officialna spejsuLaibach jedan je od međunarodno najpoznatijih bendova sa prostora bivše juge. Međunarodno su priznati, možemo reći da su odavno nadišli granice dežele. Njihovu glazbu se može opisati kao electro/experimental industrial/martial/neoclassical.
Nastali su 1. lipnja 1980. godine u slovenskom industrijskom gradu Trbovlju. Ime su uzeli po njemačkom nazivu za Ljubljanu. Ispočetka su djelovali s grupama "Irwin" i "Crveni pilot", no vrlo brzo pripremaju vlastiti projekt, "Rdeči revirji" (Red district), kako bi ismijali političku strukturu u Trbovlju. Zbog neodgovorne uporabe crnih križeva kao simbola, nastup im je zabranjen još prije premijere.
Laibach je prvi koncert održao u siječanju 1982. u Ljubljani. Iste godine na smotri "Novi rock" u Ljubljani događa se incident, jer je njihovog frontmena, Tomaža Hostnika, netko pogodio bocom u lice. Tomaž je krajem iste godine počinio samoubojstvo. Još jedan provokativan nastup imali su u Zagrebu, kada su na platnu tijekom koncerta prikazali lik J. B. Tita i muški spolni organ. Policija je prekinula nastup, ali nitko nije završio u zatvoru. Jedan njihov TV intervju (23. lipnja 1983.) je izazvao takve burne reakcije da im je zabranjeno javno pojavljivanje i korištenje imena "Laibach". No, nisu se previše obazirali na to pa ubrzo kreću na veliku turneju s engleskim sastavom "Last Few Days". Ta je turneja izazvala veliku pozornost europskih medija, koji nisu očekivali provokativne nastupe benda koji dolazi iz socijalističke zemlje. Nakon europskog uspjeha počinju upotrebljavati znakovlje Trećeg rajha, što izaziva burne proteste u cijeloj zemlji. U početku su pjevali na njemačkom jeziku, ali su se kasnije opredijelili za engleski jezik. 1984. godine preselili su se u London, a glume čak i u filmu Stanleya Cubricka, "Full Metal Jacket".
Svoj prvi album objavili su 1985. godine, ali zbog zabrane na ploči nije bio ispisan naziv grupe, već samo njihov simbol. Kasnije potpisuju ugovor s engleskom producentskom kućom, "Mute Records", koja izdaje njihov album "Opus Dei". Zbog korištenja tog naziva tužila ih je istoimena katolička institucija, ali je Laibah dobio spor.
Desetogodišnjicu postojanja obilježili su prvim koncertom u rodnom gradu 21. prosinca 1990. Tom su prilikom objavili osnivanje vlastite utopijske i virtualne države koja ima svoju zastavu, novac i putovnicu. Svoja viđenja događanja na prostorima SFRJ početkom 90-ih, izdaju na albumu "NATO", na kojem se nalazila i tema "Marš na Drinu" kojom su provocirali zagrebačku i sarajevsku publiku.
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- Laibach represents the music wing of the Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK) art collective, of which it was a founding member in 1984. The name "Laibach" is the German name for Slovenia's capital city, Ljubljana.
Laibach has frequently been accused of both far left and far right political stances due to their use of uniforms and totalitarian-style aesthetics and also due to the Wagnerian influence found in some of their music, notably the thunder in "Sympathy for the Devil (Time for a Change)" and releases such as Macbeth. They were also accused of being members of the neo-nationalism movement, which reincarnates modern ideas of nationalism. When confronted with such accusations, Laibach are quoted as responding, "We are fascists as much as Hitler was a painter".
The members of Laibach are notorious for rarely stepping out of character. Some releases feature artwork by the Communist and early Dada artist/satirist, John Heartfield. Laibach concerts have sometimes aesthetically appeared as political rallies. When interviewed, they answer in wry manifestos, showing a paradoxical lust and condemnation for authority.
Richard Wolfson wrote of the group:
“ Laibach's method is extremely simple, effective and horribly open to misinterpretation. First of all, they absorb the mannerisms of the enemy, adopting all the seductive trappings and symbols of state power, and then they exaggerate everything to the edge of parody... Next they turn their focus to highly charged issues — the West's fear of immigrants from Eastern Europe, the power games of the EU, the analogies between Western democracy and totalitarianism.
