Laibach  Krefeld 2007

Details: Written by: Jörg Uhlenbruch; Published: 27 April 2007

Kulturfabrik, Krefeld, Germany
11th April 2007
Laibach

LAIBACH is one of the most controversial but also one of the most reputable bands from our scene. This spring, the Slovenian group returned to present the material of their much-debated concept album ‘Volk’ (released 2006) once again. http://www.laibach.nsk.si / http://www.myspace.com/laibach

Music
The project LAIBACH was founded in 1980 in Yugoslavia, which was back then under totalitarian socialist regime. LAIBACH’s long history of controversy and misinterpretation started on day one as their first ever concert was banned by the Yugoslavian government before the event could even happen. In their early days LAIBACH took a lot of elements from the early Industrial movement and followed musically a rather experimental direction. By and by the band created their unique musical style of mixing neo-classical components with martial Wagnerian sounds and Electro/Techno elements as well as Rock. Entertainment was never a major goal of LAIBACH, it’s an art project which has always wanted to be controversial and which has musically and in particular image-wise created a distortion picture of recent society and the political landscape. LAIBACH was accused being extreme right-wing as well as being extreme left-wing because of their martial appearance and the use of totalitarian imagery.

In fact LAIBACH take symbols, images and word out of context to give them a new, highly exaggerated context to parody them and/or to show the subtle meanings and messages of things we know from everyday life. One perfect example is their song ‘Geburt einer Nation’ (Birth of a Nation), which German lyrics seem to be a Nazi anthem but in fact is just a cover version and word-by-word translation of the huge hit ‘One Vision’ originally written and performed by British Rock superstars QUEEN - an excellent example how LAIBACH works. Cover versions have always been crucial to LAIBACH’s musical art, as with all other things they take them out of context and give them a new meaning. ROLLING STONES’ ‘Sympathy For The Devil’, ‘Alle Gegen Alle’ by DEAUTSCH-AMERIKANISCHE FREUNDSCHAFT (D.A.F.), 80s Metal-band EUROPE’s hit ‘The Final Countdown’ are other (in-)famous covers by LAIBACH, who also covered the complete THE BEATLES album ‘Let it be’ (except for the title track!). LAIBACH also did many other projects, such as writing music for theatre productions, participating in books, and they are also part of the movement NSK (“Neue Slowenisch Kunst” – New Slovenian Art) which features artists and departments from all kinds of art. Even a “NSK state” has been founded, “the first global state of the universe” as this virtual state is not restricted to any kind of territory or ethnic or linguistical group.

LAIBACH’s latest album ‘Volk’, released in October 2006, is again an album full of cover versions, if you like. For this album LAIBACH covered, or were inspired by, various national anthems from nations like the United Kingdom, Germany, the USA, China, Israel, and so on. This album sounds much calmer, darker and more sedately, especially when compared to its Techno-ish predecessor ‘WAT’ (2003). ‘Volk’ needs it’s time, it is challenging and it’s as far from being a hit record as it could be. But those who take the challenge which is ‘Volk’ are rewarded with an excellent, inspiring piece of art.

Performance
Very curious how LAIBACH will adapt the concept of ‘Volk’ for the stage we arrived at the Kulturfabrik (what a nice name for a venue where the “Laibach Kunst Maschine” are to perform, btw). But at first we were shocked how empty the place is, the only crowded place seemed to be the merchandise stall, where they sold a very diverse and brilliant assortment of merchandise items. Some classical music at low volume was played in the venue, and by and by it got a little more crowded. The days when LAIBACH sold out 2,000 capacity venues seemed long ago to us in this moment, but luckily the Kulturfabrik got a bit more crowded until the start of the show. Approximately 350 people turned up to see LAIBACH in the end, I guess. But at first we all had to cope with 30 minutes of playback of eastern-bloc marching music sung by a Slovenian choir. It was funny, or at least interesting, at first but soon it became quite tiring to be honest.

Finally the ceiling lights went off and the German national anthem resounded in its original version. While the audience was blinded by white light the band entered the stage. The live line-up was pretty different to the WAT tour, vocalist Milan Fras was of course the visual center point on stage but he was backed up by different persons than on the last tour. The female vocals were delivered by Mina Špiler, who did an outstanding job, and Primo Hladnik from the Slovenian synth band SILENCE (who worked with LAIBACH on ‘Volk’) was also on stage. On the drums was Janez Gabric, operating more synths was also Luka Jamnik. In contrast to the last few tours there were no guitars used on stage. LAIBACH started with ‘Germania’ and made then their way through the complete album (except ‘Vaticanae’) in the exact order as on the album.

Nevertheless it was a very captivating performance, which was backed up by two huge video screens with subtle and intricate background videos which corresponded with the actual anthem played. The ‘Volk’ logo merged with the banners or ensigns of the particular countries. LAIBACH added additional lyrics (sung by Milan Fras) to each interpretation of an anthem to give a more honest and revealing comment about each country. The show was demanding, nothing to party or dance to, but the consensus after the show was that the ‘Volk’ material is much more intense and (at times) more hard-hitting than on the record. This owes a lot to the outstanding visuals LAIBACH presented, which interacted with the music and the lyrics.

A short break in which an ad for the NSK state were displayed on the screens with the NSK anthem as background music followed. The band returned along with the two female percussionists Eva Breznikar and Natasa Regovec stomping into position to deliver the crunching beats of ‘Tanz mit Laibach’. As it was a kind of relief, people at the front started dancing. The second part of the show was like the traditional LAIBACH performances we knew from past tours. The audience’s reaction demonstrated that it would have been badly missed if a few of the old stompers weren't part of the show. The bulk of the material was from ‘WAT’, albeit slightly reworked, and Damjan Bizilj taking over Mina's position controlling the sound module. This part of the show delivered their trademark forceful sound that the majority of the LAIBACH fans thrive on but it was only six songs long. The energetic ‘Alle gegen Alle’ was the only non-‘WAT’ song of this second part. Still it was pretty impressive and made me want to see more LAIBACH shows in the future.

The band left the stage and the track ‘Life is Life’ started but we didn’t get an encore with more songs but rather a LAIBACH best of-megamix from tape. All performers came back on stage and bowed as it was like the end of a musical show - probably a hint that LAIBACH see their conceptual ‘Volk’ show more like a theatre performance than a concert. Anyway, it was breathtaking and unique experience although I have to admit that I prefer the classic forceful LAIBACH show like on their ‘WAT’ and ‘NATO’ tours. The second part of the show made that clear to me. ;-)

Setlist
01. Germania
02. America
03. Anglia
04. Rossiya
05. Francia
06. Italia
07. Espana
08. Yisrael
09. Turkiye
10. Zhonghua
11. Nippon
12. Slovania
13. NSK
---
14. Tanz mit Laibach
15. Alle gegen Alle
16. Du bist unser
17. Hell : Symmetry
18. Achtung!
19. Das Spiel ist Aus
---
20. Laibach Turbo-Volk Mix by iTurk

Rating
Music 9
Performance 9
Light 10
Sound 9
Total 9.2