Something Dirty (CD) | Mint (M) Mint (M)

Personnel: Jean Herv? Peron (vocals, guitar, cavaquinho, trumpet); Geraldine Swayne (vocals, guitar, piano, electric piano, organ, synthesizer, percussion); James Johnston (electric guitar, piano, Wurlitzer piano, organ, synthesizer, Theremin); Zappi Diermaier (drums). Audio Mixers: Johann Scheerer; Faust. Recording information: Clouds Hill Recordings, Hamburg, Rothenburgsort. Photographer: Wyatt Derbyngton. The saga continues on 2011's Something Dirty, the fourth offering from the Jean-Herv? P?ron and Zappi Diermaier version of Faust. (The other group using the name contains original member Hans Joachim Irmler.) As is typical of this unit, there are lineup changes. 2009's C'es Com ... Com ... Compliqu? -- recorded in 2007 -- contained Amaury Cambuzat (a member since 1999) who left shortly thereafter. This new lineup features guitarist James Johnston, founder of the brutish British blues-rockers Gallon Drunk, and the English painter, filmmaker, author, and musician Geraldine Swayne on keyboards. Following the footsteps of C'es Com ... Com ... Compliqu?, Something Dirty underscores Faust's reputation as a never-say-die band of avant-rock provocateurs. The sounds are basic, often repetitive, anchored by Diermaier's primitive, tribalistic drumming (heavy with tom-toms and kick drums), and P?ron's single- and double-note bassing in the rhythm section; Johnston and Swayne are left to color the sound texturally with everything from noise and feedback to full-on chordal riffs to open, ringing drones: check the opener "Tell the Bitch to Go Home" (with a bassline straight from Joy Division's "Shadowplay") and the title track for ample evidence. Things get more abstract on the beautiful, haunted "Herbstimmung," with shimmering racket and distorted slide guitar. They move toward pure art terrorism on the tense, skeletal ambience that decorates the poetry of P?ron and Swayne on "Thoughts of the Dead," and the subdued, elegiac darkness in the set's longest number "Lost the Signal," sung airily by Swayne: comparisons to the Velvet Underground with Nico are inevitable. The two-part "Dampfauslass," feels utterly improvised but its atmospherics are tempered by the raucous, primitive rock on "Pythagoras." The album closes with "La Sole Dor?e." It commences as a sparsely decorated ballad but gains in tempo, density, and intensity with Swayne doing her best Patti Smith spoken word on the lyric. It shifts into high gear becoming a primal tidal wave of hypnotic rockist squall and stops suddenly, leaving the listener in stunned silence. Something Dirty is a powerful recording; let's hope this version of Faust remains together awhile: their collective focus is sharp and their execution nearly flawless even at their most delightfully excessive. ~ Thom Jurek

 

BRAND NEW

Label: Bureau B – bb65

Format: CD, Album

Country: Germany

Released: Jan 28, 2011

Genre: Electronic, Rock

Style: Krautrock, Avantgarde, Experimental

1                           Tell The Bitch To Go Home     5:53

2                           Herbststimmung         5:37

3                           Something Dirty           7:13

4                           Thoughts Of The Dead            2:10

5                           Lost The Signal             8:43

6                           Je Bouffe           1:27

7                           Whet    2:07

8                           Invisible Mending        2:16

9                           Dampfauslass 1          3:21

10                         Dampfauslass 2          2:34

11                         Pythagoras      2:11

12                         Save The Last One     0:19

13                         La Sole Dorée 5:16

Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Bureau B

Copyright © – Bureau B

Distributed By – Indigo (2) – CD 942962

Recorded At – Clouds Hill Recordings

Mastered At – Soundgarden Tonstudio

Manufactured By – Optimal Media Production – AA24564

Drawing – Vincent Julliard

Drums, Percussion [Metal] – Zappi W. Diermaier*

Electric Guitar, Synthesizer [BC8 And MS-10 Synthesizers], Electric Piano [Wurlitzer Electric Piano], Organ, Piano, Theremin [Theramin] – James Johnston

Layout – Antje Schröder

Liner Notes [Prose By] – Douglas Park

Mastered By [Mastering By] – Chris von Rautenkranz

Mixed By, Producer [Produced By] – Faust (7), Johann Scheerer

Painting – Geraldine Swayne

Photography By [Coverpicture And All Polaroids Taken By] – Wyatt Derbyngton

Piano, Electric Piano, Synthesizer [Synthesizers], Percussion, Guitar, Organ, Vocals [Vocal], Psaltery [Psalterion] – Geraldine Swayne

Recorded By – Johann Scheerer

Voice, Bass [Basses], Acoustic Guitar [Concert Guitar], Cavaquinho [Cavaquiño], Performer [Flame-thrower, Goatshooves], Trumpet, Psaltery [Psalterion], Vibraphone [Toy-vibraphon], Drums [Marching Drums] – Jean-Hervé Péron*

Comes in a 6-panel digipak with 8-page booklet.

 

Faust logo (the radiographic fist) which appeared on the early designing of front cover was moved to back cover of physical copies.

 

Recorded at Clouds Hill Recordings, Hamburg/Rothenburgsort live onto magnetic tape.

Mastering at Soundgarden, Hamburg/Rothenburgsort.

 

(p) & (C) 2011 bureau b.

Made in the EU.

 

Track 13 is misprinted as "La Sole Doŕee" on the back cover.

Barcode (Scanned, EAN-13): 4047179429627

• Media Condition: Mint (M)
• Sleeve Condition: Mint (M)
• Format Detail: CD
• Format: CD
• Genre: ROCK
• Released: 2/1/11
• Internal ID: JITFE