Laibach is also known for their cover versions, which are often used to subvert the original message or intention of the song — a notable example being their version of the song "Live is Life" by Opus, an Austrian arena rock band. In this example, Laibach recorded two new interpretations of the song, which they titled Leben Heißt Leben, and Opus Dei. The first of these two interpretations was the opening song on the Laibach album Opus Dei (1987), and was sung in German. The second version, Opus Dei, was promoted as a single, and its promotional video (which used the title "Life is Life") was played extensively on American cable channel MTV. Opus Dei retained some of the original song's English lyrics, but was delivered in a musical style that left the meaning of the lyrics open to further interpretation. Whereas the original is a feel-good pop anthem, Laibach's subversive interpretation twists the melody into a sinister, rolling military march. With the exception of the promotional video, the refrain is at one instance translated into German, giving an example of the sensitivity of its lyrics to context.
Other notable covers include the entirety of the Beatles album Let It Be (1988) — with the exclusion of the title track — and their maxi-single Sympathy for the Devil (1988) which deconstructs the Rolling Stones song of the same name with seven different interpretations of the song. Opus Dei — itself entitled in apparent reference to their cover of Opus's reggae anthem "Live is Life", the P2 lodge, and the eponymous Catholic organization — features a cover of Queen's "One Vision" with lyrics translated into German under the title Geburt einer Nation, revealing the ambiguity of lines like "One race one hope/One real decision". In NATO (1994), Laibach also memorably re-work Europe's glam metal anthem "The Final Countdown" as a Wagnerian disco epic.
In 2004, Laibach re-mixed the song "Ohne Dich" by Rammstein in a significantly altered version. Unlike the solo male vocals in the Rammstein original, this re-mix features both male and female vocals (supplied by Laibach's Milan Fras and Mina Špiler from the band Melodrom), and the orchestral sound of the original has been supplemented — and in some sections even replaced — by a more electronic element. The lyrics of the song were also subtly altered, most noticeably in the chorus: the original version was "Ohne dich kann ich nicht sein" (roughly: "without you I cannot exist"), whereas Laibach's re-worked the chorus declares "Ohne mich kannst du nicht sein" (roughly: "Without me you cannot exist").
Laibach do not only reference modern musicians through reinterpretation, but also sample or reinvent older musical pieces. For example, their song "Anglia" is based on the national anthem of the United Kingdom, "God Save the Queen". This song, and other based on national anthems are released on "Volk" album, which is a collection of Laibachs versions of national anthems of such countries like United States or Russia. On this album they also made an anthem for their NSK State in Time, which is based on their song "The Great Seal" from "Opus Dei" album.
They are also currently touring with an audio-visual performance centered on Johann Sebastian Bach's Die Kunst der Fuge. Since this work has no specifications of acquired instruments and is furthermore based on mathematical principles, Laibach has argued that the music can be seen as proto-techno. Therefore, the band found Die Kunst der Fuge to be ideal for an interpretation using computers and software.
In 2009 Laibach also reworked Richard Wagner's "Overture To The Tannhäuser And The Singers' Contest At The Wartburg", "Sigfried-Idyll" and "The Ride Of The Walkyries" in collaboration with Symphonic orchestra RTV Slovenia, composed and conducted by Izidor Leitinger. Laibach's version is titled "VolksWagner".
In addition to cover songs, Laibach has remixed two songs of the Florida death metal band Morbid Angel. These songs appear on the Morbid Angel EP "Laibach Re-mixes".
In 2009 Laibach made a new versions of their own songs from the early 1980s such as "Brat moj", "Boji" and "Smrt za smrt"
Although primarily a musical group, Laibach has sometimes worked in other media. In their early years, especially before the founding of Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK), Laibach produced several works of visual art. A notable example was MB 84 Memorandum (1984) an image of a black cross that served as a way to advertise Laibach's appearances during a period in the 1980s when the government of Yugoslavia banned the name "Laibach Cross imagery, and variations on the cross are apparent in many Laibach recordings and publications.
The visual imagery of Laibach's art (or 'Laibach Kunst', as it calls itself) has been described as 'radically ambiguous' An early example of this ambiguity would be the woodcut entitled 'The Thrower,' also known as Metalec ("The Metal Worker"). This work features a monochrome silhouette of a figure with a clenched fist holding a hammer. The work could be seen by its original Slovene viewers as a poster promoting industrial protest, but the poster could have also been interpreted as a symbol of industrial pride. Another aspect of this woodcut is the large typefaced word 'LAIBACH', evoking memories of the Nazi occupation of Slovenia (when the capital city was briefly known as Laibach). This piece was featured prominently during a TV interview of Laibach in 1983, during which the interviewer Jure Pengov called Laibach "enemies of the people."
