From: pprussak@acsu.buffalo.edu (Piotr T. Prussak)
Newsgroups: rec.music.industrial
Subject: Re: Laibach Fans UNITE!!!
Keywords: its history
Date: 5 Nov 92 18:48:14 GMT
Organization: UB

In article <04NOV92.11874635.0057@VM1.MCGILL.CA> IRI7@MUSICB.MCGILL.CA (IRI7000) writes:
>  The Laibach story is a long one and here is as much as I remember:
>They are from Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia (ex-Yugoslavia) and
>they were originally a bunch of art students who made exhibitions
>with Throbbing Gristle playing in the background.Their discography is
>more or less as follows:

Laibach is the German name for Ljubljana, and as a group they are a part of
Neue Slowenische Kunst = New Slovene Art. In short NSK is a collective, and
every member of NSK must abide the laws of the collective. These laws
are proclaimed in 'Constitution of Membership and Basic Duties of NSK Members'

Laibach has a similar 'internal' constitution called '10 items of the
covenant'; although all of the points are very interesting, I only have the
time to copy bits and pieces:

1.
LAIBACH works as a team (the collective spirit), according to the principle
of industrial production and totalitarianism, which means that the
individual does not speak; the organization does. Our work is industrial,
our language political.

6.
(...)
The material of LAIBACH manipulation: Taylorism, bruitism, Nazi Kunst, 
disco ...

The principle of work is totally constructed and the compositional process
is a dictated "ready-made": Industrial production is rationally
developmental, but if we extract from this process the element of the
moment and emphasize it, we also designate to it the mystical dimension of
alienation, which reveals the magical component of the industrial process. 
Repression of the industrial ritual is transformized into a compositional
dictate and the politicization of sound can become absolute tonality.


>1) "Tournee over Occupied Netherlands" (tape-never heard it)

(...)

The book on NSK mentions 25 licensed records and tapes from 80-89 era.
I'm sure there must be more of the stuff flying around in various west
European countries. Some of them are EPs, though. Additionally, there are
some releases for theaters, film scores and videos.

Someone asked for the name of the record with a man on the cross:
'Klangniederschrift Einer Taufe' for $22 on Sub Rosa.

>9) "Kapital" - their latest amazing release.When I first listened to
>it I was very dissapointed: it's a totally new Laibach: not the slow,
>heavy,classical music-influenced one. However, after listening to the
>album another couple of times it finally got under my skin and at the
>moment it totally blows me away. What we have here is a very dark
>(sometimes a bit melancholic) mixture of industrial a la Kraftwek +
>hip hop + classical/orchestral stuff (reminiscent of earlier Laibach
>albums). What makes this CD great is it's originality: taking from
>such over-exploited sources as Kraftwerk and hip-hop, Laibach managed
>to come up with something totally new and unique. The quality of the
>songwriting in general is very good, but there are some cases where it
>is simply amazing!!!! (check out "State of gravity, regime of coinci-
>dence":a total mind-blower). This one is a must for any industrial
>fan. 

I was also shocked by a swift change of style. The style, IMHO, reflects
the changes in industrial societies, and is very much in line with Laibach
ideology. Some people, however, do not distinguish between industrial
and noise, and hence so many complaints about the album.


>Jacek {iri7@musicb.mcgill.ca}
>
>             KRVAVA GRUDA              PLODNA ZEMLJA

Piotr

	      BLOODY CLOD               FERTILE SOIL
-- 

WIT AND WISDOM OF PIOTR PRUSSAK:
``be smart not dumb'' -- Paul Graham