WAT - TANZ MIT LAIBACH: REACTIONS

AUTHOR: Christophe Labussière
WEB: www.premonition.fr

LAIBACH - WAT

It's difficult to approach a Laibach's album without taking part in the harmful game in which the Slovenian formation has been trying to drag us for nearly 20 years now. Cover-sleeves with strong meaning symbols, tracks' titles with obvious intentions, like Reject or Breed or Anti-Semitism, lyrics full of ambiguous messages, Laibach plays with fire and they do it with an obscene pleasure. The systematic remakes of "rock" standards which are their trademark, have always been the only "funny" gap we can find in the band's undermining work (how to stay believable or to present a serious message by covering Europe, Opus, Status Quo, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones or Queen), even if paradoxally, some of these tracks are their main hits (Leben Heisst Leben/Life is Life, Geburt Einer Nation/One Vision or Final Countdown to mention a few). With "WAT", all the stigmatas of the damned children of the electro-indus scene are present: minimalist industrial ambiences (with a big tribute to DAF on Tanz Mit Laibach), irresistible Wagner-like choirs (B Mashina), a rather subtle electro, an unique voice... We notice that the Laibach's sound evolved well with rather successful compositions (except for the puffy Du Bist Unser, a strong reference to Maurizio's dub and to the Berlin school), all are original songs (no covers), for an undeniably efficient album. These Slovenians manage to come back with a disconcerting ease. The announced come-back, always delayed, of the less acceptable band of Mute, is, if we forget the polemics, a total success.

AUTHOR: Troy Southgate
WEB: www.rosenoire.org


LAIBACH - Tanz mit Laibach

YOU may be forgiven for thinking that this long-awaited single from the uniformed quartet's 'WAT' album is taken straight from Laibach's mid-80s heyday. Not so. The crunching dance beat is an electronic broglia of stomping boots and subconscious brainfeed, and whilst the perpetual chorus - 'Ein, zwei, drei, fier' - seems a trifle repetitive and simplistic, its anthemic longevity acts like a red wine stain on a white sheepskin rug: your mind forever branded with the subliminel Laibach cog. The lyrics are designed to express German-American friendship, but they are obviously very light-hearted and tongue-in-cheek in a more sarcastic and philosophical way. And all the major political themes are there, too: Totalitarianism, Democracy, Fascism and Anarchy. It may be the same old routine, but that's what so good about it. It succeeds because it's a winning formula. And finally, if you're thinking of buying the new album, this single will act as a fine aperitif.

AUTHOR: MvG
WEB: www.funprox.com

LAIBACH - WAT

Laibach is one of the pioneering bands for the industrial scene, not only when it comes to music, also their (controversial) imagery has had a deep impact on the genre. Even nowadays bands still make use of their heritance. The band themselves also think it is still interesting to play the same music and stage the same show.

WAT is their first album since Jesus Christ Superstars from 1996 and sounds quite familiar. The real industrial feel is gone while the album is dominated by pounding Teutonic beats. After listening to WAT it might be clear to everyone where Rammstein draw their inspiration from. Or might it be the case that Laibach is looking for chart success through appealing to the Rammstein
audience? In any way, despite the Wagnerian bombastic sound and military association, that are still present in their music, a fact is that WAT is a very accessible album to Laibach standards.

Dancefloor anthems like the D.A.F. (‘Der Mussolini) inspired ‘Tanz mit Laibach’ and ‘Das Spiel ist aus’ are in the vein of many contemporary gothic bands. Luckily there are also a few more traditional sounding tracks like the opening song ‘B Mashina’ and ‘Anti-semitism’. Especially the last song is reminiscent of older work by the group.

WAT is not a bad album but it is not original and does not really add something to the bands repertoire. If the band wants to prove it relevance after twenty years they should come up with something better than this.

AUTHOR: Lech Linkiel
WEB: seemagazine.com

LAIBACH - WAT

We Are Time is the ultimate manifesto of Laibach, the first East-European group to make a lasting impact on the Western scene. As their wardrobe, mannerisms, and sound have been appropriated by mainstream vaudevillian acts like Marilyn Manson and Rammstein, Laibach return to their musical roots–the aggressive minimalist electro pioneered by Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft more than 20-years-ago.

Framed within the contrast of Slavko Avsenik Jr’s neoclassicist choirs and Uros Umek’s sensual techno, Laibach–the musical department of the NSK, the New Slovene Art collective–recapitulate the core themes of their oeuvre over the past two decades: the totalitarianism inherent to democracy, the mental prisons of religion, the West’s fear and envy of the East, and the destructive greed at the heart of capitalism which dresses contemporary fascism in a business suit rather than a brown shirt.

Some familiarity with the Slovene and German idiom may be required, but Laibach’s bare bones are presented here in plain English for those with limited knowledge of applied philosophy and political science. It would be easy to dismiss this as a load of elitist claptrap, but chances are that if you don’t get it this time, you were probably never meant to.

