FATHER BEFOULED Morbid Destitution of Covenant (Relapse) cd 14.98
This has actually been out for a while, and we've been meaning to review it, 'cause Father Befouled are a) pretty rad, and b) feature members of some other bands we know y'all like. Both dudes from doom-death duo Encoffination (Ghoat and Elektrokutioner) are in Father Befouled - with, as you know, Elektrokutioner also being integral to the recently reviewed likes of Decrepitaph and Wooden Stake, etc. Also, Chad Davis of Hour Of 13 and US Christmas, used to play drums in Father Befouled before Elektrokutioner joined (and after, sadly, the previous drummer committed suicide).
If you're into elegantly filthy, old skool, downtempo death metal, you're probably already aware of Father Befouled. This is their 2nd full-length but they've done lots of splits and eps as well, and have made a name for themselves in the retro-death underground, worshiping such '90s gods as Incantation and, well, mostly Incantation. And that's ok with us 'cause we loved the slowed-down death metal sound of Incantation back in the day. This also reminds us of a slower, sludgier Morbid Angel, and not just 'cause of the album's title. The vertigo-inducing, feedback drenched lurchery of these songs, laced with sick, sea-sawing guitar licks, is the main reason those acts come to mind. It's got that dismal, blasphemous, ancient atmosphere all right. An onslaught of distortion and battery and guttural vokills that sounds like the smashing of holy idols, with guitars chunking and scraping as if they're being used to dig up and desecrate graves, that sort of thing. Seriously pummeling some of the time, but then also, alternately, slowly grinding through ultra-doomic interludes (like the middle part of "Christless Mass" for instance). Nice. Or not so nice. But you know what we mean. Recommended to Incantation and Encoffination and most other "-tion" fans for sure!
MPEG Stream: "Sacrilegeous Defilement of Deranged Salvation"
MPEG Stream: "Idol Defamation"
MPEG Stream: "Paradise of Desecrated Nothingness"

FATHER BEFOULED / HELCARAXE Ruination Of The Heavenly Communion (Enuleation) cd 13.98

FATHER JOHN MISTY Fear Fun (Sub Pop) cd 14.98
Yet another Fleet Foxes offshoot whose sound doesn't fall that far from the FF tree. And we're not complaining. It took us a while to decide that we did indeed love the Fleet Foxes, but once we did, we couldn't get enough, which makes this proliferation of sort-of-sound-alikes good news for folks like us who love THAT sound and want more. But like the Poor Moon record we reviewed recently, Father John Misty, the work of former FF drummer Joshua Tillman, who seems to effortlessly capture the same sort of timeless sounding folk pop as the FF mothership. But where Fleet Foxes tended more toward traditional folk sounds, Father John Misty is definitely on the pop side of the spectrum, the arrangements lush and expansive, strings and percussion, piano and all manner of studio filigree, the songs rife with rich layered drones, lush old fashioned production, and Tillman's voice is fantastic, spending much of its time in the upper registers, sounding not unlike Roy Orbison at times, the music appropriately orchestral, and then there are the lyrics, which pop out once in a while, especially when Tillman is singing something about punching himself in the face, or something about Jesus Christ, but delivered in that gorgeous velvety croon, over some lush dreamy twang flecked pop, it's hard not to love. Lots of dreamy ooooh's and aaaah's, cool crunchy guitars, big bombastic drumming (just check out "Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings", which might be our favorite track), wheezing organs, groovy electric pianos, programmed beats here and there, slippery slide guitar, the songs all over the map, stripped down folk, fuzzy almost indie pop, dark country, lush chamber pop, sixties psychedelic rock, and more often than not, some mix of them all.
Super cool eye popping psychedelic cover art too!
MPEG Stream: "Hollywood Forever Cemetary Sings"
MPEG Stream: "Funtimes In Babylon"
MPEG Stream: "Nancy From Now On"

FATHER JOHN MISTY Fear Fun (Sub Pop) lp 17.98
Sub Pop had to repress the vinyl, so we didn't get to list it with the cd before, here at last it is now...
Yet another Fleet Foxes offshoot whose sound doesn't fall that far from the FF tree. And we're not complaining. It took us a while to decide that we did indeed love the Fleet Foxes, but once we did, we couldn't get enough, which makes this proliferation of sort-of-sound-alikes good news for folks like us who love THAT sound and want more. But like the Poor Moon record we reviewed recently, Father John Misty, the work of former FF drummer Joshua Tillman, who seems to effortlessly capture the same sort of timeless sounding folk pop as the FF mothership. But where Fleet Foxes tended more toward traditional folk sounds, Father John Misty is definitely on the pop side of the spectrum, the arrangements lush and expansive, strings and percussion, piano and all manner of studio filigree, the songs rife with rich layered drones, lush old fashioned production, and Tillman's voice is fantastic, spending much of its time in the upper registers, sounding not unlike Roy Orbison at times, the music appropriately orchestral, and then there are the lyrics, which pop out once in a while, especially when Tillman is singing something about punching himself in the face, or something about Jesus Christ, but delivered in that gorgeous velvety croon, over some lush dreamy twang flecked pop, it's hard not to love. Lots of dreamy ooooh's and aaaah's, cool crunchy guitars, big bombastic drumming (just check out "Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings", which might be our favorite track), wheezing organs, groovy electric pianos, programmed beats here and there, slippery slide guitar, the songs all over the map, stripped down folk, fuzzy almost indie pop, dark country, lush chamber pop, sixties psychedelic rock, and more often than not, some mix of them all.
Super cool eye popping psychedelic cover art too!
MPEG Stream: "Hollywood Forever Cemetary Sings"
MPEG Stream: "Funtimes In Babylon"
MPEG Stream: "Nancy From Now On"

FATHER MOO & THE BLACK SHEEP s/t (Swordfish) cd 17.98
Acid Mothers Temple. Makoto Kawabata. Bearded gurus shooting energy beams from their eyes. Drifting, droning, eerie psych-scapes. Enough? Naked Japanese hippy women. Can I stop there? I think you've already come in and bought this cd. It's a compact disc reissue of the out of print Father Moo LP from a few years back, perhaps you remember it, or at least the Father Yod-inspired cover pic. I'm sure it goes for $$$$ on eBay now based on the sleeve alone. Anyway, the Acid Mothers Temple fanatics at UK label Swordfish have brought it back, now as a handy cd, for those that missed getting the vinyl when it was available (or who collect all configurations -- actually, this was once a limited edition cd-r, before it was even an LP, so you've gotta look for that too if you don't have it, good luck!). As the many, many Acid Mothers Temple projects and off-shoots go, this one is primo stuff. Lovely female vocal moans (courtesy of Cotton Casino, presumably), electronic drones, keyboard melodies, some sparse, far-off percussion, all very pretty and mysterious, blissful, but kinda dark. No wild Makoto guitar action here, just three tracks (the longest, a half-hour) of otherworldly, almost religious trance-muzz. And that's just fine. We too bow before Father Moo.
RealAudio clip: "track 1"
RealAudio clip: "track 3"

