The Faust Tapes
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''The Faust Tapes'' is the third album by the German
krautrock Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments ...
group
Faust Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroads ...
, released in 1973. The album sold well in the United Kingdom (60,000 copies) because of a marketing gimmick by
Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldwid ...
that saw it go on sale for the price of a
single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...
. This exposure introduced British audiences to Faust.
Recommended Records Recommended Records (RēR) is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler with Nick Hobbs in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected mus ...
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 ''Munich and Elsewhere'' album as the front cover. The Virgin and Recommended LP releases, and the first Recommended CD release had no track titles. In 2021, the German label
Bureau B Bureau B (sometimes quoted as ''Bureau-B'') is an independent record label, music publisher and booking agency from Hamburg, Germany, founded in 2005 by Gunther Buskies (B for Buskies) as a sister label to Tapete Records. The label releases variet ...
released the box set ''1971-1974'', in editions of 2000 seven LP/two 7" sets and 1000 eight-CD sets, consisting of their first four albums (including ''Tapes''), the previously "lost" album ''Punkt'', two albums of previously unreleased tracks, and two singles (one previously unreleased). Both editions are now out of print, but the label has released ''Tapes'' digitally on their Bandcamp page. For all of these releases, all of the tracks that were previously Untitled or Exercises were given new titles. ''The Faust Tapes'' consists of segments of songs woven together in pieces spread out over two sides of the LP.


Background

Faust's previous record label was Polydor Germany, and when they complained that Faust's second album ''
Faust So Far ''Faust So Far'', also simply called ''So Far'', is a 1972 album by German krautrock group Faust. This, the band's second studio album, has a more commercially typical structure than its predecessor; it comprises nine separate tracks, each consis ...
'' (1972) was not commercial enough, the group's producer Uwe Nettelbeck signed the band up with Virgin Records in
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
. 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 A penny is a coin ( pennies) or a unit of currency (pl. pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. Presently, it is th ...
, the price of a 7" single at the time. As a result, this gave Faust, who were relatively unknown, a massive audience as the album sold over 60,000 copies. The album also reached number 12 in the charts, but was later redacted its spot on the grounds of the cover price. The sales of the album put Virgin at a £2,000 loss.


Legacy

In 1998 ''
The Wire ''The Wire'' is an American Crime film, crime drama Television show, television series created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon. The series was broadcast by the cable network HBO in the United States. ''The ...
'' placed ''The Faust Tapes'' in their (unnumbered) list "One Hundred Records That Set the World on Fire (While No One Was Listening)", where the writers said it "showcases the art of sonic collage at its best".


Track listing


LP releases

;Side one # "Untitled" – 22:37 ;Side two # "Untitled" – 20:49


2001 CD release

# "Exercise – With Several Hands on a Piano" (
Faust Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroads ...
) – 0:52 # "Exercise – With Voices, Drum and Sax" (Faust) – 0:21 # "Flashback Caruso" (
Rudolf Sosna Faust (English: "fist") are a German rock band from Hamburg. Formed in 1971 by producer and former music journalist Uwe Nettelbeck, the group was originally composed of Werner "Zappi" Diermaier (b.1949), Hans Joachim Irmler (b.1950), Arnulf M ...
) – 4:01 # "Exercise – With Voices" (Faust) – 1:48 # "J'ai Mal Aux Dents" (Sosna) – 7:14 # "Untitled" (Faust) – 1:03 # "Untitled (Arnulf and Zappi on drums)" (Faust) – 1:42 # "Dr. Schwitters – Intro" (Faust) – 0:25 # "Exercise (continues track 1)" (Faust) – 1:11 # "Untitled" (Faust) – 1:18 # "Untitled" (Faust) – 0:50 # "Dr. Schwitters (Snippet)" (Faust) – 0:49 # "Untitled (Arnulf on drums)" (Faust) – 1:03 # "Untitled (Arnulf on drums)" (Faust) – 0:47 # "Untitled (all on saxes)" (Faust) – 1:33 # "Untitled" (Faust) – 2:18 # "Untitled (Rudolf)" (Faust) – 0:34 # "Untitled (Rudolf)" (Faust) – 0:51 # "Untitled (Rudolf)" (Faust) – 1:15 # "Untitled" (Faust) – 2:28 # "Untitled" (Faust) – 0:20 # "Untitled" (Faust) – 1:13 # "Untitled" (Faust) – 0:59 # "Stretch Out Time" (Sosna) – 1:35 # "Der Baum" (
Jean-Hervé Péron Faust (English: "fist") are a German rock band from Hamburg. Formed in 1971 by producer and former music journalist Uwe Nettelbeck, the group was originally composed of Werner "Zappi" Diermaier (b.1949), Hans Joachim Irmler (b.1950), Arnulf M ...
) – 3:49 # "Chère Chambre" (Péron) – 3:07


