Laibach
By All Music Guide
By All Music Guide
Formed the same year longtime Yugoslavian leader Marshall Josip Broz Tito died, Laibach started activity in 1980 in the industrial coal-mining town of Trbovlje in the center of what is now Slovenia. They took their name from the nearby city Ljubljanas title during Nazi occupation. Their first performance was canceled by authorities for their controversial use of symbols, and military service kept them away from performing until June of 1981. Laibach first played Ljubljana in January of 1982, and the Ljubljana-Zagreb-Beograd collection captures some the groups performances from this time from cassettes sold at shows. The Laibach/Last Few Days cassette from 1983 was the groups first proper release, and cassettes from labels like Staal Tapes and Skuk followed. Milan Fras joined as vocalist, and his distinctive growl and grim stare still makes him the groups most recognizable member. An appearance on Yugoslavian TV with shaved heads and military attire provoked the state to issue a ban on the name Laibach in Ljubljana that was not lifted until 1987.
Around the time of the EP Panorama/Die Liebes release, a concert was planned and posters put up overnight with only Laibachs trademark cross representing the group. Both concert and poster are captured on M.B. December 21, 1984. Laibach soon joined the likeminded artist collective Irwin and theater group Scipion Nasice Sisters to form the organization Neue Slowenische Kunst, or NSK. NSK became involved in the groups concerts and Irwins artwork would often be displayed at venues. The groups debut studio album, which also featured the cross only, was released in 1985 but was reissued in 1999 as Laibach. Baptism, from 1986, includes the groups soundtrack to the NSK stage production Baptism Under Triglav. Laibachs music had remained a challenging combination of military marches and tape loops that only fans of Throbbing Gristle, Nurse With Wound, and the like paid much attention to, but things were about to change.
Wax Trax! in America and Mute in the U.K. gave 1987s Opus Dei Laibachs first widely available release. Included were bizarre thumping cover versions of Queens One Vision and one-hit wonder Opus Life Is Life, and videos of both were shown on MTV. A worldwide tour followed, and Laibach was invited by John Peel to do a Peel Session and Michael Clark commissioned the group to provide music for his dance company. The idea of covering pop music in Wagnerian style was expanded on 1988s Sympathy for the Devil EP, which included multiple versions of the Rolling Stones classic, and Let It Be, which reproduced the whole of the Beatles album, minus the title track. Let It Be included a version of Across the Universe, sung by fellow NSK members Germania, whose ethereal female vocals would show up on many later releases. Another world tour followed, and a bootleg video of a Dallas, TX, concert showed up on the short-lived Videophile label. The groups success caused various early recordings to be reissued, and 1990 saw Laibach return to more orchestral work with its soundtrack to a NSK production of Macbeth.
Laibach celebrated the fall of the Berlin Wall with the Oktober/Geburt Einer Nation single, containing more of a echno slant and a remix credited to the mysterious Kraftbach. Released in 1992, Kapital fully embraced minimal techno and focused on the growth of capitalism in Eastern Europe. A world tour (with each members skin painted silver) and more reissues followed. A return to the bombastic cover versions was heard on the war-focused NATO as the former Yugoslavia fell apart. The echno was left up to the new side project 300,000 V.K. and its debut, Also Sprach Johann Paul II. The NATO world tour was documented on the limited-edition CD and video box set Occupied Europe NATO in 1996, the same year the band released the religious-themed and cover version-filled Jesus Christ Superstars. That albums live show toured the world on and off until the release of 2003s WAT, a return to echno and the bands first pop album to contain primarily self-penned material in a while. The 2004 compilation Anthems featured two CDs: one compiling singles, the other remixes. Volk from late 2006 reimagined national anthems from around the world, including those of Germany, Italy, the U.S., and even the Vatican.