FATHER MURPHY ...And He Told Us To Turn To The Sun (Boring Machines) cd 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We get sent a ton of stuff to check out. And it's awesome, truly, So much amazing music to discover, but at the same time it's so overwhelming. But every once in a while a record pops up that makes it all worth while. Such is the case with this disc from these Italian weirdos Father Murphy. What makes it even cooler is that this record, and this band, are SO hard to describe.
It's a bit like folk, a little bit like post punk math rock, a little avant noise, but stripped way down into something skeletal, they definitely sound a little bit like one of the new breed of freak folk psych folk cd-r outfits, but at the same time, they sound like NOTHING you've ever heard. Detuned guitar plod, spaced out rhythmic thump, lots of deep shimmery ambience and FX drenched drifts, wavery falsetto crooning, warbly organs, and the occasional bursts of feral yowling, wow. Unhinged, fractured, freaky, passionate, super intense and awesome.
In discussing Father Murphy, other reviewers have mentioned Robert Wyatt, This Heat, Samla Mamas Manna, we also hear plenty of Marc Ribot in the guitars, all angular and off kilter, there's also some mysterious female vocals that surface here and there, field recordings, crickets, birds, all beneath weepy mournful Morricone-ish twang, a sound both woozy and ominous, dreamy and dense, a glorious deathlike dirge, part Dirty Three, part fluttery forest folk, a little wheezy organ dirge pop, some slooooooowed down Blonde Redhead, like we said this is super hard to describe. but what we do know is we love it. And you will do, if your tastes run toward the dark, the dolorous, the mysterious, the haunting, the dirgey and the deathlike.
Incredible packaging. The cd housed in a die cut multi layered fold over sleeve, that housed in a thick outer vellum jacket so the images on the inner sleeve are just visible through the blurred finish of the outer sleeve.
VERY LIMITED!
MPEG Stream: "We Were Colonist"
MPEG Stream: "I Sob No More Rage"
MPEG Stream: "In Their Graves"

FATHER MURPHY ...And He Told Us To Turn To The Sun (Aagoo / Boring Machines / Madcap Collective) lp 9.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Not only have these current aQ faves been playing shows all over the US recently, and not only did they get to open for the Sandy Bull movie that just played right across the street, they also stopped by aQ to hang out, and were the coolest nicest folks EVER. They also dropped a bunch of lps off, the vinyl version of ...And He Told Us To Turn To The Sun, the cd version of which we raved about not too long ago, so if you somehow missed out on the cd, or were holding out for the vinyl, now's the time...
We get sent a ton of stuff to check out. And it's awesome, truly, there's so much amazing music to discover, but at the same time it's so overwhelming. But every once in a while a record pops up that makes it all worth while. Such is the case with this record from these Italian weirdos Father Murphy. What makes it even cooler is that this record, and this band, are SO hard to describe.
It's a bit like folk, a little bit like post punk math rock, a little avant noise, but stripped way down into something skeletal, they definitely sound a little bit like one of the new breed of freak folk psych folk cd-r outfits, but at the same time, they sound like NOTHING you've ever heard. Detuned guitar plod, spaced out rhythmic thump, lots of deep shimmery ambience and FX drenched drifts, wavery falsetto crooning, warbly organs, and the occasional bursts of feral yowling, wow. Unhinged, fractured, freaky, passionate, super intense and awesome.
In discussing Father Murphy, other reviewers have mentioned Robert Wyatt, This Heat, Samla Mamas Manna, we also hear plenty of Marc Ribot in the guitars, all angular and off kilter, there's also some mysterious female vocals that surface here and there, field recordings, crickets, birds, all beneath weepy mournful Morricone-ish twang, a sound both woozy and ominous, dreamy and dense, a glorious deathlike dirge, part Dirty Three, part fluttery forest folk, a little wheezy organ dirge pop, some slooooooowed down Blonde Redhead, like we said this is super hard to describe. but what we do know is we love it. And you will do, if your tastes run toward the dark, the dolorous, the mysterious, the haunting, the dirgey and the deathlike.
VERY LIMITED!
MPEG Stream: "We Were Colonist"
MPEG Stream: "I Sob No More Rage"
MPEG Stream: "In Their Graves"

FATHER MURPHY Anyway, You r Children Will Deny It (Aagoo) cd 10.98
The return of these aQ beloved Italian sonic oddballs, and it seems they just continue to get more and more odd with every release. After their first record showed up mysteriously at aQ a few years back, we became pretty obsessed, their sound a twisted DIY punk rock / dronefolk / math rock weirdness, that creeped and slithered more than it rocked (although it occasionally did that too), but whatever FM were doing, it always seemed strangely rickety, and on the verge of collapse, haunting dirges, weirdly twisted industrial plods, the guitars gnarled and angular, the rhythms junkyard crunch and clatter, the melodies wheezing and woozy, the vocals hazy and druggy and lost in the mix, and if anything, this new one seems to be the culmination of that twisted sound, simultaneously pushing it even further, but also honing it into something impossibly tight, while still appearing shambling and darkly chaotic. The opening track almost sounds like some lost seventies folk outfit filtered through some more modern freakfolk combo, the vocals a lovely mellifluous croon, over tangled detuned melodies, wheezing chordal whirs, little squalls of angular crunch, all stretched out and blurred into some sort of hazy psychedelic sonic ritual, it's not hard to imagine these guys cover Comus, or even this as some sort of seance with the group channeling Comus' frenzied demonic acid folk, but here transformed into something a bit darker and woozier. The second track employs the same palette, and uses it to create a Swans like lumber, all super distorted crumbling crunch, and keening high end melody, so gorgeously creepy and darkly ominous, harrowing and haunting in equal measure, way too short at 2+ minutes, we definitely found ourselves wanting it to never end. But then the next track explodes with some strange pulsating processed riffing, sounding almost metallic, even a little black metal, but smeared and warbly, transforming into something more buzzing and almost jazzy, maybe like a more frenzied Necks, but over the top, the group layer strident boy / girl vocals, the result fierce and feral, but pulsing, pulsating and totally mesmerizing.
Normally, this is where we'd say something like, "and so it goes", or "the rest of the record plays out similarly", but it just doesn't. After a brief bit of doom flecked witchy dirge-folk, the band offer up what might be our favorite track, a dark intense industrial epic, all soaring strings, and martial percussion, with crooned male vox, yowled female vox, it almost sounds like some modern opera composed by Der Blutharsch or Death In June, which halfway through collapses into a glorious sprawl of swirling, shimmering, buzzing layered dronemusic, that again ends way too soon. The band touch on dark doom-ed balladry, twisted, bizarrely produced circus-y post industrial stomp, blackened dronescaping, and some strange gnarled detuned dream pop before it's over, proving impossibly adept at pretty much every bizarre thing they try, and at combining any seemingly incompatible sounds they fancy. So great, and once again, we find ourselves wondering how Father Murphy continue to fly so far beneath the radar. We imagine they won't remain there for long...
MPEG Stream: "How We Ended Up With Feelings Of Guilt"
MPEG Stream: "His Face Showed No Distortions"
MPEG Stream: "It Is Funny, It Is Restful, But Came Quickly"

FATHER MURPHY Anyway, Your Children Will Deny It (Aagoo) lp 11.98
The return of these aQ beloved Italian sonic oddballs, and it seems they just continue to get more and more odd with every release. After their first record showed up mysteriously at aQ a few years back, we became pretty obsessed, their sound a twisted DIY punk rock / dronefolk / math rock weirdness, that creeped and slithered more than it rocked (although it occasionally did that too), but whatever FM were doing, it always seemed strangely rickety, and on the verge of collapse, haunting dirges, weirdly twisted industrial plods, the guitars gnarled and angular, the rhythms junkyard crunch and clatter, the melodies wheezing and woozy, the vocals hazy and druggy and lost in the mix, and if anything, this new one seems to be the culmination of that twisted sound, simultaneously pushing it even further, but also honing it into something impossibly tight, while still appearing shambling and darkly chaotic. The opening track almost sounds like some lost seventies folk outfit filtered through some more modern freakfolk combo, the vocals a lovely mellifluous croon, over tangled detuned melodies, wheezing chordal whirs, little squalls of angular crunch, all stretched out and blurred into some sort of hazy psychedelic sonic ritual, it's not hard to imagine these guys cover Comus, or even this as some sort of seance with the group channeling Comus' frenzied demonic acid folk, but here transformed into something a bit darker and woozier. The second track employs the same palette, and uses it to create a Swans like lumber, all super distorted crumbling crunch, and keening high end melody, so gorgeously creepy and darkly ominous, harrowing and haunting in equal measure, way too short at 2+ minutes, we definitely found ourselves wanting it to never end. But then the next track explodes with some strange pulsating processed riffing, sounding almost metallic, even a little black metal, but smeared and warbly, transforming into something more buzzing and almost jazzy, maybe like a more frenzied Necks, but over the top, the group layer strident boy / girl vocals, the result fierce and feral, but pulsing, pulsating and totally mesmerizing.
Normally, this is where we'd say something like, "and so it goes", or "the rest of the record plays out similarly", but it just doesn't. After a brief bit of doom flecked witchy dirge-folk, the band offer up what might be our favorite track, a dark intense industrial epic, all soaring strings, and martial percussion, with crooned male vox, yowled female vox, it almost sounds like some modern opera composed by Der Blutharsch or Death In June, which halfway through collapses into a glorious sprawl of swirling, shimmering, buzzing layered dronemusic, that again ends way too soon. The band touch on dark doom-ed balladry, twisted, bizarrely produced circus-y post industrial stomp, blackened dronescaping, and some strange gnarled detuned dream pop before it's over, proving impossibly adept at pretty much every bizarre thing they try, and at combining any seemingly incompatible sounds they fancy. So great, and once again, we find ourselves wondering how Father Murphy continue to fly so far beneath the radar. We imagine they won't remain there for long...
MPEG Stream: "How We Ended Up With Feelings Of Guilt"
MPEG Stream: "His Face Showed No Distortions"
MPEG Stream: "It Is Funny, It Is Restful, But Came Quickly"

