The Faust Tapes

The Faust Tapes is the third album by the German krautrock group Faust, released in 1973. The album sold well in the United Kingdom (60,000 copies)[2] because of a marketing gimmick by Virgin Records that saw it go on sale for the price of a single.[1] This exposure introduced British audiences to Faust.

The Faust Tapes
Studio album by
Faust
Released1973
RecordedWümme, Bremen, Germany
June 1971 – June 1973
GenreExperimental music, musique concrète, krautrock
Length43:26
LabelVirgin
ProducerUwe Nettelbeck
Faust chronology
Faust So Far
(1972)		 The Faust Tapes
(1973)		 Outside the Dream Syndicate
(1973)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]

Recommended Records reissued the album on LP in 1980, and on CD in 1996 and 2001, both mastered from vinyl sources. The Recommended LP reissue used a brand new cover design and was packaged in an oversized plastic bag. Neither CD edition included the original LP artwork; the 1996 CD used the cover art from the second "Faust Party 3" extract single as the front cover and the 2001 CD used the cover art from the Munic and Elsewhere album as the front cover. The Virgin and Recommended LP releases, and the first Recommended CD release had no track titles.

The Faust Tapes consists of segments of songs woven together in pieces spread out over two sides of the LP.[1][3]

Background

Faust's previous record label was Polydor Germany, and when they complained that Faust's second album Faust So Far (1972) was not commercial enough, the group's producer Uwe Nettelbeck signed the band up with Virgin Records in London. Part of the deal between Nettelbeck and Virgin was that he would give Virgin "for nothing" the tapes he had of the music Faust had been working on since So Far, and that Virgin would release a record at as low a price as possible. The result was The Faust Tapes, a full-length album, which sold at 49 pence.[4]

Legacy

In 1998 The Wire placed The Faust Tapes in their list "One Hundred Records That Set the World on Fire (While No One Was Listening)".[5]

Track listing

LP releases
Side one
  1. "Untitled" – 22:37
Side two
  1. "Untitled" – 20:49

2001 CD release
  1. "Exercise – With Several Hands on a Piano" (Faust) – 0:52
  2. "Exercise – With Voices, Drum and Sax" (Faust) – 0:21
  3. "Flashback Caruso" (Rudolf Sosna) – 4:01
  4. "Exercise – With Voices" (Faust) – 1:48
  5. "J'ai Mal Aux Dents" (Sosna) – 7:14
  6. "Untitled" (Faust) – 1:03
  7. "Untitled (Arnulf and Zappi on drums)" (Faust) – 1:42
  8. "Dr. Schwitters – Intro" (Faust) – 0:25
  9. "Exercise (continues track 1)" (Faust) – 1:11
  10. "Untitled" (Faust) – 1:18
  11. "Untitled" (Faust) – 0:50
  12. "Dr. Schwitters (Snippet)" (Faust) – 0:49
  13. "Untitled (Arnulf on drums)" (Faust) – 1:03
  14. "Untitled (Arnulf on drums)" (Faust) – 0:47
  15. "Untitled (all on saxes)" (Faust) – 1:33
  16. "Untitled" (Faust) – 2:18
  17. "Untitled (Rudolf)" (Faust) – 0:34
  18. "Untitled (Rudolf)" (Faust) – 0:51
  19. "Untitled (Rudolf)" (Faust) – 1:15
  20. "Untitled" (Faust) – 2:28
  21. "Untitled" (Faust) – 0:20
  22. "Untitled" (Faust) – 1:13
  23. "Untitled" (Faust) – 0:59
  24. "Stretch Out Time" (Sosna) – 1:35
  25. "Der Baum" (Jean-Hervé Péron) – 3:49
  26. "Chère Chambre" (Péron) – 3:07

Personnel

Faust
  • Werner "Zappi" Diermaier – drums
  • Hans Joachim Irmler – organ
  • Arnulf Meifert – drums
  • Jean-Hervé Péron – bass guitar, vocals on "J'ai Mal Aux Dents", "Der Baum" & "Chère Chambre"
  • Rudolf Sosna – guitar, keyboards, vocals on "Flashback Caruso" & "Stretch Out Time"
  • Gunter Wüsthoff – synthesiser, saxophone

Production
  • Kurt Graupner – engineer
  • Uwe Nettelbeck – producer, cover artwork, vocals on "Exercise – With Voices"

Certification
Region Certification Sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[2] Silver 60,000
gollark: We will convert any of these into currency units at the objectively correct price.
gollark: Fortunately, our systems extend into all hypothetical scenarios and preemptively neutralize the portions of features of devices anywhere capable of damaging them.
gollark: No.
gollark: How quaint.
gollark: I can just do it every few milliseconds.

References
  1. Unterberger, Richie. "The Faust Tapes". AllMusic. Retrieved 10 July 2016.
  2. "Archived article". Melody Maker. Retrieved May 16, 2018.
  3. Starostin, George. "Faust". Only Solitaire. Retrieved 10 July 2016.
  4. Gill, Andy (April 1997). "Having a Smashing Time". Mojo Magazine. Retrieved 21 January 2008.
  5. Roy, Daryl Stephen; Uncle Fester (1998). "100 Records That Set the World on Fire (While No One Was Listening)". The Wire. Archived from the original on 19 October 2007. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
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