Laibach – Resistance Is Futile
Achtung! Slovenian culture wreckers warn of collapse of capitalism/ the death of the European dream. Hear a new track on MOJO now.
THE FACEBOOK PAGE OF art rock veterans Laibach – ‘Socialist Media’, they call it - declares that the group play ‘DEGENERATE POP MUSIC’. Nearly eight years after last LP Volk, and a staggering 33 ⅓ since they began regularly short circuiting their admirers’ minds, the latest chapter is upon us. New four track EP, S, is available for free download until next week here, with three tracks coming from the new LP Spectre. Within, the sinister, synth-industrial Eurovision passes verdict on the squandered opportunities for European unity, Love On The Beat is a live cover of Serge Gainsbourg’s lewd new wave track recorded at the Tate Modern in April 2012, while the juddering No History seems to look forward to some nullified post-political space. The Kraftwerk-meets-John Barry Resistance Is Futile, meanwhile, speaks of terminal finality, with gruff frontman Milan promising, “we suck your culture, brains, energy… we are Laibach, and you will be assimilated… existence as you know it is over!”
Hear it here.
For a band who have habitually existed on the cusp of ambiguity, they’re in unusually direct mood, announcing, “the band has fatally crossed the Rubicon … (and is) now very clearly taking a position on the political spectrum and probably irreversibly abolishing its own (to some extent quite comfortable) political ‘freedom’ and neutrality.”
We can find out exactly what this means next February, when the Mute label release Spectre. Readers able to survive the imminent collapse of the EU can also catch the band here:
November 21 – Dampfzentrale, Bern, Switzerland
November 28 – Zhara Club, Kharkov, Ukraine
November 30 – Glav Club, Moscow, Russian Federation
December 1 – Avrora Concert Hall, St Petersburg, Russian Federation
March 22, 2014 – The Vine Centre, Hong Kong