FATHER MURPHY Live At Club Veb (UHU) cassette 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A while back we went kind of nuts for these Italians, selling tons of their And He Told Us album. We've been hankering for more, and here we do indeed have more, sadly, we managed to get just TEN copies of this, a super limited live release, limited in fact to a mere 50 copies. Needless to say, this is already sold out at the label and out of print. But we figured folks who dug the full length might want to grab one of these, or folks who somehow missed out completely, might find this inexpensive live set a good introduction. Either way, we only have 10 copies, so act fast.
They're pro silver cassettes, and they're housed in cool hand stamped recycled sleeves.
So what's the deal with Father Murphy, let's revisit out review of And He Told us, and our description of FM's sound:
It's a bit like folk, a little bit like post punk math rock, a little avant noise, but stripped way down into something skeletal, they definitely sound a little bit like one of the new breed of freak folk psych folk cd-r outfits, but at the same time, they sound like NOTHING you've ever heard. Detuned guitar plod, spaced out rhythmic thump, lots of deep shimmery ambience and FX drenched drifts, wavery falsetto crooning, warbly organs, and the occasional bursts of feral yowling, wow. Unhinged, fractured, freaky, passionate, super intense and awesome.
Comparisons have been made to Robert Wyatt, This Heat, Samla Mamas Manna, we also hear plenty of Marc Ribot in the guitars, all angular and off kilter, there's also some mysterious female vocals, all beneath weepy mournful Morricone-ish twang, a sound both woozy and ominous, dreamy and dense, a glorious deathlike dirge, part Dirty Three, part fluttery forest folk, a little wheezy organ dirge pop, some slooooooowed down Blonde Redhead, like we said this is super hard to describe, but what we do know is we love it.

FATHER MURPHY No Room For The Weak (Aagoo) cd 8.98
Latest mysterious missive from these Italian post punk noise rock drone folk oddballs, whom we initially discovered via a strange unmarked package that just showed up in the mail one day. We like to think it was preordained, cuz these guys seem like they belong in aQuarius. As the above descriptor again demonstrates, these guys are definitely hard to pin down, their sound constantly mutating, not just from record to record, but from song to song. A gloriously dark and haunting world of sound, that here takes the form of a brooding sort of dirgery, reverbed guitars, simple plodding percussion, wheezing organs, drawled down-in-the-mix vox, occasional bursts of strange effects, a mesmerizing bit of dronerock, equal parts post and kraut, fans of Circle will dig too, it's that sort of minimal meditative cyclical hypnorock, but here dialed way down, to something more brooding and haunting.
The whole record is equally compelling, shimmering guitars wreathed in hissy static, tense stretched out drones, pulsing percussion, slow building churns drenched in sonic grit, abstract vocals, all very dramatic and intense, brooding and darkly ominous, a swampy slithery gloom, some sort of apocalyptic slowcore balladry, like a way more minimal and abstract Woven Hand, occasionally peppered with creepy Comus like acid folk vocals, but for the most part stripped down and murky and gorgeously malevolent.
And they finish off with Leonard Cohen's "There Is A War", which the group easily transform into their own, with sung/spoken male/female vocals over looped sounding fuzzy melodies and propulsive muted rhythms, the whole track at once ominously Teutonic, but also strangely melodic and mesmerizing. Which pretty much describes this whole record. Such a weird and amazing band, such a weird and amazing record. Definitely recommended for anyone into dark and droney, murky and mysterious, dense and dreamy, which we'd guess is a whole heck of a lot of you!
MPEG Stream: "We Now Pray With Two Hands We Now Pray With True Anger"
MPEG Stream: "Until the Path is No Longer"

FATHER MURPHY No Room For The Weak (Aagoo) 10" 11.98
Latest mysterious missive from these Italian post punk noise rock drone folk oddballs, whom we initially discovered via a strange unmarked package that just showed up in the mail one day. We like to think it was preordained, cuz these guys seem like they belong in aQuarius. As the above descriptor again demonstrates, these guys are definitely hard to pin down, their sound constantly mutating, not just from record to record, but from song to song. A gloriously dark and haunting world of sound, that here takes the form of a brooding sort of dirgery, reverbed guitars, simple plodding percussion, wheezing organs, drawled down-in-the-mix vox, occasional bursts of strange effects, a mesmerizing bit of dronerock, equal parts post and kraut, fans of Circle will dig too, it's that sort of minimal meditative cyclical hypnorock, but here dialed way down, to something more brooding and haunting.
The whole record is equally compelling, shimmering guitars wreathed in hissy static, tense stretched out drones, pulsing percussion, slow building churns drenched in sonic grit, abstract vocals, all very dramatic and intense, brooding and darkly ominous, a swampy slithery gloom, some sort of apocalyptic slowcore balladry, like a way more minimal and abstract Woven Hand, occasionally peppered with creepy Comus like acid folk vocals, but for the most part stripped down and murky and gorgeously malevolent.
And they finish off with Leonard Cohen's "There Is A War", which the group easily transform into their own, with sung/spoken male/female vocals over looped sounding fuzzy melodies and propulsive muted rhythms, the whole track at once ominously Teutonic, but also strangely melodic and mesmerizing. Which pretty much describes this whole record. Such a weird and amazing band, such a weird and amazing record. Definitely recommended for anyone into dark and droney, murky and mysterious, dense and dreamy, which we'd guess is a whole heck of a lot of you!
MPEG Stream: "We Now Pray With Two Hands We Now Pray With True Anger"
MPEG Stream: "Until the Path is No Longer"

FATHER MURPHY Two Views (Aagoo) 7" 5.98
We raved about the most recent record from these Italian weirdos, a confusional mix of droned out folk, abstract psychedelia, math rock, punk rock, and who knows what else, but that's precisely why we dig them so much. We initially thought this was a new single, but in fact, it's part of a remix campaign for that record, "Anyway, Your Children Will Deny It", with various tracks being reworked and reimagined by friends of the band.
The A side here finds Indian Jewelry transforming the FM original into a weird industrial abstract loopscape, a pulsing chordal bleat, over metallic shimmer and FX squiggles, which are soon joined by brass like moans, that begin to skip and glitch and skitter, the whole track becoming more and more rhythmic and hypnotic, all the while remaining murky and woozily psychedelic.
French composer and aQ pal Philippe Petit offers up his FM rework, a staticky field of glitchy pulsations, heavily panned, swinging druggily from speaker to speaker, before in swoop moaning processed cellos (?), but wrapped in a crumbing distortion, the sounds blurring and bleeding into each other before transforming into a drowsy dirge, laced with mysterious effects and random blurts of clatter and crunch. The sound suddenly warped and fractured, pitch shifted as if someone has their finger on the single and are altering the speed, the end result is a little bit dubby, and a whole lot creepy, and haunting, and weirdly lovely.
Pressed on bright yellow vinyl.