AUTHOR: Gillian Nash
WEB: barcodezine.com

LAIBACH - WAT

One of the original industrial acts of the eighties, Laibach, returns to deliver a further political comment on the state of the world today. And to be honest, they pull few punches either lyrically or musically. ‘Tanz Mit Laibach’ is a superb example of how Industrial music is perhaps the singular most effective musical delivery vehicle to accentuate the miserable machinations of war. The most powerful of subjects requires the most powerful of opinions, and therefore the most powerful of musical forms to deliver it. Laibach make the best of their sampling weaponry to enforce a political comment on world affairs. Their brusque vocals are almost comical in their deliberation, whilst a curiously tasteful blend of choral vocals assists to give ‘WAT’ an even more symbolic and authoritarian feel. At the end of the day, although Laibach’s anti-war stance is both commendable and impressive in its ferocity and authenticity, the ultimate question will be, is it actually any good? Well, I think so. There is undoubtedly a theatrical element at work here. Laibach almost revel in their negativity and there are plenty of tunes and driving rhythm and beats to get you moving and help you forget about the nihilistic subject matter. ‘WAT’ is the sort of album that gives you a wry smile whenever you play it, it is also the best Industrial album I have heard since Front Line Assembly’s 1995 Hard Wired. Its brutal percussive feel, tub-thumbing insistence and memorable vocal delivery will no doubt leave an imprint on you, as all good political propaganda should.

AUTHOR: Gillian Nash
WEB: logo-magazine.com

LAIBACH - WAT

At last, after a seven-year wait, Laibach have emerged from a self-imposed exile with their martial, heavy industry approach (inspired, no doubt, by their upbringing in Slovenia’s mining heartland) intact and an album that represents them at their most focussed, yet willing to embrace the zeitgeist. If they’ve spent their time travelling then they’ve plainly been to Berlin, as ‘Wat’ is drenched in the corrugated Teutonic techno that currently represents the heartbeat of that city, yet still they occupy an uneasy space that eschews naked aggression for gentler emotions - created synthetically yet made by real flesh and blood. They’ve been accused of reductionism in the past, but here - as the Gregorian-Asiatic chants of ‘The Great Divide’ illustrate - they show that a simple formula is far from limiting.

AUTHOR: Pete
WEB: live4metal.com

LAIBACH - WAT

For 7 long years the radio waves have been silent. Despite this I think most fans of Laibach expected them to come back. This is not so much a band but a collective spirit of free thinkers. These are people that consider themselves as much politicians as they do pop stars and who with other like minded artists went as far as to set up their own state (Neue Slowenische Kunst or NSK). You might not find the NSK on any map (this is a state with no borders) but believe it or not passports are actually issued and it really isn’t surprising that this Yugoslavian entity otherwise known as Laibach do tend to disappear off the face of the earth for long periods of time. With their military uniforms and strong German vocals many have thought that Laibach were little more than a group of fascists but in reality they
are not, but are simply playing very clever mind games. They turn ideas on their heads with retro principles and believe that totalitarianism and oppression are just as prevalent in Communism and Christianity as they are in fascism. They have used imagery that has been construed as fascist yet was designed by anti-fascists, and have turned the pop sensibilities of The Beatles, Queen and Status Quo (to name a few) and changed them into operatic marches to war. This is the world of political chaos, free your mind and welcome to it.
If you think the music is going to be any easier to classify then you can think again. Possibly one comparison is if you imagine an amalgamation of Kraftwerk and Samael and you will still only be part way there. The austere tones of B Mashina lead us in with guttural singer Milan giving a spoken word eulogy, which builds up with a wonderful pompous choral backing around him. The troops are now rallied and Tanz Mit Laibach has the bounce and clank of workers doing hard labour in the mines of an impoverished country. We have now reverted to German as the main language and the militaristic Nuremberg rally effect that the first track had about it has turned round on its political head. With a darkwave beat and electronic broodiness we go into Du Bist Unser. Imagine a train late at night rattling through the snow in deepest darkest Siberia; if you were foolish enough to get off you would be stuck there for 3 months until the next one. This is the sound of that train. It is impossible not to imagine history when listening to Laibach. The jackboot stomp of Achtung has me thinking of house to house searches conducted by Nazi death squads looking for Jewish fugitives to exterminate. Off kilter piano chords and a reversal to the English language take over on Now You Will Pay. No matter what language this band employ it is a compelling and evocative call to arms that is nigh on impossible to ignore. The female backing chants are ghostly and ethereal harkening a world on the verge of collapse. Das Spiel Ist Aus sounds futuristic by comparison. That could be down to some sound effects straight off Star Treks Enterprise and also reminds me of The Shamen another band that took a lot of ideas from Laibach. Wat itself takes the manifesto and lays it on the line with the words, “We are no ordinary type of group, we are no humble pop musicians”. With that statement they sum things up more effectively than any review possibly could. If you are a Laibach fan you will be getting this for sure, if not and you are looking for something a bit different, Wat comes highly recommended.

AUTHOR: Jett Black
WEB: inmusicwetrust.com

LAIBACH - WAT

Laibach return Rammstein to the Kindergarten Romper Room. As expressed by WAT (We Are Time), Laibach are "no ordinary group, no humble pop musicians." The barbarian political machine kreated an opposition that is Laibach, brute Industrial Strength delivering vocals in both harsh, grating English and guttural German. As beautiful arias sometimes soar celestially in the background, the incomparable beats of Laibach speak by obliterating the dance floor. ALL MUST DANCE NOW! Overlord djs will survey apocalyptic bodies writhing, colliding, and lining up again to beg for more! The power of words and voice used herein exhibit an extreme industrial art form, delivering a dramatic opus of music that would compel even David Lynch to spill his own guts, or include Laibach in his next film score. (A+)

AUTHOR: Avi Pitchon
PUBLISHER: Terrorizer magazine

LAIBACH - WAT

You might want to get a second opinion on this because love is blind and I luuurv Laibach. Were they to release a collection of John Denver songs I'll see the sinister concept behind it. I'm talking love at first sight. Seeing a live clip of "Die Liebe" off their grand extra-Slovenian debut, "Nova Akropola", I pledged immediate and eternal allegiance. I was such a fanatic that I focused almost entirely on Laibach, leaving tiny space for 80's contemporaries Einstürzende Naubauten and Test Dept. somehow I preferred Teutonic martial percussive assaults over socialistic ones. Later on I found out more about the ways with which Laibach expose the will to power behind all western regimes, left, right, democratic or totalitarian.

