laibach anthems: bravura or crap?

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i didin't care or liked laibach too much, but i could not resist to buy this new compilation. after discovering that there was only one track from the only Laibach cd i liked , "kapital", surprisily i wasn't disappointed at all, i liked the cd, even if a wish they could put more "kapital" tracks instead of, for example, two version of the dreadful "life is life". to people who know better than me Laibach or to other who just listened at this records, what do you thonk of "anthems" or of laibach in general?. to italian readers, the inedit track, "mama leone" sung in italian is absolutely to be listened!!

― francesco brunetti, Sunday, 10 October 2004 18:44 (twenty-one years ago)

"Lieben Heist Lieben" makes me very happy indeed. I know not of this compilation, but I would hope this track is on it. Oh wait, now that I read your question, it says that you find it dreadful. Ah, well.

The only album of theirs I tend to listen to with any semblance of regularity (as in maybe once every three years) is their Let It Be cover album.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 10 October 2004 18:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I have to say their live show in 1992 I caught was one of the most wonderfully bizarre things ever. It was about what I was expecting, sure, but it lived up to the billing: stone-faced dudes in gold face make-up, horns and banners galore.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 10 October 2004 18:55 (twenty-one years ago)

i like or not "Lieben Heist Lieben" is essential for a Laibach compilation, but i think all of the covers obscured album, albeit not perfect, like "nova akropola" or "kapital", made of original songs. anyway i was shoked by the cover of "final countdown", a song that i never can stand, in their version now is one of my favorite song. the other two cover from NATO (a record i have never listened) "in the army now" and "alle gegen alle" are very good indeed also

― francescobru, Sunday, 10 October 2004 19:06 (twenty-one years ago)

i *heart* laibach

― frenchbloke (frenchbloke), Sunday, 10 October 2004 19:08 (twenty-one years ago)

i got this from the unwanted CDs pile at work the other week.

the first CD is beyond bearable, to be honest. i don't know much about laibach, but i didn't realise they sounded like the pet shop boys trying to be the sisters of mercy. (and doing a bad job of it.)

the remix CD, however, is fucking ace. walking down a packed sauchiehall street to the pub on a friday night, past thouands of pissed-up first-year students, listening to the random logic mix of jesus christ superstar was a bizarrely empowering experience, although i can't quite explain why. if only i'd been wearing my leather greatcoat at the time. and carrying a big futuristic gun.

(nb: it sounds *nothing* like jesus christ superstar, since you ask.)

― grimly fiendish, Sunday, 10 October 2004 19:14 (twenty-one years ago)

one month passes...

They're playing Glasgow next month, should i go and see them considering the only thing i've heard is their Opus and Queen covers?

― leigh (leigh), Monday, 15 November 2004 16:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I love the NATO album to bits!!!

― dog latin (dog latin), Monday, 15 November 2004 19:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Leigh -- I'd say yes, for Ned's reason above if nothing else. The show may not be all that similar now as in 1992 (or, then again, it may be), but I'd guess you're guaranteed a spectacle.

― OleM (OleM), Monday, 15 November 2004 19:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I really love their covers, and the earlier albums (Nova Akropola is fucking grebt!), but I listened to WAT and Jesus Christ Superstar a couple of weeks ago and didn't like them that much - sounds too much like Rammstein.

― Sasha (sgh), Monday, 15 November 2004 23:58 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

Would I like them?

How hideously bombastic do they get?

― Klaus Darko (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 19:01 (twenty years ago)

Adam, were you gang-raped by flemish leatherman the other night or something?

― dali madison's nut (donut), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 19:14 (twenty years ago)

how hideously bombastic do they get?

Pretty much as bombastic as anyone can get.

GET BAAAAAAACK
GET BAAAAAAACK
GET BAAACK TU WEHR YU WANZ BEEELUNG!

― dali madison's nut (donut), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 19:15 (twenty years ago)

i love thie jesus crist super star

― howell huser (chaki), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 19:17 (twenty years ago)

were you gang-raped by flemish leatherman the other night or something?

Ha! Nothing so mundane.

― Klaus Darko (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 19:18 (twenty years ago)

A more serious answer.. they really teetered on the poker face/absurbity line in the late 80s, pretty much reinterpreting everything from Let It Be to "Sympathy For The Devil" to MacBeth...

But you can really argue with their early singles like "Die Liebe".. it's like they listened to SPK and thought they really were German, and ran with it, and made something just as awesome, loud, and punishing.

― dali madison's nut (donut), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 19:19 (twenty years ago)

(But you can't.. etc.)

― dali madison's nut (donut), Wednesday, 14 December 2005 19:20 (twenty years ago)

How hideously bombastic do they get?

By today's standards? Meh. Their production, though incredible at the time, now sounds rather muddy and clunky to me. It sorta depends on your baseline standard for bombast, and what exactly you want the music to convey to you. The atmosphere of Laibach's records can be truly sinister, and it can also be campier than Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. But I think Ministry's mid-period work (The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste etc.) is far more oppressive and over-the-top than Laibach's stuff is, which veers towards Belgian New Beat with its disco-indebted, fat-snare sounds. I love Laibach in theory, but most of their really canonical work is now almost 20 years old (depressingly enough) and tends to show it.

― Myke Weiskopf (Myke Weiskopf), Thursday, 15 December 2005 02:52 (twenty years ago)

Didn't a "shadow producer" based in France make their music ?

― blunt (blunt), Thursday, 15 December 2005 03:00 (twenty years ago)

they were ahead of their time as far as the darkfolke nationalist shit goes. they make a lot of current fascist euro metal outfits look like peasants. the art show i saw years ago from the , um, art side of their collective was awesome. lotsa fucking antlers everywhere.when i hear them it makes me wanna go out and buy some test department rekkerds.

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 15 December 2005 03:08 (twenty years ago)

i suppose rammstein are their true heirs.

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 15 December 2005 03:13 (twenty years ago)

they sounded like the pet shop boys trying to be the sisters of mercy

I can't parse this comment of grimly's into A BAD THING no matter how hard I try.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Thursday, 15 December 2005 09:55 (twenty years ago)

"That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore"

― We Buy a Hammer For Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 15 December 2005 10:05 (twenty years ago)

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