Description
This special deal includes these two CDs:
Faust: Kleine Welt (live) CD (ektro-046)
Thor: Live in Detroit CD (ektro-050)
TWO LEGENDS!!!
When Faust wasn’t satisfied with his achievements, he went after
eternity. Thor settled with what was granted and reached the infinite.
Faust wanted to discover the foundations of heaven and earth and sold
his soul to the devil, but he should have asked Thor for the task…
Perhaps he did, since the legends talk about Faust, sneaking on the
tundra, calling for Ukko and all the northern overlords. Which one
represents the power, The Hammer of Thor or the Fist that clutches it?
Will these two legends cancel each other or will their union give birth
to the Fist of Thunder that alone can save us from mediocrity, death
and giants?
“There is no group more mythical than Faust” – Julian Cope
“…but Thor sure comes close.” – Jussi Lehtisalo
Thor: Live in Detroit CD (ektro-050)
Ok, you wanna know where the NWOFHM (New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal) gets all their ideas? Our pal Jussi (of noted NWOFHM purveyors Circle/Pharaoah Overlord/Steel Mammoth/Krypt Axeripper/etc.) kind of gives it away by reissuing on his Ektro imprint this classic 1985 live album by metal/bodybuilding legend THOR!!
Yes it’s a live album (the band rockin’ Detroit rock city, with appropriate album cover artwork) but don’t worry, it’s an AWESOME live album. The recording is great, the band’s performance is killer, the crowd is raucous, of course it’s got almost ALL the hits (“Thunder On The Tundra”, “Knock ‘Em Down”, “Keep The Dogs Away” among them), AND Thor’s between-song stage raps are worth the price of admission all by themselves. Love it when he asks if the crowd reads Kerrang! magazine, gets no response, and is like, “anyhow…” and goes on with his story (about the remarkable size of his back up singer’s breasts). Or when he introduces a song as being “a big hit in Alaska”. Yes, he-man of metal Jon Mikl Thor is hilarious (he’d happily agree we’re sure) but he also rocks, as anyone who’s seen him play even recently knows, and heck this was laid to tape back in his heyday! At the time, his heavy metal superheroics were probably only matched by the combined might of Manowar.
If you’re gonna buy just one Thor album, you won’t go too wrong to make it this one. It includes three bonus tracks also from ’85, live recorded in England, New York City, and Thor’s native Canada. One of them is a song that was lost for 23 years and has never been heard on any other Thor recording!! The cd booklet is stuffed with rad old photos of the band playing and posing, with glimpses of the feats-of-strength that, along with his cool tunes, made this campy metal muscleman famous. For a few seconds back in the ’80s anyway. But not forgotten!!
Yet more proof that Ektro is one of the best record labels ever. Not only did Ektro just reissue this live Thor album but at the same time they’ve released a live album by krautrock legends Faust! Thor -and- Faust. Damn. That’s our kind of label. After all, we had Thor do an in-store album signing here a couple years ago, and still have the autographed hot water bottles to prove it!
(Aquarius Records)
Faust: Kleine Welt CD (ektro-046)
Forget for a second that this is a Faust album. What if it was just some unknown new band, some cd-r we got in the mail, some limited edition cassette release? Heck we’ve tried that thought experiment, and we’d be all over it! Telling you that it’s a mysteriously murky, throbbing psychedelic freak-scene, fraught with krautrocky rhythms and tense textures. Sorta reminds us of a mix of Blues Control and Wooden Shjips… or White Hills and Expo 70… there’s a druggy ’60s garage vibe, industrial electronic atmosphere, blissful moodiness, and clockwork Circle-like propulsivity, all crammed into one crazy counter-intuitive whole, raw and live! Everything in the way of organ drones, harmonica blurt, echoing voices, shuffling drums, and serious dosage of searing psych-rock geetar found here were all taken from various European performances in 2006, later mixed and edited at fauststudio. We’d assume most of the tracks are pretty much unique to this disc…
Yeah, we’d be pretty into it if it was some new group! Does the fact it’s a new disc by krautrock legends Faust, released by Circle’s Ektro label, make it any cooler? It doesn’t need to. Though if that’s what it takes to get you to check it out, that’s ok. Conversely, if you were like, oh just another umpteenth Faust reunion album, don’t be like that. First off, Faust rule. Even today. Sure, this isn’t the original line up. In fact, it’s not even the ONLY current line up! Apparently, in the grand tradition of, uh, Saxon and others, there’s now more than one version of Faust, each featuring different original band members, going around touring under the name. Weird. Not sure if this fractured factioning is an agreed-upon thing (to cover more ground?) or if they’re in competition. Hopefully the former! It would be sad to hear that there’s litigation pending.
So anyway, THIS Faust consists of Jan Wolbrandt on drums, Michael Stoll on bass (and flute), Lars Paukstat on percussion and vocals, Steven Wray Lobdell on guitar, and Hans Joachim Irmler on organ, keyboards and vocals. That’s a good line up all right, they’ve got Lobdell in the band after all! Hence the dosage of searing psych-rock geetar previously mentioned…
Recommended, as one of the two very different and very cool live albums newly issued by Ektro that we’re reviewing this list (the other one is by ’80s strong-man metaller Thor, believe it or not!). Hmmm. Faust + Thor, does that sort of = Circle??
(Aquarius Records)
