FAUST

Current 93's 'Faust' is a bit of a return to form from a band that went off the rails for the best part of 10 years whilst dabbling in Neo-Folk. Similar to their first 'Aleister Crowley' recordings from the 80's, but this time it's softer but far, far clearer in sound and just as unsettling. This is a great one for playing in the dead of night, unless you're easily freaked.

'Faust' is almost entirely made up of multi layered whispering and human groaning creating a very creepy atmosphere indeed. This straight from the graveyard recording Is certainly helped by the hefty booklet which gives a running commentary to the sounds within. Hearing it without these notes is surprisingly dull after the initial spooky intro. Despite the seemingly repetitive nature of this recording it's quite easy to start hallucinating and believing you're catching snippets from the film 'The Others' - "I Hear Dead People"

Just one long track is all you get here, and you ain't gonna find guitars, drums or bass. Switch off the lights, stick a pair of headphones on and soak in some seriously bad vibes.

It's based around the rather effeminate and poncey looking Estonian - Eric 'Count von Stenbock' who wrote decadent and macabre fiction and poetry. Spending most of his life in England and garnering favourable comments from the esteemed HP Lovecraft in later years, Stenbock was something of an alcoholic and a serious opium fiend. He spent the last months of his short life with curtains drawn, while burning candles in front of the poet Shelley.

His death in 1895 is the kind of thing you'd expect from someone so eccentric. Waving a red hot poker at his stepfather, he stumbled and collapsed into his fireplace impaling himself with the spike! Great! - That's the kind of background story I like to my music! But stranger still, his heart was extracted and sent to his Estonian homeland where his rich beyond our wildest dreams family originated. Brrrrrr! Scary biscuits!

Along with the EP I Have A Special Plan For This World, this constitutes something of a return to the dark ambient sound collage style of Current 93's origins - but a take on that style tempered and matured by the intervening years of experience. It's inspired not by the Faust legend in general, but a specific take on it - namely, the short story of the same name by Count Stenbock, one of the obscure 19th Century literary figures who has had the good fortune to become one of David Tibet's muses. If you're only into Current 93 for the neofolk, you'll find it tiresome, but if you like Tibet's taste in longform weird dark ambient (produced in conjunction with Nurse With Wound's Steven Stapleton), this'll hit the spot for you.