Exact replica, officially reissued by EMI. 180 gram audiophile pressing with printed inner sleeve; digitally remastered from original tapes. This reissue was “researched, spearheaded and co-ordinated” by Tom Recchion who has supplied rare artwork for the inner sleeve — and, in general, this is a state-of-the-art edition. The fourth and final album to be released during Faust’s original lifespan, originally released by Virgin Records in 1973. “As an album, IV matches the band’s trajectory: Jumbled, fragmented, with random data integrity issues, but seeming more the brainchild of inspired pop anarchists than calculating avant-gardists. Yes, the record sounds more ‘professional’ than any of their others, but somehow that doesn’t actually equate to slick sounds: Opener ‘Krautrock’ (which Irmler says was inspired by the band’s perception of the British still fearing the ‘krauts’) is on the noisiest end of Faust’s spectrum, using distortion and feedback as springboards for tripping into galactic clouds. For better than seven minutes, minute gradients of angelic, overdriven major-chord-sheets are exploited by who knows what devices before the drums come in and the track moves from milky, third-ear noise into MINDFUCKING KRAUTROCK. And before you can explode from the sonic congestion, ‘The Sad Skinhead’ starts, replete with ridiculous 60s go-go beat and skank guitar. They sing, ‘Apart from all the bad times you gave me, I always felt good with you,’ ‘Going places, smashing faces– what else could have happened to us?’ I say needlessly: it’s a jam. And then they keep going.”