FATHER YOD AND THE SPIRIT OF '76 Contraction (Swordfish) cd 17.98
First time on cd (outside of the God and Hair box set, that is) for this, the 2nd album from the Ya Ho Wha collective... we of course strongly urge the purchase of that whole set, but if you want to get this one separately, now you can. And it does include new liner notes from "family" members written for this reissue. Contraction dates from 1974 (like most of the Yod LPs, including their ultimate masterpieces Penetration and I'm Gonna Take You Home), and of course originals are hopelessly rare.
So...does groovy loungey hippy jams, doing the choo-choo train build up, but never really totally freaking out, with flutes and organ and guitar, and most significantly the wacked-out weird wisdom of Father Yod rappin' o'er top, sound good to you? Half-spoken, half sung, kinda drunken sounding. Here's a transcript of a portion of one of his raps here, to give you a bit of the flavor: "Let it all out and take it all back. But take it all back with consciousness. Desire, man. Desire's a trick. That's the trick. That'll bring old Saint Nick. Here he comes, see him there. All those goodies on his back. And he ain't got no prayer. He just wants to give to you, energy. The greatest gift of all, you'll soon see. That's it. Give it with a beat. Come on. Give it..." Hmm. The Father Yod-Santa Claus connection made explicit by the man himself!
One 24 minute, 41 second track. But you know what, that's quite a dose...
MPEG Stream: "Contraction [excerpt]"

FATHER YOD AND THE SPIRIT OF '76 Contraction lp 30.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Also given limited vinyl reissue treatment, here's the 2nd album from the Ya Ho Wha collective... Contraction dates from 1974 (like most of the Yod LPs, including their ultimate masterpieces Penetration and I'm Gonna Take You Home), and of course originals are hopelessly rare.
So...does groovy loungey hippy jams, doing the choo-choo train build up, but never really totally freaking out, with flutes and organ and guitar, and most significantly the wacked-out weird wisdom of Father Yod rappin' o'er top, sound good to you? Half-spoken, half sung, kinda drunken sounding. Here's a transcript of a portion of one of his raps here, to give you a bit of the flavor: "Let it all out and take it all back. But take it all back with conciousness. Desire, man. Desire's a trick. That's the trick. That'll bring old Saint Nick. Here he comes, see him there. All those goodies on his back. And he ain't got no prayer. He just wants to give to you, energy. The greatest gift of all, you'll soon see. That's it. Give it with a beat. Come on. Give it..." Hmm. The Father Yod-Santa Claus connection made explict by the man himself!
One 24 minute, 41 second track over two sides. But you know what, that's quite a dose...
MPEG Stream: "Contraction [excerpt]"

FATHER'S CHILDREN Who's Gonna Save The World (Numero Group) cd 15.98
Damn, the Numero Group does it again! At this point we don't need to go on about what an amazing and trusted label NG is. As their Eccentric Soul, Cult Cargo, and Wayfaring Stranger series continue to offer up so much amazing music that might otherwise have gone unheard.
Gathering dust in some garage for the last three decades due to the worst side of the music industry, this deep hitting, politically charged soul record finally gets to see the light of day. Father's Children were from the nations capitol, and took the influence of groups like the Stylistics, the Delfonics and the Dramatics and doused those sounds with fiery social consciousness and a slow burning psychedelic undertone. Like early Earth Wind & Fire, crossed with Curtis Mayfield's less funk and more full on deep soul moments. It's a record that really encompasses the most lasting and satisfying sides of '70s soul. The kind of record you can imagine inspiring folks like Erykah Badu, The Roots, Common, and Lauryn Hill.
As always packed with endless love and care featuring amazing photos and the story of the group's history.
MPEG Stream: "Everybody's Got A Problem"
MPEG Stream: "Father's Children"
MPEG Stream: "Dirt And Grime"

FATHER'S CHILDREN Who's Gonna Save The World (Numero Group) lp + 7" 22.00
Now listing this on vinyl...
Damn, the Numero Group does it again! At this point we don't need to go on about what an amazing and trusted label NG is. As their Eccentric Soul, Cult Cargo, and Wayfaring Stranger series continue to offer up so much amazing music that might otherwise have gone unheard.
Gathering dust in some garage for the last three decades due to the worst side of the music industry, this deep hitting, politically charged soul record finally gets to see the light of day. Father's Children were from the nations capitol, and took the influence of groups like the Stylistics, the Delfonics and the Dramatics and doused those sounds with fiery social consciousness and a slow burning psychedelic undertone. Like early Earth Wind & Fire, crossed with Curtis Mayfield's less funk and more full on deep soul moments. It's a record that really encompasses the most lasting and satisfying sides of '70s soul. The kind of record you can imagine inspiring folks like Erykah Badu, The Roots, Common, and Lauryn Hill.
MPEG Stream: "Everybody's Got A Problem"
MPEG Stream: "Father's Children"
MPEG Stream: "Dirt And Grime"

FAULTLINE Control (Fused and Bruised) 10"lp 9.99
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Very nice tweaked electronica with lots of processed strings (which are not cheesy) that end up sounding like Matmos or something from Skam.

FAUN FABLES A Table Forgotten (Drag City) cd 12.98

FAUN FABLES Early Song (Drag City) cd 14.98
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Elves, dwarves, birdies, deer, bunnies and every other woodland creature gather 'round when Faun Fables (aka Dawn McCarthy with assistance from Sleepytime Gorilla Museum's Nils Frykdahl) sings her pagan-infused songs. And if you've been digging the recent burgeoning neo-folk movement (Jolie Holland, Joanna Newsom, Devendra Banhart, Vetiver to name a few), you'd do well to follow their lead. You might recall that we reviewed her Family Album cd earlier this year, and Drag City has kindly reissued two of her previous albums -- this one which was her (originally self-released) debut and her second, Mother Twilight. Overall her voice is a surprising meeting point of unlikely bedfellows Cat Power's Chan Marshall, Grace Slick and Beth Orton. Early Song even closes with a little bit of lonesome yodelling. Some folks may find her unrestrained vocal style a bit challenging (or trying) at times, but those who are into it will surely be very much so.
MPEG Stream: "Old Village Churchyard"
MPEG Stream: "Bliss"

FAUN FABLES Family Album (Drag City) cd 14.98
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Enchanting! The mysterious Faun Fables is primarily the work of Ms Dawn McCarthy. On occasion however, she's joined by Mr. Nils Frykdahl of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. This is her third magical album of timeless, transportive music. Her songs truly seem spirited from another era. This earthy, dramatic Family Album is not unlike encountering a pagan festival or... the Wickerman film! With both solo and chorus performances of empassioned male and female vocals, as well as some lively flutes and strings.
MPEG Stream: "Eyes Of A Bird"
MPEG Stream: "Lucy Belle"

FAUN FABLES Mother Twilight (Drag City) cd 14.98
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Elves, dwarves, birdies, deer, bunnies and every other woodland creature gather 'round when Faun Fables (aka Dawn McCarthy with assistance from Sleepytime Gorilla Museum's Nils Frykdahl) sings her pagan-infused songs. And if you've been digging the recent burgeoning neo-folk movement (Jolie Holland, Joanna Newsom, Devendra Banhart, Vetiver to name a few), you'd do well to follow their lead. You might recall that we reviewed her Family Album cd earlier this year, and Drag City has kindly reissued two of her earlier albums -- this one and her debut Early Song. Of the three, Mother Twilight is perhaps her darkest, most otherworldly and vocally complex album. It fully envelopes and transport the willing listener to her fantasy land. We previously likened Family Album to the Wickerman film soundtrack, and the comparison is just as fitting here. Overall her voice is a surprising meeting point of unlikely bedfellows Cat Power's Chan Marshall, Grace Slick and Beth Orton. Some folks may find her deeply emotive vocal style a bit challenging (or trying), but those who are into it will surely be very much so.
MPEG Stream: "Beautiful Blade"
MPEG Stream: "Mother Twilight"

