One could probably get a Ph.D. in Faust Studies at this point and still just scratch the surface of the aural innovations the experimental krautrock originators have come up with in their 41 years. Now with a lineup of multi-instrumentalists Zappi W.
Diermaier (mainly drums), Jean-Hervé Péron (vocals, bass, trumpet, goat hooves, etc.), Geraldine Swayne (piano, vocals, etc.) and James Johnston (also of Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds; guitar, Wurlitzer, etc.), Faust continue to let loose their seemingly limitless creative will across the 13 tracks of Something Dirty, which ranges only as far in sound as your imagination is willing to allow it.
Some of these cuts are barely songs, but Faust balance their seemingly unstructured material with some genuinely driving rock. Founders Péron and Diermaier offer blown out percussiveness on “Pythagoras,” while Geraldine takes a breathy lead vocal for album highlight, “Lost The Signal,” that is as foreboding as it is luscious. Of course, Something Dirty is rife with contrast, brilliant plays and several utterly inaccessible moves that will delight snobs and be just about unlistenable to casual fans of rock.
But then, those people don’t find Faust to start with. If you think you’re brave enough to let these oldies-but-geniusies walk all over your conceptions of what an album is supposed to be, you probably are, but you should know that if you’re hearing Faust for the first time, you might come out of Something Dirty wanting to listen to everything they’ve ever done, and that’s about a 30-album investment. Gotta start somewhere, right?
In A Word: Launchpad
