FAUST IV

I have a rather selective attitude towards Krautrock. I could accept later post-'72 output that is not too raw and experimental. In the case of Faust, when I heard Faust IV, I thought "Oh my god, how could it have ended up in my collection". But then when I heard first three Faust albums and the fourth one again, I changed my mind and disliked the first three ones instead. Faust IV is more accessible, music-oriented effort but still not for the faint-hearted. This album is not going to blow you off with instrumental prowess and hundreds of ideas; it still shows quite a good versatility for a Krautrock band as it includes psychedelic rock, a bit of Canterbury (track 5 - actually my favourite one), electronic hypnotic experiments (the lengthy first track) or even folk rock ("Goggy smile") that as a later post-rock bleakness. The band oscillates between well played live rock sounding themes ("Picnic on a frozen river") and electronic keyboard experiments so you won't get bored going into one direction only. It takes a few listens to get at least to a part of the album, but it's worth it.