2021 Bureau B reissues

# "Several Hands On Our Piano" (
Faust Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroads ...
) – 0:52 # "Don't!" (Faust) – 0:21 # "Flashback Caruso" (
Rudolf Sosna Faust (English: "fist") are a German rock band from Hamburg. Formed in 1971 by producer and former music journalist Uwe Nettelbeck, the group was originally composed of Werner "Zappi" Diermaier (b.1949), Hans Joachim Irmler (b.1950), Arnulf M ...
) – 4:00 # "Voices And Trumpet And All" (Faust) – 1:48 # "J'ai Mal Aux Dents" ("I Have A Toothache") (Sosna) – 7:14 # "Beim nächsten Ton ist es..." ("At the next tone it is...") (Faust) – 1:03 # "Two Drums, Bass, Organ" (Faust) – 1:42 # "Dr. Schwitters Intro" (Faust) – 0:25 # "Several Hands On Our Piano (Continued)" (Faust) – 1:11 # "Beam Me Up, Scotty" (Faust) – 1:17 # "Elerimomuvid" (Faust) – 0:50 # "Dr. Schwitters (Continued)" (Faust) – 0:49 # "Have A Good Time, Everybody" (Faust) – 1:03 # "Above And Under Our Piano" (Faust) – 0:48 # "Hermanns Lament" (Faust) – 1:32 # "Donnerwetter" ("Thunderstorm"/"Noisy Argument"/"Gosh") (Faust) – 2:18 # "Was ist hier los?" ("What's going on here?") (Faust) – 0:34 # "Rudolf der Pianist" (Faust) – 0:51 # "Ricochets" (Faust) – 1:17 # "I’ve Heard That One Before" (Faust) – 2:29 # "Watch Your Step" (Faust) – 0:20 # "Under Our Piano Again" (Faust) – 1:12 # "Fluid Chorus" (Faust) – 0:58 # "Stretch Out Time" (Sosna) – 1:36 # "Der Baum" ("A Tree") (
Jean-Hervé Péron Faust (English: "fist") are a German rock band from Hamburg. Formed in 1971 by producer and former music journalist Uwe Nettelbeck, the group was originally composed of Werner "Zappi" Diermaier (b.1949), Hans Joachim Irmler (b.1950), Arnulf M ...
) – 3:51 # "Chère Chambre" ("Dear Room") (Péron) – 3:09


Personnel


Faust

*
Werner "Zappi" Diermaier Werner Diermaier (also known as Werner "Zappi" Diermaier) (born 1949) is a German drummer, best known as one of the founding members of the German krautrock band, Faust. Diermaier has remained with Faust for its entire lifespan and appears on all ...
– drums *
Hans Joachim Irmler Faust (English: "fist") are a German rock band from Hamburg. Formed in 1971 by producer and former music journalist Uwe Nettelbeck, the group was originally composed of Werner "Zappi" Diermaier (b.1949), Hans Joachim Irmler (b.1950), Arnulf M ...
– organ *
Arnulf Meifert Faust (English: "fist") are a German rock band from Hamburg. Formed in 1971 by producer and former music journalist Uwe Nettelbeck, the group was originally composed of Werner "Zappi" Diermaier (b.1949), Hans Joachim Irmler (b.1950), Arnulf M ...
– drums *
Jean-Hervé Péron Faust (English: "fist") are a German rock band from Hamburg. Formed in 1971 by producer and former music journalist Uwe Nettelbeck, the group was originally composed of Werner "Zappi" Diermaier (b.1949), Hans Joachim Irmler (b.1950), Arnulf M ...
– bass guitar, vocals on "J'ai Mal Aux Dents", "Der Baum" & "Chère Chambre" *
Rudolf Sosna Faust (English: "fist") are a German rock band from Hamburg. Formed in 1971 by producer and former music journalist Uwe Nettelbeck, the group was originally composed of Werner "Zappi" Diermaier (b.1949), Hans Joachim Irmler (b.1950), Arnulf M ...
– guitar, keyboards, vocals on "Flashback Caruso" & "Stretch Out Time" *
Gunther Wüsthoff Faust (English: "fist") are a German rock band from Hamburg. Formed in 1971 by producer and former music journalist Uwe Nettelbeck, the group was originally composed of Werner "Zappi" Diermaier (b.1949), Hans Joachim Irmler (b.1950), Arnulf M ...
– synthesiser, saxophone


Production

*
Kurt Graupner Kurt is a male given name of Germanic or Turkish origin. ''Kurt'' or ''Curt'' originated as short forms of the Germanic Conrad, depending on geographical usage, with meanings including counselor or advisor. In Turkish, Kurt means "Wolf" and i ...
– engineer * Uwe Nettelbeck – producer, cover artwork, vocals on "Exercise – With Voices"


Certification


References


External links


faust-pages.com
''The Faust Tapes''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Faust Tapes, The 1973 albums Faust (band) albums Virgin Records albums Recommended Records albums Albums produced by Uwe Nettelbeck Musique concrète albums Sound collage albums