Faust - 71 Minutes (compi rec. 1971-3, double album first released 1988)

Been revisiting this classic compilation of late, containing some of Faust's most invigorating offcuts from their original existence.  The material on 71 Minutes was first released on two single LPs in 1986 and 1988, which at the time was the first album-length unearthing of crucial missing material by the iconoclastic legends (rather like The Velvet Underground's VU and Another View, also released in the 80s).  This double album compiled Munic & Elsewhere and The Last LP together but dropped two tracks, which would later be reissued on BBC Sessions+ (link below).

71 Minutes takes in every angle of the classic, brain-frying Faust sound: lengthy, hypnotic improvisations like Munic/Yesterday (aka Munic A, aka Willie The Pimp, etc), Knochentanz (aka Munic B, Munic/Other) and Chromatic are immediate highlights.  The shorter, dada-influenced pop songs gone insane are represented by Baby, 25 Yellow Doors and an instrumental version of Giggly Smile from Faust IV.  There's also an alternate version of J'ai Mal Aux Dents from The Faust Tapes.  In between, all manner of engrossing little sound experiments flesh out the Faust legend, such as the 'Party' tapes, the gorgeous Das Meer and the elegaic documentary collage of 60s-70s upheaval in Germany that closes the collection.  Utterly essential, boundary-pushing krautrock from the masters.

link

pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG: BBC Sessions+