Label: Bomb Mitte Format: 7″
The first Faust record I owned was on vinyl and now they have another release on the shiny black stuff. This time its a limited edition 7-inch collaboration with Dälek and is a taster of an album which will appear later this year. Collaborations appear to be part of the current Faust direction and it would seem to be a productive area to explore.
Given the relative brevity of the two sides its difficult to see what the larger picture of this merger of two fairly disparate units will look like. But from listening to this small sample it looks as though it will be a creative coalition. On Part 1 there are some characteristic Industrial grindings going on around the distorted anger of Will Brooks‘ rapping. There is a strong sense of alienation here: “I was only placed here to bleed, maybe breed”. The metal noisescape complements the harsh disturbing quality of the voice. This gradually gives way to a clanking bass and muffled percussive explosions which dominate most of Part 2. But the whole thing, typically, shifts in and out of focus leaving a dense wall of sound in which it is just possible to recognise what may be the mutated wail of Jochen Irmler’s keyboard. Overall they’ve created a piece that oscillates between moments of clarity and a blurred, nightmarish wash of Electronica.
As a taster it does its job and whets the appetite for what will hopefully be another stage in the evolution of both Faust and Dälek.
-Paul Donnelly-
