FAUST'S reputation as one of the 'Krautrock' trailblazers has long been assured. However, while their contemporaries Can and Neu possessed a similarly anarchic and experimental approach, they both became known for their lithe, motorik grooves and their back catalogues are, frankly, a lot easier to stomach than this influential, but often mischievous bunch of sonic outlaws.
There again, if your personnel changes with a regularity that only Mark.E.Smith could keep pace with, I guess trying to trap a 'quintessential' sound must be nigh-on impossible. As it stands, there's been a whole decade since Faust's last 'official' studio release and since the group's feverish late 1990s activity, Messrs. Diermaier and Peron have departed with the jury still out on whether they will ever return. Permanency, it seems, is not a concept you're liable to cross swords with if you do time in Faust.
Consequently, the 2010 incarnation of Faust is firmly in the grip of Hans Joachim Irmler, although his lieutenants, Lars Paukstat and Steven Wray Lobdell also contribute, along with freelancers like Ingo Vauk who have graced previous Faust releases. As ever, ripping up the rulebook seems to be Irmler's primary raison d'etre, but this scorched earth approach ensures that 'Faust Is Last' doggedly pursues a rocky sonic road across its' 2 CDS and 22 tracks.
If you're to take 'Faust Is Last' purely on CD1, then you may find yourself pleasantly surprised at times. Its' 15 tracks last 48 minutes in total, though most of them segue (some more seamlessly than others) into each other along the way and there is some undeniably good stuff here. 'Nachtfahrt', for example, is almost Rock'n'Roll if you squint hard enough, even if it makes room for ear-splitting E-Bow guitar and what sounds like it could be the bellowing of the Old Ones from HP Lovecraft's Chthulu mythos. 'Hit Me', meanwhile, sounds like Nine Inch Nails doing Pink Floyd's 'Interstellar Overdrive' and 'Dolls & Brawls' throws a container load of metal hubcaps into the sound of Jamaica's Channel One.
OK, there are times when the tracks approaching a recognisable Rock sound – not least the disposable, but groovy stomp of 'I Don't Buy Your Shit No More' – feel like they could be part of a Residents-style attempt to create a 'Rock'n'Roll' pastiche, recorded simply because Faust feel like having a cackle at our expense. Yet there's no denying how affecting the record's lone (and truly unexpected) piano ballad 'Day Out' is. Not only is it peaceful and plangent, but it's hard to take Irmler's heartfelt assertion that “there's hope left in my soul” at anything other than face value.
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More quality like this and 'Faust Is Last' could really smash down some preconceptions, but sadly too much of the rest of it seems happy to fall into the safely net of 'abstraction' simply because it can. Tracks like 'Brumm Und Blech' and 'Soft Prunes' are merely ambient washes, while potential good ideas like 'Chrome' are buried beneath avalanches of metal percussion. Probably the most irritating track is 'Cluster fur Cluster' though it mercifully only lasts 25 seconds. Just as well, bearing in mind it sounds like a house being fire bombed for its' duration.
Even allowing for this mental scarring, you come away from CD1 thinking 'Faust Is Last' could still be a contender of sorts, but all those hopes are dashed by the extremely infuriating second disc which descends into regurgitated ambient trash and merely pisses around in the dark for over 40 minutes. That it took around two years to help piece all this together is hard to take. You certainly need to be indulging in stronger chemicals than the cups of tea I was chain-drinking during this exasperating 45 minutes to take it to heart.
All of which leaves a disappointingly sour taste in my mouth. Chunks of CD1 of 'Faust Is Last' show just how engaging – as well as uncompromising - this legendary outfit can be when they so desire, yet they seem determined to baulk at any noticeable vestige of melody out of sheer perversity. I'm sure I'm missing the point, but when a band (even a well-documented influential one) can't be bothered to make the effort, then ultimately why should I?
Klangbad Records online
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