Faust IV’ is widely acknowledged as being the finest album in the bands expansive catalogue, so it seems highly relevant that EMI have chosen this gem to re-issue. The full album is included here in it’s original form and is generously packaged up with 2 previously unreleased tracks and 3 tracks from a 1973 Peel session. Kicking off with the title that had journalists weeping – the tongue-in-cheek ‘Krautrock’ we’re firmly in the land of Faust. Billowing noise and seas of bleeps and burps envelope the track and give it a feeling previously only hinted at, this took the Krautrock scene one step further on it’s release and Faust helped to shape much of what we hear today from the psychedelic improvisers and free folk tinkerers. The rest of the album is much less dense though, and goes from electronic pop, with ‘The Sad Skinhead’ sounding like a post punk re-imagination of the Silver Apples, all the way to electrical folk on closing track ‘It’s A Bit of A Pain’ – which takes a simple fingerpicked guitar and layers over synthesized abstractions that would make Delia Derbyshire jealous. If you have any interest in the Krautrock/Avant Psychedelic scene then you owe it to yourself to check out Faust’s finest hour

1.1             Krautrock (11:46)
1.2           The Sad Skinhead (2:34)
1.3           Jennifer (7:10)
1.4           Just A Second / Picnic On A Frozen River / Deuxieme Tableux (3:35)
1.5           Giggy Smile (7:45)
1.6           Läuft...Heisst Das Es Läuft Oder Es Kommt Bald...Läuft (8:06)
1.7           It's A Bit Of A Pain (3:09)
     Recorded For The John Peel Show On BBC Radio 1 (First Transmission Date: 1st March 1973)
2.1           The Lurcher (7:52)
2.2           Krautrock (11:44)
2.3           Do So (2:32)
     Original Mixes
2.4           Jennifer (Alternative Version) (4:47)
2.5           The Sad Skinhead (Alternative Version) (3:19)
2.6           Just A Second (Starts Like That!) (Extended Version) (10:30)
2.7           Piano Piece (5:56)
2.8           Läuft...Heisst Das Es Läuft Oder Es Kommt Bald...Läuft (Alternative Version) (4:12)
2.9           Giggy Smile (Alternative Version) (5:55)