Dok (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} cyberinsekt) wrote,@ 2007-04-10 11:29:00 |
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Laibach - F.I.A.T.
This is where things start to get dodgy. Laibach have always been one of those bands that have had a sick fascination for me. It's as easy to be drawn to them as it is to be repelled and repulsed by them. In some ways, this is the ideal response. As the musical wing of the Neue Slowenische Kunst movement, they have pulled in the symbology of totalitarianism, and then thrown it back at us, cartoon-bold and twice as ludicrous. The band's mystique is only heightened by their unwillingness to release statements. How are we supposed to react to a band that drape themselves in (amongst other things) the trappings of fascism? Can we take at face value a statement such as "Pop music is for sheep and we are shepherds disguised as wolves"?
Anyway, here's some early Laibach for your listening pleasure. With its layers of keyboards, F.I.A.T. is immediately recognisable as coming from the '80s. Cod-orchestral, vaguely industrial, and with pomp and grandeur as its strong suit, this is a mighty track. A bleak, hectoring voice informs us that we have been hugger-muggered and carom-shotted, we are in a war we cannot win and about which we know nothing. It's only today when researching this track that I discovered that the words are those of Ezra Pound, broadcasting to the Allies on Radio Rome in 1942.
This is where things start to get dodgy. Laibach have always been one of those bands that have had a sick fascination for me. It's as easy to be drawn to them as it is to be repelled and repulsed by them. In some ways, this is the ideal response. As the musical wing of the Neue Slowenische Kunst movement, they have pulled in the symbology of totalitarianism, and then thrown it back at us, cartoon-bold and twice as ludicrous. The band's mystique is only heightened by their unwillingness to release statements. How are we supposed to react to a band that drape themselves in (amongst other things) the trappings of fascism? Can we take at face value a statement such as "Pop music is for sheep and we are shepherds disguised as wolves"?
Anyway, here's some early Laibach for your listening pleasure. With its layers of keyboards, F.I.A.T. is immediately recognisable as coming from the '80s. Cod-orchestral, vaguely industrial, and with pomp and grandeur as its strong suit, this is a mighty track. A bleak, hectoring voice informs us that we have been hugger-muggered and carom-shotted, we are in a war we cannot win and about which we know nothing. It's only today when researching this track that I discovered that the words are those of Ezra Pound, broadcasting to the Allies on Radio Rome in 1942.
