faust are willing to go (boldly) where others do not. Even the familiar (Rainy Day, Rondo) are taken out of their bodies and transformed into something that is essentially 'other'.
Whilst musically this is really quite excellent, visually it's maybe a different case. I think another subtitle might have been 'Faust have fun with effects' as for the most part it consists of a static shot being slowly played through a series of image warping doohickeys. As such it isn't the most interesting thing in the world to watch and I found myself staring out the window for much of my initial play and subsequently I have been treating it more like an album than a DVD.
Trial and Error is Faust being the Faust I fell in love with via the Faust Tapes album. This is the sound of ideas in constant forward motion and it's fabulous.
(www.fuenfundvierzig.com))

[ian holloway]

here are some more...

Faust - Kleine Welt (Live)
(Ektro Records ektro-046)
CD
Opening with an uninspired and rather lumpen bassline (from the normally thoroughly reliable Michael Stoll) this new live album from the Hans Joachim Irmler version of Faust gets off to a inauspicious start. The band seem ill at ease, the music restless and strained. It isn't truly until the albums 17 minute centrepiece of Crawling Wax that things really start to gel, although every step forward from that opening is a step forward.
This Faust is a more straight-ahead beast than the Zappi / Peron faction. It's every bit as obscure but it's obscurity lies very much in a musicianly dynamic as opposed to the dada-esque industrial willfullness of the other. My preference is for the latter but that does not in any way preclude the former. When they are searching for the heart of the music (like on the afore-mentioned Crawling Wax) they are painstakingly and absorbingly methodical in their excavations and when they are simply rocking out (Thru & Jet Set Lady) they are great fun. But what's missing for me though is the beautiful laughing goddess of chaos who dances through the best of the Faust albums; everything here seems rather serious. I can't hear any smiles and it's the smiles that make a Faust album better than anyone else's.
It's good but it's not fabulous.
(www.ektrorecords.com)

Faust - C'est Com...Com...Compliqué
(Bureau B bb21)
CD
Brand spanking new album from the Zappi / Peron version of Faust and it's an absolute corker. Here accompanied by guitarist Amaury Cambuzat (from excellent French post-hardcore band Ulan Bator) this is a set of 9, almost restrained sounding, cuts. Please though, realise that when I say restrained sounding I am talking about a band with a penchant for chainsaws, threshing machines and angle grinders so it's all relative. For the most part here though the trio seem content to explore the looser, jamming, sides of their musical personalities and that's fine by me. This is a side that doesn't often come out to play these days and it's always been a big part of the charm of the band in my eyes.
Peron's voice oozes an easy charm that is perfectly at home singing over acoustic instruments and 'traditional' drums (Petits Sons Appétissants) as it is yelling over freak-out instrumentation and scrapyard percussion. His musicianship bold and assured.
Zappi is, as ever, at the heart of each piece augmenting with percussive flurries and providing a solid backbone upon which the others can explore. His drums have never been anything as mundane as a rhythm instrument but if that is the role that is called for (En Veux-Tu des Effets, en Voilà) then he delivers with aplomb. Cambuzat (as he did on the 2005 UK tour) proves himself to be the perfect foil for the two original members. His guitar playing is lyrical, melodic, razor-sharp and coruscating. Like the others his playing perfectly compliments the compositions never dominating or intrusive. It's a shame he no longer seems to be part of the band.
This is the sound of a band at the top of their game and you'll be hard pressed to hear a better album this year.
(www.bureau-b.com)

Faust - Schiphorst 2008
(Salamanda)
2CD
Produced as a benefit CD for the Schiphorst Avant-garde festival this nicely packaged double CD is a recording of Faust's set from the 2008 festival with the addition of both the sound of Steve Stapleton painting along to Jean-Herve's chainsaw (film of which can be found on youtube) and also a rousing version of Rock 'n' Roll Station by Nurse With Wound with Jean-Herve hollering along.
This is Faust at their most experimental and dadaist as you'd imagine as it's an avant-garde festival. The recording is fairly primitive but doesn't detract from the performance or the listening pleasure. The set is a fairly free rolling affair with only occasional forays into established Faust compositions. I like this very much. It's beautifully haphazard and genuinely honest. It feels as though the band have rehearsed just enough to get the structure of the song but not so much that they are locked into any preconceived notions.
It's not as essential a listen as the new album 'C'est Com...Com...Compliqué' but if your a fan then this should be high on your wants list.

Jean-Herve Peron & Andrew Liles - Fini!
(Dirter DPROMCD62)
CD
It doesn't take a genius to infer from the name of this zine that it's writer is something of a Faust fan (it's a line from the track Meadow Meal on the first Faust album). I'm besotted by the music these fellas make (in whatever incarnation) and Fini! is no exception.
Very much in the Faustian spirit this is a tangled morass of sounds and ideas that works really rather well. We even get to hear (on track 9) the side of Peron that is rarely seen these days, that of the acoustic troubadour as he slowly weaves his guitar and voice (and whistle) around a happy little ballad. Occasionally the album drifts into fully abstracted experimental territories but this is really to be expected of both participants and their wonderfully obtuse sensibilities but at all points you feel that they are working to a cohesive vision that they never once loose sight of. If only everything in life was this good.
(www.dirter.co.uk)