Spectre
Having existed in one form or another for more than 30 years, Laibach have always made music that\'s deliberately difficult listening. Now they\'ve become “politically engaged as never before,” according to the press materials for 2014’s *Spectre*. Coming from a collective that have used both fascist and communist ideas (and anything else considered controversial) in their imagery and language, it hardly seems new for Laibach to acknowledge current events of any kind. *SPECTRE* concerns a global terrorist organization in the world of James Bond, and “The Whistleblowers” is said to allude “to the heroism of the new digital Prometheans of freedom—Bradley Manning, Edward Snowden, Julian Assange.” The music is similarly cold, heavy, and martial. Beats pound, synthesizers signal doom, and triggered sounds add to the sense of the apocalypse. Looking for the musical angle, “Eat Liver!,” “Walk with Me,” “Bossanova,\" and “Koran” promote Laibach’s female co-vocalist Mina Spiler to the forefront for, if not a gentler worldview, an easier-to-digest sense of melody that suggests it’s not always \"All Work and No Play\"—or at least it doesn’t sound like it is.
With Spectre, Laibach has once again ‘re-invented’ itself in a newly born, yet polished and solid, formation. And, as is now customary, the band calls into question all the rigid and cemented interpretations (and prejudices) about itself, about its music, intentions, philosophy and ideology. And yet, despite everything, Spectre resonates as a real and full-blooded Laibachian work and nothing else. With this album Laibach has created a big, important, and dangerous step forward; Spectre literally sounds like a political manifesto in poetic form.
The Slovenian group Laibach are fundamentally a performance-art project, with a barbed joke they've been repeating for over 30 years: observing how art becomes a tool of totalitarianism, and pushing it as far as it can go in that direction. The title of their new album, Spectre, is an allusion to the opening line of The Communist Manifesto, but it's also a description of the current state of the band.
All the elements that make Laibach’s music such a great soundtrack for an ironic gym session or the armed invasion of small, neutral country are present and correct.
Discover Spectre by Laibach released in 2014. Find album reviews, track lists, credits, awards and more at AllMusic.
[xrr rating=3.5/5]There’s never been a better time for Laibach to be releasing new music.