The myth surrounding Faust is only superseded by the wash of mystery that convolutes any attempt to distill what was actually going on in New York City’s underground, experimental music scene during the ‘60s. Part of the problem is due to the fact that everyone wants to recall their own greatness and inventiveness. That’s all well and good, but I’d be interested to know how LaMonte Young, John Cale and Tony Conrad got along together.

With those three personalities kicking around – and the latter two eventually working/hanging out with Lou Reed in various capacities – the landscape from whence the Velvet Underground sprung wasn’t as flat, dark and empty as some would be led to believe.

Subsequent to his graduating from Harvard University with a degree in mathematics, Conrad high tailed it to New York and began performing with the aforementioned music freeqs. With the middle portion of the ‘60s given over to British Invasion stuffs – on the radio at least – Cale and Conrad became more interested in (kinda) pop music, resulting in their departure from the Dream Syndicate, which Young was avowed lead. But the work that they’d done in that group – creating endless masses of a single tone for too long a time – had its affect on musicians in NYC as well as across the pond.

So after messing around with Reed and Cale, Conrad eventually found out that German rock bands were seeking to include his aesthetic into a more traditional context. Bands like Can, and later Neu!, utilized simple progressions – if they can be referred to as such – and bolstered them with plain, but solid and repetitive back beats. One of the more successful groups from this cohort, who were actually signed to a major label, was Faust.

Already being aware of Conrad, Faust, subsequent to being contacted by the American, played host and invited him to their farm/commune/studio for some repeato-jams. Playing on the name Inside The Dream Syndicate (Volume 01, Day of Niagara), on which Cale, Conrad and Young go in on a thirty plus minute note, Outside the Dream Syndicate resulted from Conrad meeting with Faust.

Released on Table of the Elements, the disc comprises five tracks, three of which push towards the thirty minute mark. And where some of Faust’s other work is frenetic and unpredictable, what Conrad did was reign all of that in. That effective drone is still present – and it even sounds as if Cale joined the recording at points. But what makes the disc and its various tracks work is the fact that Faust lent the droning a considerable back beat.

It’s no James Brown style rave up here, but there’s something funky, albeit Teutonic about the proceedings. It’s difficult to surmise the differences from track to track, but “The Death of the Composer Was In 1962” presents itself as not just the most rock based track, but also the most tied to Faust’s other work. At points, it seems as if the drums are emoting, whereas the rest of the disc is all austere Germanic rock music.

Regardless of the simplicity to all of this, Conrad and Faust unwittingly created a staid krautrock masterpiece. Cop it well and keep digging.