Two albums, one band
Whilst the other members of Lustfaust have been jamming, Guido van Baelen has been working as an engineer on The Scorpions Lovedrive album. Van Baelen has been using studio downtime to demo a new collection of songs that he intends to release under the Lustfaust name and distribute using similar channels employed by the band. Imaging the album as a soundtrack to an imaginary horror film – Hiker Meat –Van Baelen’s opus Überblicken/Überzeugen is a slightly prog-rock MOR score that is the first Lustfaust album to include lyrics in the liner notes. It’s also the most professionally recorded album with van Baelen employing a Tascam 244 4-track for the recording. The album’s final track – Ausfallmaschine – previews van Baelen’s growing interest in tape loops and samples.
Meanwhile, Hans Berger delivers his side of the other Lustfaust’s album, which blows each of the band’s members away with its power and originality. Kruger on the other hand, fearful of Berger’s previously-repressed talent, attempts to up the ante on his contributions. Realising his inability to compete with Berger’s versatility and musical scope, Kruger ends his side with a 15-minute recording of a fireworks display, antagonistically titled They Cancelled the Fireworks (Because of the Murders), his first song performed in English since Es Reut Mich. The song, originally imagined as a retort to van Baelen’s overlong songs tendencies, is ironically Berger’s favourite track on the entire album.
Both Lustfaust albums – van Baelen’s Überblicken/Überzeugen and the other member’s Tote wie Neptun – are released almost simultaneously in late December 1978 and both through the same method – the tape trading advert placed in music magazines. Reaction to both albums is lukewarm; partly do with the slowness of Christmas period and also to do with the lack of a live presence to support the tapes. In addition neither band has attempted distribution through Kevin Ashworth’s Falke Tränen fanzine. The two separate Lustfausts still remain unknown to one another.