"WAT" is definitely not the first Laibach album one should listen to. I'd recommend "Opus Dei", the band's most explosive, OTT release. Next step should be what I consider their best, "Kapital", the most sprawling, complex, deep.

Laibach in the 90’s are often much simpler, be it the streamlined techno on "Nato" or Rammstein-esque monster riffs on "Jesus Christ Superstar", their previous release, from 1996. Rammstein are the ones who carried the torch in Laibach’s (and Ministry’s) absence. I call it Nazism without the disadvantages: the sound and vision minus the mass slaughter.
"WAT" is mostly similar to "NATO", minus the demented cover versions. The single, "Tanz Mit Laibach", is the closest they ever got to DAF. Most songs are basic, enraged addresses set to minimalistic techno beats and signature neo-Wagnerian orchestrations. The content is fascinating. It is indeed high time that world affairs will be discussed from Laibach’s totally unique perspective. To be honest, I don't think love is blind, quite the contrary. When you are in love is when you actually SEE someone. If you are merely friends with Laibach, or even slept together once, WAT might go over your head. But if it’s true love, you've gotta have it. 8.5

AUTHOR: Telegraph
WEB: www.telegraph.co.uk

LAIBACH - WAT

Warriors of weirdness

Laibach, one of Europe's most provocative and dangerous bands, have fought off accusations of fascism and Stalinism. As their new album is released here, Richard Wolfson meets them at home in Slovenia

We are in the small Alpine mining town of Trbovlje in Slovenia, a northern republic of ex-Yugoslavia. On the stage in the municipal theatre, a man who looks like a descendant of one of Genghis Khan's warriors fused with a Nazi warlord (huge leather skirt, a metal cross hanging over his bare chest, a bizarre East European warrior hat with voluminous side flaps) is declaiming in chilling bass tones: "Barbarians are coming, crawling from the east."

He's flanked by two Wagnerian ice maidens who are dressed in black vests, with blonde pigtails streaming beneath unlikely fez hats. They robotically smash out the beat on snare drums mounted on stands in front of them, in sync with a light show borrowed from Second World War air systems. "Barbarians," they sing operatically. "Barbarians!"

Drums, guitars and keyboards are visible through palls of smoke, building to climaxes fuelled by sampled orchestras and choirs. There are two huge banners hanging either side of the stage, bearing a strange but haunting symbol - a thick cross within a cog. An antique 16mm film projector blasts images above the stage - athletics, dancing skeletons, fire, and film of the charismatic lead singer, who appears to march on an endless loop towards the audience.

Any casual visitor to this event would be flummoxed. Is it a neo-Nazi rally? A joke? Have we gate-crashed the national celebrations of a rogue East European state, whose communist regime has managed to cling on to power? Perhaps the truth is even more bizarre. This is Laibach, a Slovenian pop group who are one of the most provocative, politically incorrect, challenging and dangerous acts around, launching their new album, Wat.

Laibach were formed in 1980, and their first action was a concert and exhibition planned for this very venue, Trbovlje's House of the Workers. I asked a group spokesman (Laibach will be quoted only through a spokesman) what had happened at that first event.

"Laibach is the German name for Ljubljana, used by the Nazis when they occupied Slovenia. After the Second World War, the name Laibach was semi-officially forbidden. So it had a strong emotional kind of meaning. We thought, 'If it's that strong, it must be worth using it!' "

The use of the name was too strong for the communist authorities, who promptly banned the event. The past 23 years have been a cat-and-mouse game with audiences and censors, as Laibach's ambiguous actions have both attracted and fought off accusations of fascism and Stalinism.

Laibach's method is extremely simple, effective and horribly open to misinterpretation. First of all, they absorb the mannerisms of the enemy, adopting all the seductive trappings and symbols of state power, and then they exaggerate everything to the edge of parody.

Next they turn their focus to highly charged issues - the West's fear of immigrants from Eastern Europe, the power games of the EU, the analogies between Western democracy and totalitarianism.

I should make it clear at this point that off-stage they are not the raging monsters they portray on it. Milan, the charismatic singer, particularly without his warrior hat, turns out to be a slightly balding, wiry, bespectacled intellectual. One Rhinemaiden backing singer is the Slovenian national swimming champion, while the other sings in an all-girl pop group and studies English at post-graduate level.

"We would never reveal that we are just normal people who are doing all this stuff. It's a project!" says their spokesman.

Luckily, nature has been kind, and has given the other three members of the group exactly the right looks to preserve the myth. Ivan Novak makes a stern but benevolent commissar; Dejan Knez could easily play a vampire in a Herzog movie; Ervin Markosek seems to personify a disreputable and slightly exhausted Nazi youth leader.

Laibach pursue their projects relentlessly to their logical conclusion. They have even invented their own state, NSK or Neue Slowenische Kunst (New Slovenian Art).

