Faust: The Faust Tapes Remastered Vinyl LP

Why you'll love it

Bureau B's reissue is remastered and comes with a printed inner sleeve carrying liner notes. The original sold at the price of a single, and more than 60,000 copies later it had introduced a generation of British listeners to krautrock.

This edition

Remastered
Printed inner sleeve
Pressed in the EU
Lyrics included

About the album

When Faust's producer Uwe Nettelbeck signed the band to a young Virgin Records in London, part of the deal was a box of tapes the group had been making since Faust So Far. Virgin stitched them into an album and sold it for 49 pence, and suddenly a little-known German band from the Wümme commune was in record collections all over Britain.

The two sides play as continuous collages, with songs, jams and noise sliced together. "Flashback Caruso" and "J'ai Mal aux Dents" emerge as real tunes from the swirl, "Several Hands on Our Piano" keeps resurfacing like a running joke, and "Der Baum" and "Chère Chambre" bring it home in sweet, strange fashion. Nothing was overdubbed or tidied up; the tapes were left exactly as recorded, often live.

The Wire praised it as sonic collage at its best and named it among a hundred records that set the world on fire while no one was listening. We'd love to sell it at 49p too, but the accountants have had a quiet word.

Also at Kops: more Faust on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Side A
1. Several Hands On Our Piano
2. Don't
3. Flashback Caruso
4. Voices And Trumpet And All
5. J'ai Mal Aux Dents
6. Beim Nächsten Ton Ist Es...
7. Two Drums, Bass, Organ
8. Dr. Schwitters Intro
9. Several Hands On Our Piano (Continued)
10. Beam Me Up, Scotty
11. Elerimomuvid
12. Dr. Schwitters (Continued)
13. Have A Good Time, Everybody
14. Above And Under Our Piano

Side B
1. Hermanns Lament
2. Donnerwetter
3. Was Ist Hier Los?
4. Rudolf Der Pianist
5. Ricochets
6. I've Heard That One Before
7. Watch Your Step
8. Under Our Piano Again
9. Fluid Chorus
10. Stretch Out Time
11. Der Baum
12. Chère Chambre