Laibach is an industrial project that started in Trbovlje, Slovenia, in 198… Read Full Bio ↴Laibach is an industrial project that started in Trbovlje, Slovenia, in 1980. Their name is taken from the German name for Slovenia’s capital Ljubljana, and this reference to World War II occupation was the first of many provocative and ambiguous statements in their long and chameleonic career. Laibach were founding members of the art movement NSK (Neue Slowenische Kunst — “New Slovenian Art”) and are one of the few musical groups able to claim real influence on the history of their home country.

Laibach are best known for their cover versions of pop songs which have been rerendered in such a way as to reveal formerly hidden or unnoticed messages, often commenting on political totalitarianism or rock stardom’s own forms of dictatorship. This was done most successfully on Opus Dei, especially on their cover of One Vision. Named Geburt Einer Nation after D. W. Griffith’s classic film The Birth of a Nation, Queen’s lyrics are sung in German to a strident military beat. All of a sudden lines like “one flesh, one blood, one true religion” start sounding suspiciously familiar...

However the bulk of Laibach’s output is their own work. Their own early experiments with totalitarian ambiguity led to their being outlawed in then-Communist Yugoslavia; their name was made illegal so the band resorted to using their black-cross emblem on posters instead. To this day their work deals with similar ideas but frequently Laibach reference their own legendary status and tongue-in-cheekily play with the kinds of in-jokes a band accrues in over 25 years of work.

Laibach’s musical style has varied a lot over the years. They began as avant-garde industrial musicians, producing what could best be described as ambient noise but soon discovered the joys of the martial rhythm. Having produced a couple of albums of heavy martial industrial music, they began to expand sonically. Following the collapse of Yugoslavia their difficult but rewarding album Kapital included hip-hop influences among many others and NATO borrowed from techno while keeping the bombastic atmosphere. The next offering Jesus Christ Superstars came after quite a hiatus and it may have shocked a lot of people with its balls-out metal guitar riffs. The 2003 album WAT returns to a more electronic sound; working with techno producer umek has produced a slightly odd album of electro beats.

Volk was released on October 20, 2006, preceded by the single Anglia. The album contains 14 songs composed and produced together with Silence, inspired by national anthems.

2008 Laibach released new album, titled Kunst der Fuge. This album is the laibachian interpretation of Johann Sebastian Bach's work The Art of Fugue (Die Kunst der Fuge). The majority of the material has been created already in 2006 and premierly performed the same year on June the 1st at Bachfest festival in Leipzig.

VOLKSWAGNER is the title of a musical project which was realized in collaboration between Laibach and the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra (2009). Laibach also cooperated with the composer and conductor Izidor Leitinger on this project, and it was decided that together they would compose a work which will in a specific manner interpret some of Wagner's better known musical motifs and combine them into a unified symphonic electronic suite.
From a formal point of view, the collaborating artists have decided to seek in Wagner the rudiments of modernism, which first through Mahler, Bruckner, and Debussy, and subsequently through Schöenberg, Berg, and Webern, developed into the core of the jazz music of the sonic experimentalists, such as Miles Davis and Sun Ra, and to upgrade them with the ambient electronic spectrum that has been developing over the last three decades. In addition, the suite will address the history of the 20th century – modernism crossbred with pop art.

4.4. 2012 a movie titeled Iron Sky was released. Laibach in collaboration with Ben Watkins as a co-writer and producer of the score provided soundtrack for Moon Nazi Invasion in Iron Sky.

Official Laibach website: www.laibach.org

How The West Was Won
Laibach Lyrics

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Come let us prepare
We brothers that are
Joined on this merry occasion;
Let's drink, laugh and sing;
Our wine has a spring,
Here's health to the men of the nation.

The world is in pain

Our secrets to gain
But still let them guess and gaze on;
They'll never divine
The word or the sign
Of free and strong men of the nation.

It's this and it's that
They cannot tell why
So many great men of the nation
Should aprons put on
To make themselves one
With the men who have found their salvation.

Then joined hand in hand
To each other we'll stand
Be merry with bright faces on;
What mortal can boast

So noble a toast
As free and strong men of the nation!

Overall Meaning

Laibach's How The West Was Won appears to describe a fraternal gathering for the "men of the nation," who are celebrating their prosperity and good health with wine and conviviality. However, the lyrics have a darker undercurrent, as the tone shifts towards the alienation of this fraternity from the suffering of the world outside. The line "the world is in pain" suggests a global crisis that the men are detached from, and the use of the term "secrets" implies that they have knowledge that could potentially remedy this ailment but are choosing not to use it.

The chorus, "free and strong men of the nation," is repeated several times, and despite the jovial atmosphere, there is a sense that this phrase is mired in ironic quotation marks. The lyrics refer to the aprons that the men put on to make themselves "one with the men who have found their salvation," implying a sense of hypocrisy or insincerity in their actions. The final stanza emphasizes this sense of irony by pointing out the inherent absurdity of the men's puffed-up pride: "What mortal can boast / So noble a toast / As free and strong men of the nation!" It's as though the song is satirizing the men's assumption that they are somehow superior or more important than the rest of the world.

Laibach's How The West Was Won appears to be a commentary on nationalism and fraternity, suggesting that the bonds of brotherhood can be exclusionary and dangerous if taken too far. The lyrics read like an ironic hymn to male bonding, pointing out the absurdity and futility of festive gatherings that exclude the rest of the world.

Line by Line Meaning

Come let us prepare
Let's get ready

We brothers that are
We the people who are united

Joined on this merry occasion;
Gathered here on this happy day

Let's drink, laugh and sing;
Let's enjoy ourselves with drinks, laughter and music

Our wine has a spring,
Our wine is of the finest quality

Here's health to the men of the nation.
Let's raise a glass to the healthy men of our country

The world is in pain
The world is filled with trouble and sorrow

Our secrets to gain
We protect our knowledge and insight

But still let them guess and gaze on;
Let the outsiders wonder and speculate

They'll never divine
They'll never figure out

The word or the sign
Our symbols and language