"From a certain point of view, every artist serves a state. We said that, whatever we do, we are going to be state artists, so let's create our own state. We opened NSK embassies before the new Slovenian government managed to do so - in Moscow, Sarajevo, Ghent and Berlin.

"We gave passports to people, for instance in Sarajevo. They couldn't use Bosnian passports, but some of them managed to sneak out with NSK diplomatic passports. I even entered the UK once with an NSK passport."

There are other examples of Laibach's strange virtual world colliding with reality. As Yugoslavia dissolved and Slovenia became an independent republic, Laibach found that friends and contemporaries had become government officials. In 1996, the Slovenian foreign minister ceremoniously handed Laibach's Nato album, packed with hymns to IBM and CNN and ironic war anthems, to high-ranking Nato official Willy Claes.

The music itself does not get lost inside this obsession with political manipulation and paraphernalia. The new album, Wat, is stuffed with seductively vicious tracks which replay styles from Laibach's past career. Das Spiel Ist Aus is a rampaging post-disco workout, B Mashina an apocalyptic moody sci-fi thriller, Anti-Semitism delves into the orchestral cut-ups with which they began over 20 years ago, and Tanz Mit Laibach is a spoof disco number that envisages "American friends" and "German comrades" dancing into Baghdad.

After the concert, which has packed in just about anybody who is anybody in Slovenian cultural life - famous actors, nutty professors, ravers and politicians - the entire audience is bussed to the Kum mountain lodge, a precarious alpine perch, for midnight celebrations. There's an incomprehensible speech from an NSK philosopher, and many bottles of Laibach wine (made by fans of the group who run a vineyard).

One does fear just a little for Laibach's sanity. I rang their spokesman shortly after the concert, and he was buzzing with the amazing reception they had just received at a concert in Budapest.

"I was trying to act as normally as possible, but the audience were completely euphoric, which we have never seen before. The myth is becoming a reality. We will have to be careful!"

AUTHOR: Richard Fontenoy
WEB: www.freq.freeserve.co.uk

LAIBACH - WAT

As purposely obscure and enigmatic as ever, Laibach's return to the world of record releases and live shows steps up the pressure they bring to bear upon the listener's expectations of what this most uncompromising of groups might actually intend and ultimately mean. Presented in German, English and occasionally Serbo-Croat to thumping beats of an orchestral Techno bent, WAT kicks off with one of the most outrageously utopian Space Operas committed to disc in the shape of "B Maschina". From the opening tinkling electronics and rising hum of power steeling itself for release, the archetypal deep voice of Laibach speaks the lay of dream machines raising into orbit to a whirring rhythm which soon grinds into escape velocity on impassioned digital whinnies and an explosion into choral grandeur of breathtaking aspect. Laibach have returned in style, and their destination seems to be beyond the scope of mere earthly concerns.

What is evident here is a more explicitly serious purpose compared to the myriad Pop cover versions of Let It Be and NATO, though the epic feast of Techno bombast contains much grimly sinister humour in similar vein to the group's numerous interpretations of "Sympathy For The Devil". Laibach have always held a sense of grandiose futurism close to their essential sound, and the development here is suitably monumental. "Tanz Mit Laibach" is dedicated to friendship between the German and American peoples, however ironically or in reference to Deutsche Amerikaner Freundschaft (of which there is certainly more than a trundling, supercharged Electro hint along with a passing reference to "Tanz Mit Mir"), and invites the listener onto the dancefloor with martial precision, a "Kamerad, komm tanz mit mir" and an "Ein, zwei, drei, vier" chorus. Yet more Wagnerian choral frissons offset such butter wouldn't melt (translated) German lyrics as "We're dancing (with) Ado Hinkel/Benito Napoloni/We're dancing with Schicklegrüber" in homage and hinting reference to Chaplin's anti-fascist epic The Great Dictator while mentioning their dance with fascism, anarchy and other mindsets in a whirl of heavyweight beats.

The underlying threat which is embodied by the signature gutteral vocal delivery is explored throughly on the racing pulse beats, layered breaths and klang of "Hell: Symmetry". Their method of "taking your language, and making it mine....." is spun out into a careless dismissal of "love me, love me.. not" and an entirely messianic welcome into the Laibach kunstmaschine. Likewise, on "Satanic Versus", the mood created is of a declamatory, apocalyptic Gary Numan track taken to the extremes of Electro doom-mongering on the realpolitik of wars on terrorism and of personal as much as national liberation. The wheezing down-tempo rhythms and Middle Eastern calls of "The Great Divide" or the gloomy chug of "Ende" refuse to offer solutions either, instead setting out a bleak vision of a Third Millennium planet laden down with old conflicts played out with new brutalities over blood and soil to the soar and complementary dirge of female/male choral backing and collapsing rhythms.

There's a current of steely schadenfreude throughout the gripping beat-heavy Techno aria of "Now You Will Pay", a self-declared outsider's view of a not-quite specific clash of civilizations. Mighty piano chords rumble and shudder across writhing demonic textures to the dynamic uber-disco groove, with that most scary of voices threatening doom at the hands and pocket knives of barbarians from the east who will "burn down your cities/and your Disneyland". Along with the punishing stadium-sized martial pulse of "Achtung!", the track forms the centrepiece of an album which crackles and pounds with a fearsome sense of music conceived on an Empire-crushing scale. Again, the term operatic applies fulsomely, magnified in technological form to a scale only partly acheived by the grandiose Metal passion of Jesus Christ Superstars or Kapital's curious delve into the end of history and back out into the ever-present utopian dream to a hybrid HipHop/Industrial beat.

