11.21.06
And On a Lighter Note…
Have I mentioned lately that I truly love the WFMU Blog?
Not only have they recently posted an MP3 of a genuine recording of Marie Osmond (yes, that one) performing Hugo Ball’s Dada vocal work “Karawane”, an awesome song by some kids about alien abduction, and some truly excellent animated gifs, they have set a new bar on rarities.
Namely they’ve posted a complete MP3 set of the fabled and long-lost Faust album, Faust V (1975). As the Faust-pages web site explains, “The fabled Faust 5 (or Faust 5½) never saw an official release but exists only in the form of this promotional cassette. After recording material in Munic, the plan was originally for Jochen Irmler and Rudolf Sosna to produce an album from that material for release on Virgin,” which had released Faust IV (recently reissued with an extra CD of alternate takes).
But, as recounted on the WFMU page, while Faust were running up enormous bills at Giorgio Moroder’s studio, Virgin suddenly cut them loose. The essentially completed album vanished into the vaults, inexplicably appearing as the aforementioned promo cassette.
Some of the pieces on the cassette are clearly related to material that appears with much better fidelity on the various (excellent) Faust Tapes releases. But a lot of it is stuff I’ve never heard, and I’ve heard a lot of Faust.
But is that enough? No, not for the mighty WFMU Blog. They also post downloadable video of Faust jamming on stage and in the studio circa 1971 (3 minutes, 20MB mpg), cribbed from a WDR-TV German documentary (auf deutsche), highlights of which were shown in the A/V Lounge at the WFMU Record Fair.
I love you, WFMU Blog. (Sniff.)