FAUN FABLES The Transit Rider (Drag City) cd 14.98
Dawn McCarthy, the central force behind Faun Fables, takes a few more exploratory steps in expanding her neo-folk realm, and the results are an impressively composed and expansive album. Far less fey, timid woodland pixie and more self assured earth mother. If you've enjoyed her previous albums, The Transit Rider makes for a smooth transition with some intriguing developments, perhaps most notably in its being a concept album of the stage show she toured in 2002. The album's peak is definitely its fourth track "In Speed", and it's a perfect demonstration of her growth. The song's spiraling urgency stands in stark contrast to the album's slower more traditional folk numbers. On the latter, she could easily be mistaken for alternately the granddaughter of Vashti Bunyan or the kid sister of Chan Marshall. However on this song McCarthy's handwringing despair conjures much more stormy times (almost in a Jon Anderson Yes fashion) and is countered in an effectively foreboding manner by frequent FF collaborator Nils Frykdahl's deep Laibach or Swans-esque countenance. A set of particularly offbeat numbers come later in the album, the peculiarly stagey "The Questioning" and the subsequent spoken whispery "I No Longer Wish To" and then there's the very "The Cat Came Back"-ish eleventh tune "The Corwith Brothers". Although it stands solidly on its own merits, listening to this album certainly piques your curiosity with regards to the live theatrics. Hopefully they'll be dusting off their costumery for those of us who missed it a few years back!
MPEG Stream: "Transit Theme"
MPEG Stream: "In Speed"
MPEG Stream: "Dream On A Train"

FAUNA Rain (Aurora Borealis) cd 16.98
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Hailing from the same Cascadian forest that Wolves In The Throne Room call home, come the mysteriously monickered Fauna, with their 2006 demo, Rain, available on cd for the first time. Much like WITTR, these guys traffic in a sort of naturalistic black metal, focusing on rain, the earth, the forest, the spirits, nature in general, creating a sound that is meant to evoke massive forests looming overhead, of flora and of course fauna, snow glowing blow beneath the moonlight, branches glistening and glimmering in the falling rain, the record begins with what could very well be the sound of the forest, a field recording of wind, and insects, leaves and footsteps, running water... until finally a lone guitar begins its funereal fugue, minor key, loping and lugubrious, a bit mournful and melancholy. Eventually the guitars grow more intense, strummed instead of picked, a deep voice emerges, a rich, mournful croon, and so it goes, a dark brooding forest folk, lush with reverb and delay, the guitars intense and dramatic, very reminiscent of Kiss The Anus Of A Black Cat, when suddenly, the track explodes and the band is blowing out a frenzied blast of furious black metal buzz, mesmerizing, trancelike, repetitive, the riffs totally blown out and drenched in distortion, the drums a relentless blast, which goes on for minutes, before the track shifts again, and the band lurch into a sort of lumbering blackened doom, super dynamic with lots of space, weirdly hypnotic and circular sounding, just a dark tangle of distorted guitar, until the drums join in again. But instead of blasting, the track slips into more of a woozy dirge, thick and warm and dense, for just a two piece, these guys can create a seriously expansive sound, after a few minutes, they explode back into frenzied motion, the blast even faster than before, so distorted and blown out it's almost like a blackened blur, the vocals a harsh bellow, the blast gradually breaking down again, until the duo are back to that hauntingly melodic doom-ic lurch, before finishing off in a blast of staticky buzz, leaving just a smear of warm soft chords, which slowly and dreamily drift into the darkness beyond.
One of the two members of Fauna also plays in pagan doom folk outfit Alethes, which makes perfect sense in the context of Rain, and the influence of their WITTR neighbors can definitely be heard throughout, but Fauna definitely make that sound their own, mixing long stretches of doomy folkiness with intensive blasts of blackened fury, and peppering the proceedings with bits of sprawling doom, and shimmery ambience, to create their own sonic representation of the forest they call home.
Gorgeous packaging too, black on black origami style fold over cardstock sleeve, with a simple booklet featuring just the lyrics and no other info. Cool.
MPEG Stream: "Rain (Excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Rain (Excerpt 2)"

FAUNA The Hunt (Aurora Borealis) cd 17.98
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Record number two from these Cascadian black metallers, originally released in 2007, now remastered and partially re-recorded, replacing the original electronic drums with live drumming, and dividing the original hour plus epic into more manageable song length tracks, while still playing out as one single sprawling black metal naturescape.
Not sure what the deal is with these guys, they've obviously been around since 2006, when their debut Rain was originally released, but since 2007, we've heard nothing new, only the eventual re-release of their first two records. Not that we're complaining, well, okay, maybe we're complaining a little, but only cuz we want more, and are dying to hear what these guys sound like circa NOW.
But The Hunt will hold us over for now, like Rain before it, an expansive blackened collage of murky blasting blackness, and slow creeping ambient dronemusic, often lumped in with their Cascadian brethren Wolves In The Throne Room, and while there are definitely similarities, they tread markedly different sonic paths. WITTR channel the majestic blackness of SF legends Weakling, taking that sound and infusing it with their own naturalistic take on BM, adding female vocals, folky acoustic guitars, and plenty of polish, while Fauna seem to lurk in the shadows, with a sound more immediate and intimate, almost feral sounding at times, the drone element key to their sound, the black blasts are trancelike and mesmerizing, the ambient stretches expansive and haunting, the sound even here, gussied up and remastered, still sounds more DIY and punk than Wolves, and it suits them, the ferocity of the forest primeval, mixed with the mysterious tranquility of the endless night.
The Hunt is a blackened journey, a moonlit creep, ominous and drifting like some black fog, giving way to explosive fury, passionate howling and blasting metal, that slips into woozy melodic doominess, as easily as crushing grim blackness, in fact much of the heaviness on display leans toward a more melodic melancholia, spidery minor key guitars weaving together stretches of foresty folk and blasts of frenzied riffage, sometimes locking into dynamic doomish mathiness, but just as easily transforming that into churning gnarled black metal pound.
The final two parts here might be Fauna's finest moment, a dizzying tangle of stop start riffing, tense and dramatic, giving way to the moody final movement, a dirgey drift, with soaring vocals buried beneath the crumbling minor key distortion, melodic and mournful, peppered with furious blown out blasts, laced with acoustic guitars, finally fading out leaving just the sounds of the forest.
Swank packaging too, black on black origami style cardstock sleeve, with a printed black on black cardstock insert.
MPEG Stream: "The Hunt I"
MPEG Stream: "The Hunt II"
MPEG Stream: "The Hunt IV"
MPEG Stream: "The Hunt VII"