"WAT" itself sets out the post-Nietzschean Laibach manifesto, stating "we are not here to please you, we have no answers to your questions... we don't intend to save your souls". They expound on their back catalogue and semi-detatched worldview, with a scope and depth of philosophical, economic and political disdain for almost everything, including apparent concern for interpretation and outsiders' appreciation of their output. As statements of self-important (yet naggingly relevant) bombast go, it's quite an achievement, as is the album itself - the mesh of choirs, brazen percussion, hard electronic rhythms and fuzzy bass stabs roll out a thoroughly convincing maze of music and theatrics which is at once elevating and threatening. Laibach promise to leave the listener "all alone, with an ecstatic scream locked on your face", and this they could undoubtedly do with this disturbingly superb album.

AUTHOR: Sam Forrest
WEB: www.manchesteronline.co.uk

LAIBACH - WAT

THE trials and tribulations of Slovenia's leading rock group over the last twenty years is enough to make our nation's pretenders seem like a bunch of pampered upstarts.

Having survived socialist state politics and a bloody civil war, Laibach remain determined to reflect the grimy social upheavals that surrounds them through the mirror of their gargantuan industrial rock.

It is sometimes easy to forget that underneath all of this traumatic history is a living breathing band. And of course their music is littered with the impact of the age they??ve survived.

Achtung is a claustrophobic computerised barrage of growled horror, whereas Das Speil Ist Aus continues the same monolithic template with almost operatic backing vocals.

Unfortunately in the current confusing post-modern musical climate where most musical forms hark back to past glories, anything this unapologetically modern cannot help but seem slightly dated.

AUTHOR: Mattias Huss
WEB: www.releasemagazine.net

LAIBACH - WAT

Can you feel the earth crumbling? Armies are headed this way, and the skies are darkening. The machines of order, totalitarian and faux democratic ones alike, are broken beyond repair and people will run, steal and kill like animals unrestrained by social order. This is the end of our time.

The harbinger of doom, the propaganda-as-art-unit Laibach does not mince words about the state of the world. As one track heralds, "Das Spiel ist aus", game over. Interpreting lyrics, especially those in German, is a dangerous thing, but according to my flawed perception, Laibach gives a rather apocalyptic comment about the future relations between the West and the so called developing world: "Barbarians are coming from the east/---/with knives in their pockets, and bombs in their hands, they'll burn down your cities and your Disneylands"(from "Now You Will Pay").

One of the many interpretations of the album title sent in by Laibach fans to the website of NSK (Neue Slowenische Kunst, the independent state established by Laibach and a couple of other cultural organisations in Slovenia) was that "WAT" was an acronym for "War against terrorism". Doubtlessly this is wrong, and hopefully Laibach tells us the truth eventually, but the guess does tell us something about the album.

With thumping electronic body music beats smattering and classical choires and orchestral arrangements conveying Wagnerian grandeour, Laibach delivers an autopsy of the corpse of the 20th century and surveys the current global crisis.

What should we do then, if this terrible vision is true? Where can we turn to find consolation in a world of broken dreams? In a kind of sequel to DAF's "Der Mussolini" Laibach reaches out its hands in a hearty, nihilistic answer: "ein zwei drei vier, meine Freunde tanz mit mir". Let's dance the capitalism dance, the anarchy dance, just dance.

"Tanz mit Laibach" is pretty dancy material for Laibach, as are the other German language songs, as if the outburst of Neue Deutsche Welle - and especially DAF - retro in Germany right now had gripped Laibach as well. The guitars of "Jesus Christ Superstar" are nowhere to be heard and the sound is closer to the Laibach side project 300.000 Verschiedene Krawalle. There is little singing going on, since the vocalist of Laibach seems to have switched entirely to his unique but somewhat tiring declamatory drawl.

I was under the impression that Laibach was already on their final laps two years ago when they toured festivals with an uninspired greatest hits performance. This album seems to prove me wrong. It is no musical masterpiece, but we are firmly back in the universe of Laibach Kunst machine.

The record is their first proper album since 1996’s Jesus Christ Superstas and is preceded by first single Tanz Mit Laibach, which includes a mix by fellow Slovenian star Umek.

Umek, whose own recent album Neuro recently came out on Laibach’s label Tehnika Records, spoke to Skrufff earlier this year, though refused to reveal any personal information about his mentors.

"Laibach?…, ermm, they’re really cool though actually I don’t want to talk about what they’re like as people,” he said.

"They’re cool. There’s always a mystery about them."

AUTHOR: A music fan from Denver, US
WEB: www.amazon.com

LAIBACH - Tanz mit Laibach
More Inspired Pounding and Growling from Laibach!

A single well worth owning if you're a Laibach fan, enjoy EBM music, or Military inspired techno chock full of thumpy teutonic goodness.

Similar overall to their work on Kapital and Nato, but more focused and properly polished. The trademark growling vocals are present, but upbeat, club-friendly thumping dominates this song in most mixes.

The 5 remixes here actually sound different enough to be worth playing all the way through... at least 2 of which will doubtlessly fight to be featured on club floors around the world.
Not a full meal, but a worthy snack from the "virtual State In Time" brains of Laibach. Highly recommended!

