RIEN

After a whole 20+ years of silence, only broken by small doses of archival releases, Rien was Faust's first new outing, and quite a big one to be sure. Faust could be recognized as the first band to ever make the styles that would later be gone into drone, noise, industrial, and musique concrete that groups like their home's own Einsturzende Neubauten, as well as Coil, Current 93, Natural Snow Buildings, and Sonic Youth were playing around with at this time. The name and idea that Faust was were a mere distant memory, though that memory grew into a reunion, as these dinosaurs of krautrock supremacy show a return to form from their heydays as masters of creepy drones, loops, and noises.

Compared to the predecessor of Faust IV, Rien is a stark contrast to the more smooth and laden '73 record. It is a lot more in kin to their very first record, heck it has a similar design being an all chrome record box, much like their first's all clear record box. Personally, I think the parallels make quite a lot of sense, but the chrome could signify the band knowing for certain that they aren't the fill in the blank record guys anymore, as that transparency was filled with many years of experimental music that gave way a gray, and shiny frontiers for many groups that spawned since they left the scene.

I will say that the comparison to their first goes more than just covers, and goes within the music. The music found here is a more harsh and noisy attempt at what they were doing with their first record, and The Faust Tapes, with plenty of interesting sound samples, krautrock movements, and weirdness to go around. For what they do here, I think their execution of that weird experimental sound works really nicely with the edgy industrial and drone soundscapes, especially on the title track, and Listen To The Fish.

However, this record kinda marks the point within the Faust albums where they would sometimes add in audio samples as filler. Now they certainly did this before with The Faust Tapes, an album filled with many filler bells and whistles, but that album was essentially a glorified archival release, for better or for worse. This album, however, with tracks like Long Distance Calls In The Desert, and the two Eroberung der Stille Teil, some of which being nearly 10 minutes in length, 10 minutes worth of odd samples, field recordings, and deranged speeches, makes me feel like there was a bit of wasted potential found here. I cannot be too mad, after all making these weird experimental songs is their speciality, but I still feel as though they could've added something more to these offbeat field recordings. Eroberung der Stille Teil I does a bit more, having a quite beautiful synth in the back, which I like, but doesn't quite hold up in my mind. The screaming does remind me of a Magma album though, which is quite funny.

I definitely like the production here a lot. While I may judge this album greatly for the wasted instrumentation, I cannot judge it too much as the mixing and production is some of the best in a Faust album. That is thanks to Jim O'Rourke, a spear head of sorts to the loft experimental and drone music scene. What he adds to the table here could not be understated, giving us some wonderful stereo works that fully capture precise dynamics and energies that the band might've been going for when creating this record. He's kinda like the Brian Eno to whatever music you can call this as.

My personal favorite track here is certainly Listen To The Fish, a 15 minute krautrock song that soon evolves into a droning ambiance. The beginning is pretty alright in my opinion, nothing too crazy, but nothing too bad. It soon goes into a lot more avant-garde territories, playing interesting sounds throughout, as it soon washes away into a blend of harsh noise that dissipates into quiet and beautiful ambient synth. It's a strange, but kind of pretty experience to go through, especially with headphones. Do I think it is the group's best jam? Frankly, no, but is it up there with the best? Yes, absolutely.

Rien may not be my favorite record, but it is an album that I do respect. It reunited the krautrock band that I enjoy quite greatly, and led to more fun, interesting, and crazy krautrock works. If you manage to find a copy, or a download of the album, I say you should look into it, but maybe after listening to the band's first 4 albums, just so you may be prepared for what the band delivers on here. Give it a spin if you can, you may find something that piques your curiosity.