FAUNTS High Expectations / Low Results (Friendly Fire) cd 15.98
There's just something about music that is slow and mysterious, foggy and indistinct, fuzzy and dreamlike that just gets us everytime. Any sort of music sounds better to us, once it's buried in record crackle, or wrapped in thick swirls of fuzzy distortion, or smeared with a gauzy ambient haze. But the music of Faunts is so perfectly suited to being goergeously obfuscated that it's hard to imagine this music any other way. High Expectations doesn't sound like some crystal clear recording that was later treated with all sort of foggy filters, no this record sounds like it was created like this, birthed from some mysterious ether, a ghostlike sonic wraith, dreamy droney slow motion rock drifting skyward like some disembodied slowcore spectre. Blissy and incandescent, with a candelit churchlike warmth, a glow suffusing the air all around. Like a druggier more fuzzy Low. Each track a lugubrious creep, romantic and melancholy, hushed vocals, brushed drums and swoonsome lapsteel. Occasionally the songs build to a ferocious climax, the sound like a wall of blown out shoegaze guitars, with big distorted drums, beneath squiggly white hot traces of incendiary psychedelic skree, before drifting back to earth, a slow simmer, fuzzy melodies drifitng over and around ethereal vocals and muted mood rock minimalism. Imagine a late night slowcore band, viewed through fogged up glass, thick with running rainwater, everything wavery and blisssfully unfocused, every once in a while the headlights of a passing car flare brilliantly, spinning wild prisms of color and white hot sparkles before fading back to a muted dusky drift.
High Expectations has lots of varied elements, even if they only surface briefly her and there, some jazzy shuffle, some jangly indie rock, some Flaming Lips-ish big beat drug pop, some epic Godspeed-ish even a bit of near-new wave, but those disparate elements all manage to get woven deftly and beautifully into Faunts' delicate and drowsy sonic world.
MPEG Stream: "High Expectations"
MPEG Stream: "Instantly Loved"

FAUNTS m4 (self-released) cd ep 11.98
Sounds as though Canadian indie rockers the Faunts got their instruments a wee bit intoxicated and the resulting music is itself quite intoxicating. Gauzy, highly processed guitars, shadowy drones and rounded pulses swirl and drift in and out of focus. A heady late night new wave, a lot more songy and a little less fuzzy and blissy than their full length, but it's still dark and delirious, wrapped in various degrees of instrumental haze and drone psych buzz, with bits of electronic skitter, and loping laid back down tempo groove mixed in here and there.
A great follow-up to their High Expectations / Low Results 2005 album!
MPEG Stream: "Sleepwalker"
MPEG Stream: "Meno Mony Falls"

FAUST (Polydor Japan) cd 24.00
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Import-only cd of the first Faust album from 1971. A landmark of krautrock, words cannot express, etc...

FAUST (Untitled) cd 14.98
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FAUST 71 Minutes (ReR) 2lp 38.00
SWANK DOUBLE VINYL REISSUE FOR THESE KRAUTROCK LEGENDS!
This compiles the posthumous Faust odds-n-ends LPs Munic & Elsewhere and The Last LP. But of course, Faust is all about odds-n-ends. That's kinda their whole aesthetic. Not the first Faust record to buy, but definitely worthy of purchase.
RealAudio clip: "Knochentanz"
RealAudio clip: "Psalter"

FAUST 71 Minutes of Faust (ReR Megacorp) cd 16.98
Recommended completes their reissues of all the early Faust material with "71 Minutes of Faust". Essentially the same as the previous reissue known as "71 Minutes of Faust" this compiles the posthumous Faust odds-n-ends LPs "Munic & Elsewhere" and "The Last LP". But of course, Faust is all about odds-n-ends. That's kinda their whole aesthetic. Not the first Faust disc to buy, but definitely worthy of purchase.
RealAudio clip: "Knochentanz"
RealAudio clip: "Psalter"

FAUST BBC Sessions + (ReR) cd 16.98
Probably if you're a rabid Faust fan (aren't you?) you've already got this, the disc of rarities that was previously only obtainable through purchase of the entire Faust box set. But in case you didn't get the box, the individual discs are now being released piecemeal for your snacking enjoyment, with this one being the disc that people are going to get the most excited about, for obvious reasons. The album starts off with a 22 minute track recorded at the BBC in 1973 of Faust performing a medley of "The Lurcher", "Krautrock" and "Do So". Though the disc is named the "BBC Sessions", the rest of the tracks here appear to all have been recorded at Faust's Wumme studio, and with the exception of "We Are the Hallo Men" which was originally released on Munic & Elsewhere (though Recommended still persists on claiming that it was originally on The Last LP) most of these cuts are previously unreleased. Included are some nice tape experiments like "(360)" which is a mix of various stereo (possibly binaural) recordings like the Faust boys playing ping pong, plus some alternate versions of songs from So Far and Munic & Elsewhere including "So Far" and "Meer". It's all totally worthwhile, classic krautrock from one of the best bands ever. If you're new to Faust, you'll want to start with one of their proper albums (or heck, just get the whole box) but folks who already have IV, So Far and the rest should definitely invest in the BBC Sessions.
RealAudio clip: "Party 9"
RealAudio clip: "(360)"

FAUST C'est Com... Com... Complique (Bureau B) cd 17.98

FAUST C'est Com... Com... Complique (Bureau B) lp 17.98

FAUST Freispiel (Klangbad) cd 17.98
Legendary krautrock band Faust's 30th anniversary is being celebrated with not free pinball and fireworks, but remixes... The remix cd ep that preceeded this was ok, if unneccessary. Here's the full remix album, with one of that Soft Cell guy's mixes from the ep, plus mixes from other mostly Euro electronica folks (Kreidler, Howie B., Surgeon, Funkstorung among them). Dead Voices On Air and, interestingly, The Residents also appear. All the tracks remixed come from Faust's recent (and quite good) Ravvivando album. Our verdict: still unneccessary, and not ok. But at least the remixers aren't violating classic old '70s Faust tracks, like with Can's "Sacrilege" remix project. And electronica fans will find this to be a fine electronica comp, like so many others. But Faust fans aren't going to see any improvement over the originals (not to be expected anyway) OR any other reason to listen to this...it's just uninteresting and predictable. Too bad, 'cause Faust are such an interesting band. If they HAD to do a remix album for their 30th, they should have picked artists with more of their eccentric artistic spirit. We'd be more keen on Reynols or Boredoms remixes, maybe Philip Jeck or Aphex Twin...oh well.

FAUST Impressions (Film Spector) dvd 21.00
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Ahh, the German sense of humor. Once, while flying somewhere, my German neighbor told me a "German joke"... it turned out to be in actuality a philosophical puzzle, and not very funny. For some reason, German jokes and joking around has this heavy sillyness that I love. It's never actually all that "funny" per se, but so so endearing!
That said, this Faust dvd opens with some 8mm footage from the 70s. The band is in their hometown of Wumme, Germany and approached by a giant panda bear who read about the band in a newspaper while tanning on the beach. It's a very strange, probably very stoned interaction set to a Faust song. Not that funny really, but totally endearing. Cause it's Faust! One of the most abstract of core Krautrock bands.
But then that's it!!! I mean, as far as actual visual documentation from the band during the 1970s. The remaining classic Faust tracks on here are set to horrendous, freshman-year-art-student video collage made recently by Faust's Zappi Diermaier as interpretations of the songs' original themes. Every track and "film" is a nauseating combination and so incredibly confusing to us. Even more puzling is why Zappi decided to add additional accompaniment to some of the audio tracks.
Man. As extremely devout Faust fans, we have to say, "WTF?!" Is there no other footage of the band -- either playing concerts, or interviews, or any photos, or then even commentary?
There's also an audio cd included that has no Faust songs, but new tracks by Zappi that are from a dvd of his solo stuff coming out in the future. Writing all this down is making us feel like we need to cry or something. Wish there was more FAUST to SEE. We don't know what Zappi was thinking. Sure do hope that all the feedback (like this) from fans will inspire the band to get something together for an actual document-worthy dvd at some point in the future.
That little nugget of Faust and the polar bear, boy. That's something special. Can't imagine what we'd do with a whole dvd full of that sorta stuff! Meanwhile, all we can do is keep on sitting around listening to Faust IV over and over again.

FAUST IV (Caroline / Blue Plate) cd 14.98
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Here's a top-ten essential krautrock record for sure. Indeed, it's even got a song entitled "Krautrock" on it! As crucial as Can's Tago Mago or Future Days, Amon Duul II's Yeti, or Neu! 1... Spacey (Andee thought we were listening to Spacemen 3) and weird and wacky and quite wonderful. Not in the Faust box, either.