AUTHOR: Helen Wright
WEB: www.musicomh.com

LAIBACH - WAT

I’m not sure I’ve heard a Slovenian band before, let alone one credited with co-founding an art collective that was declared a virtual State in Time, issuing its own passports and staging embassy and consulate events in many countries. You get the picture – we’re talking heavy politics here, which is possibly why Laibach were banned in their home town before their first live performance.

"We are no ordinary type of group / we are no humble pop musicians / we don’t seduce with melodies and we’re not here to please you..." - the opening lines of closing track Anti-Semitism. They’re not kidding, folks. Think of a voice harsher (though more tuneful) than Tom Waits. Think of the shock the first time you heard Diamanda Galas. Think Nine Inch Nails with attitude, German industrial rockers Rammstein, Ministry.

Then add genuine artistry plus shades of Stravinsky at his rowdiest and the result is a highly intriguing album. A mixture of German and English lyrics - more growled and snarled than sung - and pure industrial rock is overlaid with assured orchestration and wild choral highlights, at times turning WAT into a Wagnerian horror epic. If ever there was music to accompany Hieronymous Bosch’s nightmare visions, this is it. Spiky, full of unexpected disjunctions, uncomfortable, compelling.

Opening (and standout) track B Mashina gets you into the mood relatively gently - the voice almost normal, recognisable guitar backing, English lyrics - though the words are ominous enough. "Only one day is left / only one day... Let the sun fall into the ocean / let the earth erupt in flame / it is enough to have the strength and knowledge to raise our dream machines into the sky / Let them sleep who do not know that the final day is here / the very last / and we leave at dawn." The tension grows as the male choir kicks in, and reaches a breathtaking climax with the full chorus.

Tanz Mit Laibach - the first single from the album - takes us into serious headbanging territory and as its name suggests, is the closest this band probably comes to a pure dance track, though Achtung! would probably also do well late at night.

Ende introduces the breath as instrument, combining it with sinister orchestration to eerie effect, while Hell:Symmetry pairs pure rhythm backing, minimal electronica and heavy breathing with some transfixing lyrics. "Love me, love me not / Love me, love me not / I will take your anger and I’ll make it mine / I will demonise it and it will multiply..."
"Barbarians are coming / crawling from the East" spits the lyric of Now You Will Pay - "The nation of losers / the tribe full of hate / with knives in their pockets and bombs in their hands / they’ll burn down your cities and your Disneylands..." Another standout track, with unexpected piano trills, choruses worthy of Philip Glass at his most exciting, and thoroughly unsettling lyrics.

Actually the whole album is unsettling, and yet it has to be listened to. The title track is a microcosm of the whole - a relentless catalogue of modern horrors set against a crashing backdrop. Black as pitch, but with blessed intervals of beauty offering a tiny ray of light.

AUTHOR: Helen Wright
WEB: www.musicomh.com

LAIBACH - Tanz Mit Laibach

Laibach make Nick Cave sound like Kylie. The Slovenian band was formed in 1980 and had their very first gig (in their home town in former Yugoslavia) banned by the political forces they challenged. Two decades later they're still challenging.

Tanz Mit Laibach - from forthcoming album Wat - kicks off with a merciless industrial/electronic beat and a sepulchral snarl in German. It couldn't be heavier if it tried, but all of a sudden - a choir? And a fabulous one at that, plus gorgeous orchestration with overtones of Philip Glass, Shostakovich... wow. And all the while the beat goes on...

Tanz Mit Laibach is dedicated to the friendship between the German and American people. If this is their idea of friendly don't get on the wrong side of them. Strange, wonderful and addictive stuff - it has to be heard.

AUTHOR: Steve Prince (AlMachine)
WEB: www.rock-city.co.uk

LAIBACH - WAT

I wander if Laibach sit up at night, get drunk and go "that bloody Rammstein stole our sound and made all the money" then wander off and do something culturally a little odd and politically provocative.

I actually quite like this album but it's pretty tough going to be arsed to listen to more than 30 seconds of each song as by then you know how the songs going to go. Basically Laibach have a particular sound, which is a
slow, heavy industrial sound that's been touched by 90's dance here and there and there's a pile of growling vocals over the top.

Oh and they've got more than a bit of a tendency to be so serious that it makes you wander if they're taking the piss. A lot like the aforementioned Rammstein but without the catchy pop hooks.

...and unfortunately it's all starting to sound a bit dated and they're still playing with the power/fascism stuff (there's a song called "Anti Semitism" on the album though the lyrics aren't in English so I don't know what there take is on it). A bit like Death In June, after a while you get a bit like "come on lads, maybe it's time to stop finding these taboos so terribly teenage shocking".

A bit more interesting is the first track "B Mashina" which is more like a spoken word and filmic-soundtrack thing. You've still got to turn off your silly-button apparatus as they're always in danger of pressing it but don't worry by track 2 they're back on stomping industrial course and track 4 "Achtung!" could be a Rammstein (them again!) track, it's almost indistinguishable.

AUTHOR: Al White (AlMachine)
WEB: www.rock-city.co.uk

LAIBACH - Tanz mit Laibach

All I can think of when I listen to Laibach, and this new single is Rammstein, Rammstein, and Rammstein!

With its thudding industrial military marching beat, atmospheric gothic choirs and its German chant of "Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier" this is almost a carbon copy of Rammsteins “Links 2 3 4” minus the heavy chugging guitars! Even the final “Desert Storm” remix has the exact same marching sample at the start! This is surely a deliberate attempt by this Slovenian group to tap into both the popularity of Rammstein and also (with them now ditching the guitars) the industrial/cyber scene? Whatever their intentions, and who’s imitating who (Laibach have been round longer than Rammstein to be fair) this is still an excellent track with some truly moving remixes, especially the gothic, powerful and unsettling Umek remix “Upbeat”, which is anything but!