Some early Laibach albums were pure industrial, with hard industrial percussions, heavy rhythms, and roaring vocals. Later in the mid-80s, the Laibach sound became more richly layered with samples from classical music including from Gustav Holst’s The Planets. The band began their tradition of cover songs in 1987 with the album Opus Dei, where their sound was changed again.
The popular German musical group Rammstein has acknowledged influence by both the aesthetic approach and material of Laibach. When members of Laibach were asked by an interviewer about Rammstein "stealing" from them, they responded that "Laibach does not believe in originality... Therefore, Rammstein could not 'steal' much from us. They simply let themselves get inspired by our work, which is absolutely a legitimate process. We are glad that they made it. In a way, they have proven once again that a good 'copy' can make more money on the market than the 'original.'"[11] Laibach would later provide a remix for the Rammstein single "Ohne Dich".
Laibach has been the subject of several documentaries:
2005, Divided States of America: Laibach 2004 Tour [13] - Directed by Sašo Podgoršek
1996, Predictions of Fire (Prerokbe Ognja) [14] - Directed by Michael Benson
1993, Laibach: A Film From Slovenia [15] - Directed by Daniel Landin and Chris Bohn
1988, Laibach: Victory Under the Sun (Slovenian title: Laibach: Zmaga pod soncem, serbo-croatian title Laibach: Pobeda pod suncem) [16] - Directed by Goran Gajic
Za 27 godina postojanja, Laibach je često mijenjao članove, ali nikada nisu koristili osobna imena, već su svaki od njih bili Laibach. Sami sebe ne smatraju kontroverznima iako su njihovu cijelu karijeru obilježili skandali i incidenti.
Članovi i postave benda su se mijenjali tokom vremena:
Current (Volk lineup):
Milan Fras - vocals
Ivan Novak - lights and projection
Mina Špiler or Boris Benko or Jadranka Juras - vocals, synthesizer
Janez Gabrič - drums
Luka Jamnik - synthesizer
Primož Hladnik - (member of Slovenian group Silence) synthesizer
Eva Breznikar - (member of Slovenian group Make Up 2) vocals, percussion
Nataša Regovec - (former member of Slovenian pop group Make Up 2) vocals, percussion
Damjan Bizilj - synthesizer
Current (KunstDerFuge Tour lineup):
Luka Jamnik - electronics
Iztok Turk - electronics
Janez Gabrič - drums
Sašo Vollmayer - electronics
Ivan Novak - electronics and voice
Previous:
Tomaž Hostnik - singer (deceased)
Dejan Knez - (founder and forming member) keyboards, electronics, drums (left the band after album WAT)
Ervin Markošek - drums, keyboards, electronics (left the band in 1989, returned for the next album Kapital, appears on press photos until WAT)
Roman Dečman - drums
Nikola Sekulović - bass
Matej Mršnik - guitars
Dragoslav Draža Radojković - drums
Srečko Bajda (founder and forming member)
Dare Hocevar - bass
Borut Kržišnik - guitar
Oto Rimele - guitar
Andrej Lupinc (founder and forming member)
Mina Špiler - vocals
Anja Rupel - vocals
Bine Zerko (founder and forming member)
Jože Pegam
Peter Mlakar
DiskografijaLaibach (ŠKUC/Ropot, 1985),
Rekapitulacija (1985),
Neue Konservativ (1985),
Nova akropola (Cherry Red, 1985),
The Occupied Europe Tour (1986),
Baptism (1986)
Opus Dei (Mute Records, 1987),
Let It Be (Mute Records, 1988),
Sympathy for the Devil (Mute Records, 1988),
Macbeth (Mute Records, 1990),
Kapital (Mute Records, 1992),
Ljubljana-Zagreb-Beograd, (The Grey Area/Mute Records, 1993)
NATO (Mute Records, 1994),
Jesus Christ Superstars (The Grey Area/Mute Records, 1996),
WAT (Mute Records, 2003),
Anthems (Mute Records, 2004),
Volk (Mute Records, 2006).
