Laibach- Spectre (2014)

Laibach- Spectre (2014)

Martial drums and jovial whistles, that’s the way this Spectre begins, a new chapter in the uncommon world of Slovenia Laibach, (when I started listening to them around 86 or 87, they were still a Yugoslavian band, that much the world has changed since) a band that seems to be born to reflect that struggling dimension created when the Iron Curtain fell down, the spirit of east Europe lives on every note of this great mutating band, Laibach has abandoned some of their weirdness, I don’t know if I can say that they are more accessible now, but their music definitely is easier to swallow than in the past, perhaps to their musical heirs, Rammstein making similar sounds common to the world.

We live in perilous times where the already known terrors of nationalism seems to be waking up once again in Europe, as a possible war rises on Ukraine and Crimea, Russia reclaims the ownership of Crimea, for being a territory passed to Ukraine in an administrative way, this region is populated by a lot of ethnic Russians, while Ukrainian nationalists are expressing the demand of taking back territories annexed by Poland in the past, the band quickly starts to forgetting the horrors of war and seems to be getting to near the edge of a new world war, sadly, yes, we can stumble twice with the same rock, how sad. 

Spectre is and admirable piece of music, and like always geopolitics always play an important part of the Laibach game, Whistleblowers, the first song takes note on people like Manning, Snowden or Assange, denouncing the obscure manipulations and corruption of the world great powers, a sort of Illuminati like conspiracy finally coming to light, and digital technology being the medium that liberated such controversial information, the band drops a powerful bomb full of Wagnerian choruses and trance beats close to krautrock, quite a volatile cocktail these guys know how to prepare, the influence of the mighty Kraftwerk is alive well in Laibach as it is on Rammstein, the eastern Europe feel is all over the song, and works in a perfect nostalgic way, while No History uses more electronic beats, perhaps approaching the testosterone fueled rhythms of American dubstep, hitting us hard with those acid lines and brutal bass drums, while the combination of growling and clean vocals give a dystopian face to the tune, the band makes a clear reference to the end of the cold war, the hard to swallow freedom and the fragility of the peace in our times.

But the band shines beautifully on Eat Liver! A powerful electronic tune that works in a wonderful dynamic way, shaking all things up while it denounces some of the stances of past communist history of Eastern Europe, where misery gets distributed, the attack is precise, the band may not shock in the same way they used to, but boy, they know how to rock and roll in a magnificent way, just imagine what a Laibach live show may sound like tunes like this!, Americana is a weird addition by name to a Laibach recording, but its dynamic stance works in a great way, with great synth washes and fast driving beats, yes, perhaps in a certain way a reflection of American culture between certain decadence atmosphere, I love the hard driving bass in We Are Millions and Millions Are One, a powerful tune full of interesting samples, the band again showing their affinity to work with prerecorded stuff and taking it to really amazing places, but the really big crowning moment of Spectre comes in Eurovision, a brutally honest view of the world, the social revolutions, the economic revolutions, the new cold war, the new evil empires, the Ocuppy Movement and the debacle, announced by Umberto Eco that Europe was deadly wounded, not exactly, but yes, as Laibach says, falling apart, in a new process of partition, who knows what exactly may come from all this, on one side the European Union, and in the other Eurasia, and everything in between getting torn apart.

Spectre comes in the middle of a new European struggle, Laibach know the situation, they have lived under similar pressure and that makes them perfect narrators of that place in the world, at this precise moment, they might not be prophets, but ending the record with a tune called Koran, just makes me wonder if they really know what they are talking about, and if a new turn of direction might not be too far for Europe.