One for the cyber-goths and woolly-heads, or mad Rammstein fans then.

I recommend however you check out Laibach’s earlier album 1996 "Jesus Christ Superstars" which features the excellent industrial-metal "Message From The Black Star" which mixes the best of Ministry, KMFDM, and the commerciality of White Zombie.

AUTHOR: Kevin Grant
WEB: www.noise-online.com

LAIBACH - WAT

With their mock-fascistic posturing and ongoing obsession with symbols, uniforms, authority and control, Laibach have long been one of the most confrontational and controversial entities on the European industrial/avant garde music scene. Bombastic to the point of absurdity - they are a self-styled 'organisation' with their own ten-point covenant - it's impossible to take Laibach entirely seriously. Indeed, their own collective tongue is frequently wedged in cheek, evidenced by their baroque covers of songs by Queen, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Nevertheless, their back catalogue of brooding, authoritarian anti-pop makes for distinctly queasy listening when it hits the right nerve.
For their first studio release since 1996's Jesus Christ Superstars (on which, yes, even Andrew Lloyd Webber gets a brutal reworking), Laibach deliver an album of totalitarian techno, which, while streamlining their sound, maintains the Wagnerian pomp and stentorian stomp they are renowned for. On WAT, the group gives their apocalyptic aesthetic a mechanistic make-over. Over martial beats and pulsing sequencers, vocalist Milan Fras -equipped with the obligatory industrial growl - dissects the state of the world today, proclaiming "the end of history, the end of time, the end of music, the end of rhyme". The musical styling may be slightly easier on the ear but Laibach are hardly making a bid for commercial acclaim here, with lyrics portending barbarian invasions, the collapse and subjugation of Western civilisation. The dated synthetic sound and tub-thumping tempo of most tracks - particularly Achtung!, Now You Will Pay and lead single Tanz mit Laibach - is a throwback to past exponents of industrial electronica, everyone from DAF, Front 242 and Front Line Assembly to Laibach's fellow Slovenians Borghesia.
Unfortunately, the feeling of familiarity breeds boredom mixed with frustration - for there are powerful moments here - but I don't suppose Laibach will care, not with Western society about to be dismantled and all that. So, are Laibach the harbingers of this destruction or merely the messengers? "We have no answers to your questions" Fras declares on the title track, confining Laibach's place on the margins of an already moribund scene.

AUTHOR:
WEB: www.reviewed4u.com

LAIBACH - Tanz mit Laibach

Call me ignorant, but I've no idea what this is all about, however, that doesn't mean it's no go good. It's got heavy electronic stmoping beats, growling resonant vocals with more than likely goth appeal. Nice atmospheric vampirish backing vocals, along with classical elements make this all a bit dramatic.

AUTHOR: Steve Prince
WEB: www.lastchancesaloon.org

LAIBACH - Tanz mit Laibach

In which Laibach return to thoroughly not steal Rammstein's crown for camp, stompy, growling industrial music.

Why Rammstein? Well if you want to know what Laibach sound like, go listen to Rammstein. Practically the same thing 'cept Laibach have a wierder art-terrorist background. Oh and a much stronger tendency to flirt with the imagery of power and fascism (a hat with an SS Death's Skull on it adorns the cover). Oh and Laibach have been doing this for years.

It's not that this is a bad record, it just does what you'd expect it to do. It's actually quite catchy in it's own way, though I doubt that Mark and Lard'll be making it their single of the week.

The Upbeat mix, adds a bit more camp to the mix. It conjures up visions of a non-existent gay club in an alternative universe where disco-bunnies aren't dancing and flexing their pecs to hard house but stomping away with power tools as props to stuff like this.

Maybe that's just me and that time last year when Rammstein were on heavy rotation on MTV, being all not-butch at all drilling into things with industrial machinery.

Boys will be boys.

AUTHOR: SashaS
WEB: www.deo2.com

LAIBACH - WAT

Laibach: cybersonic alarm for Europe

Lesser quality, to be polite, music has increased since 9/11 and everything has decidedly turned toward greater escapism: hardly a muso has dared make comments, raise a voice, criticise in songs. Music has become more common, trivial, less world-aware and more self-centred… Even contemporary ‘punks’ are too concerned with the inner-workings that hardly stray from the self-sorrow of nu-metal ‘issues’…

There are no more protesters, there are no more rebels fighting to erect barricades and storm the forts of wrongdoing, ignorance, apathy and oblivion chasing… "Age of Celebrity" and cultivated blandness is the world we populate. George Orwell’s ‘warnings’ in ‘1984’ are still becoming reality, as our freedoms are eroded on daily basis and not only political but mental and touristy… This is the world to which Laibach return to after seven years of absence.

On top of it, history in the making is a strange thing to observe as this band formed in Yugoslavia (defunct), the current album is issued under the Slovenian flag and very soon, it will be under the EU’s "12 Stars". Laibach have hardly moved while the political map around them keeps changing… for the worse and it is not a surprise to find these fine noise-terrorists in a serene mood: dark, menacing and geared with terminal beats…

Machines are taking over, it is not yet "Terminator" time but nerds without being one with Pentium processors, withdrawal symptoms occur en masse. "Wat" sounds like an aural screenplay about the dystopia becoming reality. (Will pessimists and nihilist start partying now?!) "B Mashina" launches us into a strange universe with spoken word that uses a heavy Slovak accent to add drama to the pronouncements; recent single "Tanz Mit Laibach" is delivered in German, as few other tracks to give it a more European Unity "evil" feel.