FAUST IV (EMI) 2cd 16.98
We've been wanting to correct a glaring omission from our site for some time now. Well, its not so much an omission as it's an overdue update on a very old review; one that was made when our reviews served only as shelf-talkers in the store instead of entryways into the vast online catalog of our website. And now with an affordable reissue with a bonus disc of rare BBC radio sessions and alternate versions, the time is right to reappraise this mighty, weird, and awesome jewel of classic krautrock greatness that is Faust IV.
Essential as any krautrock album we can name, including Can's Tago Mago or Future Days, Amon Duul II's Yeti, or Neu! 1, Cluster, Kraftwerk etc. It's also the record that coined the term "krautrock" which is the title of the nearly 12 minute opening track, a thick pulsating rumble of motorik groove that out-Neu's Neu!. But things definitely get stranger after that with bizarre forays into reggae, pretty ballads, prog, pop and free jazz. Yet for all the weirdness, this is the record to get if you've never heard Faust before as it's their most accessible and structured. Not nearly as kaleidoscopic and avant as, So Far or Faust Tapes, and even with the genre-hopping, the songs all seem to belong together. "The Sad Skinhead" has got to be the most left-field excursion into reggae we've heard, complete with marimba passages and echoing vocals, while "Jennifer" has to be about the prettiest song ever made. Each song linked together by odd passages of detuned piano, far away screams and noisy stews of synth warbles and feedback stabs. "Giggly Smile" obviously influenced Battles recent debut Mirrors, as strange effected vocals accompany groovy prog excursions that abruptly shift tempos into one of our favorite rocking moments ever put to tape before suddenly ending, launching into the sublime folk groove of "Lauft... Heisst Das Es Lauft Oder Es Kommt Bald... Lauft". And it just keeps getting better and better.
The bonus disc features many alternate versions of the songs including a much longer version of "Just A Second (Starts Like That!)", plus rare BBC radio sessions of two songs "The Lurcher" and "Do So" and one previously unreleased piece, called appropriately "Piano Piece".
This is definitely one of those records, where we wish we could just invoke some physical force to reach out and grab you through the computer by the shoulders and just scream "Buy this already!!!!!!"
MPEG Stream: "Krautrock"
MPEG Stream: "Jennifer"
MPEG Stream: "Giggly Smile"
MPEG Stream: "The Lurcher"
MPEG Stream: "Piano Piece"

FAUST IV (Virgin /Capitol) lp 21.00
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Now reissued on Vinyl!
Essential as any krautrock album we can name, including Can's Tago Mago or Future Days, Amon Duul II's Yeti, or Neu! 1, Cluster, Kraftwerk etc. It's also the record that coined the term "krautrock" which is the title of the nearly 12 minute opening track, a thick pulsating rumble of motorik groove that out-Neu's Neu!. But things definitely get stranger after that with bizarre forays into reggae, pretty ballads, prog, pop and free jazz. Yet for all the weirdness, this is the record to get if you've never heard Faust before as it's their most accessible and structured. Not nearly as kaleidoscopic and avant as, So Far or Faust Tapes, and even with the genre-hopping, the songs all seem to belong together. "The Sad Skinhead" has got to be the most left-field excursion into reggae we've heard, complete with marimba passages and echoing vocals, while "Jennifer" has to be about the prettiest song ever made. Each song linked together by odd passages of detuned piano, far away screams and noisy stews of synth warbles and feedback stabs. "Giggly Smile" obviously influenced Battles recent debut Mirrors, as strange effected vocals accompany groovy prog excursions that abruptly shift tempos into one of our favorite rocking moments ever put to tape before suddenly ending, launching into the sublime folk groove of "Lauft... Heisst Das Es Lauft Oder Es Kommt Bald... Lauft". And it just keeps getting better and better.
This is definitely one of those records, where we wish we could just invoke some physical force to reach out and grab you through the computer by the shoulders and just scream "Buy this already!!!!!!"
MPEG Stream: "Krautrock"
MPEG Stream: "Jennifer"
MPEG Stream: "Giggly Smile"

FAUST Kleine Welt (Live) (Ektro) cd 14.98
Forget for a second that this is a Faust album. What if it was just some unknown new band, some cd-r we got in the mail, some limited edition cassette release? Heck we've tried that thought experiment, and we'd be all over it! Telling you that it's a mysteriously murky, throbbing psychedelic freak-scene, fraught with krautrocky rhythms and tense textures. Sorta reminds us of a mix of Blues Control and Wooden Shjips... or White Hills and Expo '70... there's a druggy '60s garage vibe, industrial electronic atmosphere, blissful moodiness, and clockwork Circle-like propulsivity, all crammed into one crazy counter-intuitive whole, raw and live! Everything in the way of organ drones, harmonica blurt, echoing voices, shuffling drums, and serious dosage of searing psych-rock geetar found here were all taken from various European performances in 2006, later mixed and edited at fauststudio. We'd assume most of the tracks are pretty much unique to this disc...
Yeah, we'd be pretty into it if it was some new group! Does the fact it's a new disc by krautrock legends Faust, released by Circle's Ektro label, make it any cooler? It doesn't need to. Though if that's what it takes to get you to check it out, that's ok. Conversely, if you were like, oh just another umpteenth Faust reunion album, don't be like that. First off, Faust rule. Even today. Sure, this isn't the original line up. In fact, it's not even the ONLY current line up! Apparently, in the grand tradition of, uh, Saxon and others, there's now more than one version of Faust, each featuring different original band members, going around touring under the name. Weird. Not sure if this fractured factioning is an agreed-upon thing (to cover more ground?) or if they're in competition. Hopefully the former! It would be sad to hear that there's litigation pending.
So anyway, THIS Faust consists of Jan Wolbrandt on drums, Michael Stoll on bass (and flute), Lars Paukstat on percussion and vocals, Steven Wray Lobdell on guitar, and Hans Joachim Irmler on organ, keyboards and vocals. That's a good line up all right, they've got Lobdell in the band after all! Hence the dosage of searing psych-rock geetar previously mentioned...
Recommended, as one of the two very different and very cool live albums newly issued by Ektro that we're reviewing this list (the other one is by '80s strong-man metaller Thor, believe it or not!). Hmmm. Faust + Thor, does that sort of = Circle??
(And note, there's another new live Faust 2cd that we have in stock and hope to review soon, Od Serca Do Duszy, that's the work of the OTHER active Faust unit, featuring Jean-Herve Peron, Zappi Diermaier, and Amaury Cambuzat.)
MPEG Stream: "Foam Of War"
MPEG Stream: "Crawling Wax"
MPEG Stream: "Terrorize Me"

FAUST Live In Edinburgh (Klangbad) cd 15.98
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Wow, two new Faust titles, both in handsome cardboard sleeves...Nosferatu is a soundtrack of sorts to the classic silent film, Live documents the explosive (literally) Faust performance at last year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The "pop" aspects of Faust past may have been abandoned by the reunited band, but the psych-guitar and industrial smasheroo quotient is way up. Both discs are fine nightmare soundscapes.

