"Viel Obst" means "Lots of fruit" -- and it is.
boeanthropist | Cambridge, MA | 12/17/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Every so often (i.e., almost never) in this Age of the Box Set, some soul destined for later canonization puts in the time and effort and craft it takes to do the job thoroughly. Neither the lazy, random, all-the-hits-plusa-bunch-of-non-hitsplus-one-or-two-previouslyunreleased-demos-rounded-out-by-a-B-side ethos of most box sets, nor the every-single-false-take-and-snippet-of-studio-patter completism of, say, Verve's Billie Holiday box or Rhino Handmade's "Stooges: Complete Funhouse Sessions" -- I'm thinking maybe of the Galaxie 500 box, which sacrified nothing while adding immensely to the band's released ouevre, or maybe the Atlantio Mingus box without the interview disc...Anyway, personal box set asthetics aside for a microsecond, Chris Cutler did so fine a job with this that I did a double-take when I first heard rumors of its imminent release. Having been a fan of the band for years, it fills all the holes I'd been wanting filled and solves quite a few mysteries, i.e., nearly complete lyrics, "The Faust Tapes" tracked down to the 26 individual pieces and all the pieces actually titled, the reappearance of "We Are the Hallo Men" (which I hope is making Mr. Elliott squirm uncomfortably in his grave) which disappeared when "Munic & Elsewhere" and "The Last Album" were compiled onto the "71 Minutes" CD, plus the bonus disc containing the erroneously-named BBC Session (actually a tape the band sent the BBC) plus a handful of previously unissued outtakes, versions, etc.Best of all you get the book -- interviews with 2 band members, elusive producer Uwe Nettelback and engineer Kurt Graupner, plus a long "I remember" by the ever-eloquent and amusing Peter Blegvad and a whole lot of photos.Pricewise it's a steal -- for years, the first two albums were only available as Japanese imports -- the two of them alone would have set you back nearly the price of this box.What to say about Faust, especially for the neophytes? I'm very glad they fell by chance into my record collection to corrupt me while I was still in my teens, even if it did mean having to explain over and over to various friends and girlfriends that yes, they really were singing DADDY! TAKE A BANANA! TOMORROW IS SUNDAY! I'm tempted to fall for that time-tested cliche of musicology and say that Faust Were A Band Of Contrasts. But reading the various members'/co-conspirators' stories in the booklet, the sense I get is more that it's a mistake to think of Faust as a (music) band -- Faust were the collective adventure of a bunch of interesting people who had the incomparable luck to be able to get on the music industry's payroll for a mostly-unsupervised chunk of time and (despite Jean-Herve Peron's ex post facto self-deprecation in the liner notes) do something entirely unique with it. The impression I get is that they were only a band when they needed to be, that the private Faust was not exactly a Faust at all, despite the public Faust, and despite the impressions that the first album and The Faust Tapes may have originally given. This release unifies private and public Fausts in a way never really done before, and we're all quite lucky for that -- and I don't think that deflating of all the mystery surrounding the band for so long in anyway detracts from the many odd pleasures to be derived from immersing yourself in their world.Anyway, it's all here, from "It's a Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl", rock and roll so deliberately primitive in the rhythm department it's a hair shy of systems-music, to endless labyrinths of tape collage, to the delicate lyricism of "Flashback Caruso" and "Cher Chambre" and the coda to "Miss Fortune", to the more horned and avant pieces which make me think of a turn-of-the-century New Orleans proto-jazz band possessed by the ghosts of a legion of Roman centurions. All together, it's a conundrum, and after 15 years of regular doses of it I still take pleasure in its unresolveability. I'd still like to know what has become of all the Wumme sessions which were edited down to make "Tapes"...As satisfying as the Complete Poems of E.E. Cummings, as the Oulipo Compendium, as being locked all night in a watchmanless department store with a failsafe escape route come morning."
Wumme Years - nearly all together at last.
John B. Buchanan | Booragoon, WA Australia | 12/22/2001
(4 out of 5 stars)
"The only things I can add to the other reviews are
1. All of the CDs are recorded in HDCD (except BBC Sessions +)
2. The cover of the first S/T album is not in clear plastic
3. "So Far" has copies of the pictures issued originally with the vinyl album
4. Faust Tapes has yet another cover
5. The sound quality is better than the 2-fer (S/T and So Far on Collector's Choice) it sounds as good as the Recommended vinyl I once had and better than the Polydor UK vinyl.
5. There is a wonderful booklet that gives a multifaceted history of Faust - all news to most of us
6. Faust IV is not included"
Some of the greatest music in all of rock.
Lord Chimp | Monkey World | 05/21/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Faust was truly a band like no other. Ignoring the proto-krautrock bands (many of which are interesting as well, but obviously I won't discuss that here, although email me or do a search or whatever if you care to learn more), Faust was one of the original krautrock bands, along with Neu! and Can. Of the three, I believe Faust was definitely the most profound, weird, and innovative. Faust was _basically_ a rock band. A progressive rock band, to be more precise, although rather than following the symphonic and jazzy footsteps of British progressive artists, for they explored more avant-garde avenues. Although it's a rock lineup, the sounds are highly manipulated by splicing tape and with electronic effects, allowing bizarre concoctions of sounds to be combined into fabulously perplexing rock songs, soundscapes, sound collages, avant-garde compositions, and more. Their music is stunningly diverse, from pastoral to jazzy to noisy to downright groovy and catchy & poppy to downright facked up, and often characterized by a mechanical beat. This boxed set is a dream package for fans of experimental music. Chris Cutler is my hero for putting this together. The first two albums, the self-titled and _So Far_ are some of the most brilliant rock albums I have heard. The first is an utterly surreal journey through bizarre mechanical rock music completely deconstructed and reassembled by wacky, yet divinely talented and experimental Germans. _So Far_ is less WEIRD and actually quite catchy, with shorter songs and fewer ADD type structures, and "It's a Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl" is one of the greatest pop songs of all time. The other discs you get, _Faust Tapes_, _71 Minutes of Faust_ and the BBC sessions are all outstanding as well, revealing more of the band's tremendous talent and diversity. Faust and other krautrock bands were the pioneering artists whose highly original ideas were like no others. Above all, it's sheer pleasure to listen to this music.BUT NO MATTER WHAT I SAY THIS MUSIC CANNOT BE DESCRIBED BY MERE MORTALS WITH MERE MORTAL LANGUAGES. WHATEVER YOU THINK THE MUSIC SOUNDS LIKE FROM ANYONE'S DESCRIPTION SHOULD BE DISREGARDED.You just need to listen to it.The big 40-page booklet includes many good pictures and interviews with key figures, shedding light on how the music was created, the highly favorable financial circumstances under which their first two albums were made, and more interesting stuff. Now, the ULTIMATE Faust collection would have to include _Faust IV_, but one can't be too picky. But as it stands, the Wumme Years box encapsulates a lot of truly brilliant music. I am biased of course, because I think krautrock is just sickeningly good. But you should really take my word on this."
Track Listings (3) - Disc #1