Machine driven music is honouring Krautrock but enriched with elements of local culture that often sounds like it is coming from the last church on Earth; there is something secular about Laibach’s music and this time the new cathedral is not a shopping mall, unless you count Hell’s Anteroom full of designers into it. Well, another track is handily entitled "Hell: Symmetry", then "Satanic Versus"’ and "Ende"’. A touch of controversy is brought on "Anti-Semitism".

Achtung! Lubljana calling! (Laibach is Germanic version of their hometown’s name.) The end is nigh, we have no idea how soon, but here are possible interpretations to haunt you until the day. Start dancing around the ruins of civilisation!

Laibach play their only UK date on 12 October 2003 at London’s Scala

AUTHOR: Fredric Düring
WEB: www.movinghands.net

LAIBACH - Tanz mit Laibach

Slovenian, as if it had slipped anyone’s attention, Laibach are back with the first single from their coming album WAT. They haven’t released anything since 1997’s "Jesus Christ Superstars" so I wasn't expecting this to be the same but nothing could have prepared me for this. Working with countryman and techno artist Umek as their producer Laibach launch "Tanz Mit Laibach". Almost a pastiche of D.A.F.’s "Der Mussolini", alike regarding the theme and lyrical content, but also musically, it’s dedicated to the friendship between the German and American people. Stomp-friendly and beat steady, with instantly catchy lyrics its bound to spin frequently in clubs. Innovative and artistic? Hardly. But music to dance to has its own worth.

The single comes with four remixes apart from the album version. I think that there should be a law stating that all singles should have b-sides but I’m not gonna fuzz about that more than so. Remixers in the order they appear are Umek, Johannes Heil, Zeta Reticula and Temponauta. They are all very welcome additions, none of them too much like the others and will probably help the single last for months in clubs.

Reader Opinions

Interesting and catchy
Name: ModelX (193.2.98.73)
Rating: 9

The new album WAT is a kind of apocalyptic techno, a mix of minimalist electronica with dark vocals, but that would be quality electronica (DJ Umek) and very interesting lyrics. The result is something you can either listen to or dance to. WAT includes better pieces than "Tanz mit Laibach".

Awesome!
Name: Horizontal Theory (164.82.144.3)
Rating: 9

Perfect change of pace for Laibach. This is a great mixture of ebm with the harder and darker techno sound. The album "WAT" is even better!

AUTHOR: Johnny Loftus
WEB: www.allmusic.com

LAIBACH - WAT

Despite its famously fascist sensibilities, subversive cover song work, and activism through guerilla art, Slovenia's Laibach still roots the majority of its recorded output in the two-dimensional, tinny grind of industrial music. Their latest LP is no different. English and German-language tracks shoulder each other for space inside the cramped compartments of WAT, yawning to allow rusty drops of standing water to fall into their mouths. Primitive drum machines pop and click behind Milan Fras' apocalyptic, determined growl, guttural voices and ethereal choirs drift in and out of the gloom, and vibrating synth lines slash between WAT's mechanistic beats, forming anti-melodies from torn shrapnel. "Achtung!," "Ende," and "Now You Will Pay" illustrate Laibach's point. "Barbarians are coming," Fras grumbles in the latter. "With knives in their pockets/And bombs in their hands/They'll burn down your cities," he continues, and the shrills of a choir then reiterate the point ("Barbarians! Barbarians!"). It's like the rampaging introduction of Conan the Barbarian, re-imagined as a black PVC nightmare of Teutonic justice. While there's certainly a legitimate agenda wrapped up in lyrics like "We don't seduce with melodies/We're not here to please you" and "From superstars/To the antichrist" (from the title track), it's difficult to piece it out while stepping over the flotsam of uninspired instrumentation that floats in the stagnant, ankle-deep water at the bottom of WAT. In a completely unlikely (and certainly unwanted) comparison, Laibach suggests Christian rock in the sense that both parties put message before music. Laibach has a long history of nonconformity and jarring social consciousness-raising. Unfortunately, its proto-industrial delivery system is hopelessly outdated. It could be that the music's indifference is purposeful, another way of promoting the band's guerilla entertainment. But just like bad performance art, suggesting that WAT is bad on purpose doesn't excuse its aesthetic shortsightedness

AUTHOR: BBC Nottingham
WEB:www2.thny.bbc.co.uk

LAIBACH - WAT

What do you get if you cross Kraftwerk with Rammstein? Probably Laibach.
It’s strange to think that if Laibach had been a British band they’d have been going on nostalgia tours with the likes of Howard Jones and China Crisis.

They’ve been around since 1980. Not that you'd guess.

Wat is a very 2003 sound. Metallic, grey, industrial with plenty of eins, zwei, drei.
They make Gary Numan’s new grungy offering sound positively wimp. Heck, they even have a track called Achtung!

It’s the perfect back-drop for a Vin Diesel "xXx" follow-up. You can just imagine him entering the baddie night club as Du Bist Unser bellows out.

Whether the band quite lives up to the PR claim that "Laibach have the courage to remain barbaric, manipulating Western preconceptions" is open to far more debate.