FAUST Nosferatu (Klangbad) cd 15.98

FAUST Od Serca Do Duszy (Lumberton Trading Company) 2cd 24.00
And here's the other new live album from the what is also in fact the *other* Faust (mentioned a couple of lists back when we reviewed Faust's Kleine Welt cd on the Ektro label). Od Serca Do Duszy was recorded in Krakow, Poland at the wonderfully named Loch Ness Club on November 15th, 2006, by a Faust "power trio" lineup consisting of Zappi Diermaier (drums, metals, tools), Jean-Herve Peron (voice, guitars, horns) and Amaury Cambuzat (guitars, keys, voice). Note that this is an entirely different lineup than the one responsible for Kleine Welt, also recorded on tour in 2006. We'd like to think that Faust has splintered into these two different touring groups (both featuring original '70s members as well as new blood from the band's initial reunion era in the '90s) in an amicable fashion, but we don't really know. Maybe they hate each other. But we also wonder if it's just 'cause their individual schedules didn't work out to all play together, or so they could cover more ground, or 'cause they had different interests in terms of what songs should go into the band's current set?
For Diermaier/Peron/Cambuzat, that means doing some of Faust's famous old songs like "A Bit Of A Pain" and "The Sad Skinhead" alongside newer stuff and full-on improv jams. We figure that if you were AT the show, you'd want to hear a few of those old favorites. But listening to this at home, it's probably the new material that will actually be most of interest... although hearing how they mutate and reinterpret their own "hits" is cool too.
Anyway, either way, this excellently-recorded, lengthy live set is one for Faust fans, and also those into the likes of Acid Mothers Temple, really anyone looking for experimental explorations of clattery murk, with feedbacky psychedelic guitar, quasi-industrial improv chaos, plodding drums, and noisy textures! The raucous Krakow crowd certainly is into it, stoking Faust into further frenzies, including shouted vocals (in French?) among them some yelling about "George Washington!" and "George Bush!"... it must have been a memorable night. Disc two begins with two tracks (20 minutes) of pure, heavy-duty improv, which the band follow with a fairly wild rendition of their classic "It's A Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl" to make even the old time fans happy... and then for their encore, for good measure, they launch into "Schempal Buddha", an urgent and repetitive number that fans will recognize from The Faust Tapes album.
MPEG Stream: "We Are Not Here..."
MPEG Stream: "Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl"

FAUST Patchwork 1971-2002 (Staubgold) cd 14.98
"We've always liked the idea of releasing records which lacked conventional 'finish' in terms of production...the music should sound like bootlegs, as if recorded by someone who passed a group rehearsing or jamming and then cut the recorded material wildly together." That's a quote from Faust mentor/manager Uwe Nettelbeck circa 1973, reprinted in the liner notes to this aptly-titled odds n' ends collection, a collage of pieces recorded by the idiosyncratic krautrock legends over the past thirty years. It helps explain the sounds here, as well as the aesthetic behind their classic "Faust Tapes" album (which this echoes) and much else of their output. The material presented here will fade from stuff recorded in the early days at their communal studio directly into things put down on tape by the reunited/retrofitted incarnation of Faust just last year -- sometimes within the very same track! Mostly this is early '70s stuff, but there's a few '80s derived recordings and material from the currently active Faust line-up. It's all pretty great. Unreleased archival alternate versions of familiar Faust favorites, forgotten experiments, live bits and pieces -- wild psych guitar/effect noise fests, Stoogesy jamming, droning electronics, sweet strumming folk, jazz freakouts -- all this is woven together in a truly kaleidoscopic krautrock "patchwork" indeed. Very Faust-ian. Uwe's quote describes this perfectly.
RealAudio clip: "Stretch Over All Times 1971/73, 2000/01"
RealAudio clip: "Psalter (slow version) 1980"
RealAudio clip: "Zerr:aus 1971"

FAUST Patchwork 1971-2002 (Staubgold) lp 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"We've always liked the idea of releasing records which lacked conventional 'finish' in terms of production...the music should sound like bootlegs, as if recorded by someone who passed a group rehearsing or jamming and then cut the recorded material wildly together." That's a quote from Faust mentor/manager Uwe Nettelbeck circa 1973, reprinted in the liner notes to this aptly-titled odds n' ends collection, a collage of pieces recorded by the idiosyncratic krautrock legends over the past thirty years. It helps explain the sounds here, as well as the aesthetic behind their classic "Faust Tapes" album (which this echoes) and much else of their output. The material presented here will fade from stuff recorded in the early days at their communal studio directly into things put down on tape by the reunited/retrofitted incarnation of Faust just last year -- sometimes within the very same track! Mostly this is early '70s stuff, but there's a few '80s derived recordings and material from the currently active Faust line-up. It's all pretty great. Unreleased archival alternate versions of familiar Faust favorites, forgotten experiments, live bits and pieces -- wild psych guitar/effect noise fests, Stoogesy jamming, droning electronics, sweet strumming folk, jazz freakouts -- all this is woven together in a truly kaleidoscopic krautrock "patchwork" indeed. Very Faust-ian. Uwe's quote describes this perfectly.

FAUST Ravvivando (Klangbad) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
More so than Aphex Twin's score to a Bank of America commercial or Oval's contribution to one for Calvin Klein, Faust's appearance on a commercial for Nike has clearly been the oddest commodification of experimental music. Fortunately, the "success" of the venture has not gone to Faust's collective head... Their highly-anticipated new album Ravvivando succeeds where previous '90s ventures You Know Faust and Rien (which could be argued was more of a Jim O'Rourke album) perhaps did not. On this album, the hypnosis induced by the constant churning of percussive blasts and springy basslines is complemented by washed out drones dissolving to reveal their construction from swells of organ and guitar.
It should be noted that the resurrection of Faust about five years ago did bring a drastic change to their Krautrock mutations of pop, noise, carnival music, jazz, and general experimentation which characterized their seminal '70s records such as Faust IV or So Far. One cannot expect that a musical hibernation of 20 years would not affect the artistic process. But rather than making contextual comparisons to Faust's work from the '70s, we proclaim that Ravvivando is their best record of the '90s. So there. The new Faust is a great band, on their own merits.

FAUST Ravvivando Remix Maxi Single (Klangbad) cd ep 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Soft Cell remixes Faust?? That's right, the legendary, eccentric krautrockers Faust hit the dancefloor with the help of Soft Cell's David Ball (and one Ingo Vauk as well). The track "Wir Brauchen Dich #6", taken from Faust's last (and quite excellent) album "Ravvivando" from a few years back, gets strapped to some heavy Neu!-ish motorik beats on the three remixes on this ep, which apparently precedes a full-length Faust "Ravvivando Remixes" disc yet to come. The fourth track reprises the album original, which of course is still the best, but the others are interesting novelties for Faust fans (and, possibly, *really* "interesting" novelties for Soft Cell fans!).
RealAudio clip: "Wir Brauchen Dich #6 remix"

FAUST Rein (Table of the Elements) cd 15.98
Need we say any more than to announce that this is finally available?! Well, okay, here's the obi blurb: "These are the first studio recordings from German group Faust in over 20 years. An aggressive collision of electronic pastiche musique concret, power tools and group improvisation results in an extraordinary return by one of the seminal experimental ensembles of all time."

FAUST Schiphorst 2008 (Salamanda) 2cd 23.00

FAUST So Far (Polydor / Universal) cd 17.98
One of the BEST RECORDS EVER. That's right. And I don't think we're really going out on a limb with that claim. Certainly one of the best krautrock records ever (as are pretty much all the Faust albums, actually). This, Faust's second album, originally released in 1972, has been reissued numerous times over the years, for a while as an expensive Japanese import only, then in the crucial Wumme Years box set, and most recently by Collector's Choice as a two-on-one with Faust's self-titled debut. We still stock that for the budget-minded amongst you, but since this is such a classic, we figure some folks will want this newer, nicely digipacked reish all by its own. Unlike the two-fer, the cd booklet here includes all the full-color images (one illustration per song) that came as art prints with the original vinyl. And as well, there's new liner notes and vintage photos in there as well. Nice.
But let's get back to this best records ever business, for those that weren't already nodding in agreement. It's the missing link between The Velvet Underground and The Boredoms, we're telling you. Just listen to the mantric opener "It's A Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl" and tell us they weren't influenced by the VU... yet taking things way further into the trance-zone, pioneering the minimal post-rock sounds of many popular indie bands today... Circle ferinstance! And for sure the Boredoms. Also, without Faust, chances are, no This Heat. No Nurse With Wound. Yep they were pioneers all right. And still sound plenty fresh 'n weird today. So Far reigns in the sound collage craziness of their selt-titled debut, tightening up into actual song-form-iness, even getting into some pleasantly lyrical poppiness... but always ready to do something violently eccentric. "Daddy, take the banana!"
MPEG Stream: "It's A Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl"
MPEG Stream: "No Harm"