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Track Listings
| 1. Nato |
| 2. War |
| 3. Final Countdown |
| 4. In The Army Now |
| 5. Dogs Of War |
| 6. Alle Gegen Alle |
| 7. National Reservation |
| 8. 2525 |
| 9. Mars (On River Drina) |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
A thundering return to form by the zany Slovenian funsters. If Laibach's initial response to the destruction of Yugoslavia--1992's Kapital album--had been disappointingly obtuse (even by Laibach's formidable standards) and altogether disappointing, Nato more than makes up for it: it is all at once their most startling, powerful, hilarious (though whether or not this is intentional remains, as ever, a moot point) and strangely moving work. The CD booklet--usually employed by Laibach as a repository of eerie, Nazi-esque visuals or frankly incomprehensible political manifestos--this time contains no more than the preamble of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's constitution: "NATO is the framework for an alliance designed to prevent aggression or to repel it, should it occur. It is determined to safeguard freedom, common heritage and civilisation". In the context of the time--this, remember, was a year before NATO's aircraft put a criminally overdue stop to the siege of Sarajevo--it is exquisitely damning. Nato itself is a collection of cover versions, each rendered in the traditional Laibach style--that is, as a turbo-charged Bavarian marching song, delivered with gruff, undeniably Germanic vocals and embellished with electronic squiggles and eerie choirs of valkyries. The songs chosen include Edwin Starr's "War", Status Quo's "In The Army Now", Pink Floyd's "Dogs Of War" and, most gloriously, Europe's "The Final Countdown". The latter is souped up to sound like either or both the national anthem of some ghastly, institutionally moronic future European super-state, and an appropriately, extravagantly foolish lament to the extravagantly foolish fate that befell their homeland. --Andrew Mueller
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Laibach are from Slovenia. Laibach come from a different world.
'NATO' is a European experience; there is much about non-English speaking Europeans we don't know. NATO could be classified 'primitive techno', but listened to on a decent system it has pure moments of joy, beauty & even sadness. Apparently 'In The Army Now' was No.1 in Slovenia the day the Yugoslav civil-war broke-out, in context the Status Quo song becomes a thing of irony & choral beauty. In the first few days of the civil-war an official state radio announcer took the air-time to say, 'Laibach, are you happy now?'. What did he mean? Find out, some of the answers are on 'NATO'. This album is a cultural event & if nothing else, it will make you smile. You see the world from a different point of view.
'NATO' is a European experience; there is much about non-English speaking Europeans we don't know. NATO could be classified 'primitive techno', but listened to on a decent system it has pure moments of joy, beauty & even sadness. Apparently 'In The Army Now' was No.1 in Slovenia the day the Yugoslav civil-war broke-out, in context the Status Quo song becomes a thing of irony & choral beauty. In the first few days of the civil-war an official state radio announcer took the air-time to say, 'Laibach, are you happy now?'. What did he mean? Find out, some of the answers are on 'NATO'. This album is a cultural event & if nothing else, it will make you smile. You see the world from a different point of view.
If your tired of the Anglo-American cliches, want something a bit exotic, something to explore, try 'NATO'. It's not 'World Music' & most of it's in English, but no UK or US citizen could come up with this. 5/5 because it has no fillers. Laibach were either never given the rulebook or they've lost it. I bet they love doing this.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I really love this band. I just don't understand them. Superficially the strong fascist-chic appearance might put those with no sense of adventure off, but its worth entering the strange world of Laibach.
Whatever the first impression of their songs may be it is always tempered with the knowledge of the terrible recent history of Slovenia. NATO begins with a thundering, ominous Mars, God of War from Holst's Planets Suite, but naturally with a techno rhythm. Edwin Starr's War! follows, barely recognisable with its choral embellishments. The Final Countdown, such a cheesy song originally, has a completely different feel and really works. Status Quo? Wow! Every track on this is surprising, interesting, joyful, musical, thought-provoking: Great Stuff.
Laibach, where are you coming from? Your techno is just the right side of being Eurotrash, you choose naff songs and turn them round. Are you ironic funsters with a mission or simply a bunch of crazy Slovenians?
Format:Audio CD
The echo to the call. Laibach's Nato was the Heartfelt response to the destruction littering their ex fellow countryvolk mired in black and decker driller killings. The war in the Balkans brought home the minimal changes in the European psyche since 45. We have played at civilisation but not become it. It all can all be written off as Eastern Europeans, low expectations from the 2nd world.
The same however afflicted Ireland, albeit on a lesser scale, the beatings, killings, torture, just kept within the right side of Nuremburg. In the Balkans Nuremburg was forgotten in the Srebrenica, Brcko, Vukovar and the many small scale massacres littered the landscape.
Laibach herded together a group of composite refuseniks drawn from across the globe to bring the horror of electric drills and wires to the western population.
Status Quo, Edwin Starr, DAF, Pink Floyd, Stanislav Binicki, Gustav Holst, Europe and others are reworked within a Laibach/DAF framework. This was the Heartfield reworking of existing material to create a collage. The result was the only critique of the genocidal war, as polite society gently ignored, pretending it was over there.
The music veers from camp masculine high pomp bombast to macho barks of terror. This industrial sounds of a struggle to articulate the unbelievable drawing on the familiar. It worked as no other concept album has worked by bringing home the effects. The feeling of the end for the people is nigh, backed by the images on the nightly news at the time.
Neighbours who shared coffee, laughter and friendship forced to attack each other with irons, kitchen knives, guns and bottles. It does not bode well for humanity.
Now it has all abated the record stands at a testament of time, a piece of art rooted in reality.
The same however afflicted Ireland, albeit on a lesser scale, the beatings, killings, torture, just kept within the right side of Nuremburg. In the Balkans Nuremburg was forgotten in the Srebrenica, Brcko, Vukovar and the many small scale massacres littered the landscape.
Laibach herded together a group of composite refuseniks drawn from across the globe to bring the horror of electric drills and wires to the western population.
Status Quo, Edwin Starr, DAF, Pink Floyd, Stanislav Binicki, Gustav Holst, Europe and others are reworked within a Laibach/DAF framework. This was the Heartfield reworking of existing material to create a collage. The result was the only critique of the genocidal war, as polite society gently ignored, pretending it was over there.
The music veers from camp masculine high pomp bombast to macho barks of terror. This industrial sounds of a struggle to articulate the unbelievable drawing on the familiar. It worked as no other concept album has worked by bringing home the effects. The feeling of the end for the people is nigh, backed by the images on the nightly news at the time.
Neighbours who shared coffee, laughter and friendship forced to attack each other with irons, kitchen knives, guns and bottles. It does not bode well for humanity.
Now it has all abated the record stands at a testament of time, a piece of art rooted in reality.
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