And, indeed, I will ask on my own account here, an idle question: which is better—cheap happiness or exalted sufferings? Well, which is better?---Fyodor Dostoevsky ---Notes from Underground Fyodor Dostoevsky ---Notes from Underground Even now, so many years later, all this is somehow a very evil memory. I have many evil memories now, but ... hadn’t I better end my “Notes” here? I believe I made a mistake in beginning to write them, anyway I have felt ashamed all the time I’ve been writing this story; so it’s hardly literature so much as a corrective punishment. Why, to tell long stories, showing how I have spoiled my life through morally rotting in my corner, through lack of fitting environment, through divorce from real life, and rankling spite in my underground world, would certainly not be interesting; a novel needs a hero, and all the traits for an anti-hero are expressly gathered together here, and what matters most, it all produces an unpleasant impression, for we are...
Hope
To be human is to be a miracle of evolution conscious of its own miraculousness — a consciousness beautiful and bittersweet, for we have paid for it with a parallel awareness not only of our fundamental improbability but of our staggering fragility, of how physiologically precarious our survival is and how psychologically vulnerable our sanity. To make that awareness bearable, we have evolved a singular faculty that might just be the crowning miracle of our consciousness: hope.--
Erich Fromm
The Sound of Music was conceived when Laibach were infamously invited to perform in North Korea in 2015. The band performed several songs from the 1965 film’s soundtrack at the concert in Pyongyang, chosen by Laibach as it’s a well-known and beloved film in the DPRK and often used by schoolchildren to learn English.
"Cultural provocateurs par excellence, Laibach has managed to offend all points in the political spectrum."
"We are fascists as much as Hitler was a painter"
THE MANIFESTO
1. LAIBACH works as a team (the collective spirit), according to the model of industrial production and totalitarianism, which means that the individual does not speak; the organization does. Our work is industrial, our language political.
June, 1980, Laibach was formed. Soon, they became the musical wing of the Slovenian arts collective Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK), or New Slovenian Art. Comprising visual artists, theatre companies and a unit dedicated to social theory, NSK was concerned with exploring the relationships between art and politics.
Laibach took its name from Austro-Hungarian and then Nazi occupied Ljubliana, the capital city of Slovenia. They were the first Western band to perform in North Korea and their most recent album is a cover of the Sound of Music.
Laibach is one of the most controversial, innovative and truly strange bands in rock history.
Formed in 1980 in the industrial coal-mining town of Trbovlje, Slovenia (then Yugoslavia), Laibach is more than a band—it is the musical wing of the Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK) art collective. They are renowned for their provocative use of totalitarian aesthetics, martial rhythms, and deep, Wagnerian vocals to deconstruct the relationship between art, ideology, and power.
Core Musical Philosophy
Laibach utilizes a method they call "Retro-Avant-Garde," which involves repurposing symbols and sounds from past regimes (both fascist and socialist) to hold a mirror up to modern society. Their work often forces the audience to question where the performance ends and reality begins.
Over-Identification: Instead of directly protesting authority, Laibach "over-identifies" with it, adopting a hyper-disciplined, monolithic persona that is often more terrifyingly "official" than the systems they critique.
Deconstructive Covers: They are famous for reinterpreting Western pop and rock classics (The Beatles, Queen, Opus) and stripping them of their original "feel-good" context, transforming them into menacing, industrial anthems.
Essential Listening
Era
Key Album
Characteristics
Early Industrial
Laibach (1985)
Harsh, abrasive, and rhythmically heavy. Focused on local Yugoslavian politics and industrial decay.
Breakthrough
Opus Dei (1987)
Features their iconic cover of "Life is Life." This album introduced their signature "martial pop" sound to a global audience.
Concept / Pop
Let It Be (1988)
A track-by-track cover of the Beatles' album, reimagined as a dark, orchestral march.
Modern Synthesis
Spectre (2014)
A more electronic-heavy, accessible sound that addresses modern issues like digital surveillance and global protest movements.
Historical Oddity
The Sound of Music (2018)
Inspired by their historic 2015 performance in North Korea; a surreal, industrial take on the classic musical.
Visual and Cultural Impact
Laibach’s influence extends far beyond the industrial music scene. They are frequently cited as a primary influence on the German "Neue Deutsche Härte" movement, most notably Rammstein, who adopted Laibach's deep vocal style and militaristic imagery.
"Laibach does not believe in the autonomy of art. Art is a tool of the state, and if you don't use it, the state will use it against you."
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