Videos [DVD]

What a total treat. The first time I became aware of Laibach was nearly twenty years ago when I first saw the video for Opus Dei [Life is Life] on MTV's long dead and--probably in these days of Butts'n'Bling--little lamented 120 Minutes. I thought it was the most visually arresting thing I had ever seen, with its sweeping, majestic Slovene-scapes and the then-young Laibach looking ever-so-serious. Nowadays I look at it and try to imagine the budget. The band clearly already owned lederhosen and suspenders, so some firewood, a couple tents, and a few bottles of cheap Yugoslav beer to drink around the fire after looking all stern and serious all day. Oh yeah, and a few hundred feet of film. $500.00, tops. Same for Sympathy for the Devil. Both, incidentally, could have been produced by the Ministry of Tourism, so elegantly and eloquently do they present Laibach's beloved Slovenia. Anyone dumb enough to still think Laibach are some sort of fascists should watch those two, plus the campy, ridiculous Geburt Einer Nation, which looks like Leni Riefenstahl by way of Monty Python--check out the facial expressions on the sole blonde member if you have any doubts this is all an elaborate joke.

Across the Universe is utterly gorgeous--I had no idea there even was a video for it, and it's a longtime favorite. Note that before the end of the video when Milan says "Om," the only shot of a band member in the whole video is a shot of the skinny dark-haired guy's enormous adam's apple. Love baby Laibach!

Wirtschaft ist Tod has a silly, inexplicable feeling that goes quite well with the utterly inscrutible album it came from--think Flash Gordon meets Star Trek, Spaceballs, Triumph of the Will, and Modern Times. Or perhaps don't, if you value your sanity.

From here it gets a bit iffy. Having a budget does not seem to much agree with Laibach's post-Dadaist artistic aesthetic. The videos from the NATO era (except for War) are just lame. Yeah, great--flying NSK passports: that really captures the loopy Wagnerian/Andrew Lloyd Weber-esque/Giorgio Moroderian feel of the song. But soon enough it's all over and it's obvious the budgets have been slashed back to the point where they have to be creative again. God is God is back to locations in Slovenia albeit with color-correction that makes the Alps look like Hell, Alle Gegen Alle is live, Tanz Mit Laibach remixes old videos and showcases Milan's unsuspected resemblance to Viggo Mortensen. And Das Spiel ist Aus is live with shots of the band in a mall with military uniforms and a shopping cart upsetting passersby.

The documentary is fantastic, particularly if, like me, you have not seen "A Film From Slovenia" or "Predictions of Fire" and don't really know that much about them beyond their albums and a few cryptic, absurd interviews. Not so fabulous is the "director's commentary track" from Milan that accompanies what basically amounts to a video version of the album WAT. I don't think Laibach is well-served by having their lead singer earnestly explaining what the songs mean in terms that at time seem almost apologetic--rendering their music (seemingly) explicable takes away some of its power. Or maybe it's just the most direct method of disinforming us they've ever attempted.

Either way, this will both entertain and provoke thought, which plants it squarely in the Laibach tradition.

Laibach is one of the underrated pioneers of intense Euro-Goth-Art Industrial mayhem, and this DVD video collection is a perfect testament to their longevity and breadth of output and creativity over the many years thus far. Laibach's 'staying power' is evident up to this day, being they have been together now for more than 20 years, and still going strong. In fact, they are currently touring the U.S. as I type this. One of the crowning points of this DVD video collection, and a superb 'extra', is the inclusion of a fairly lengthy documentary on Laibach's history and NSK politico-art movement. It is riveting, and full of facts on the band's history thus far. All in all, this is a HIGHLY recommended retrospective collection of key Laibach video art pieces, and a MUST for your collection, whether you like this genre or not. This IS powerful stuff! Combining art, music, and politics is NOT for the faint at heart, but Laibach pulls it off and then some!

As with all things, Rammstein's recent video collection is flashier than Laibach's, but flash isn't everything. Laibach has an impressive body of work on display here, especially when you consider the years in question. The majority of their videos are from the 1980's, when American video directors were in love with smoke machines and random shots of horses on cobble stone streets. Laibach's vision is clear thoughout all their videos to an extent I don't believe any other band has ever attempted. Even the sugary Enya-tinged video for "Across the Universe" contains elements of their "over identification" concept and the final shot is all the more powerful for it. I do not like all of their videos (the computer generated "In the Army Now" is a low point), but the common thread running through them is amazing. Nearly 25 years and they are still revealing facets of their complex ideology. The most recent videos are a real treat, as no American station (to my knowledge) has shown them. Rounding out the DVD is a truly excellent documentary called WAT EPK. It is an excellent introduction to the Laibach/NSK art movement and highlights some of their pivotal moments. This is the band afterall that helped bring down the Slovenian Communist party.

The release of the Laibach documentary "A Film from Slovenia" on DVD will be welcome, but there are rarer --and more important-- video recordings that still need to be released. WAT EPK gives us our first brief glimpse of Laibach with a Slovenian orchestra playing for important dignitaries, and the controversy that ensued. Mute has hinted that this concert, and the super-rare Laibach documentary "Predictions of Fire" will make it on to DVD soon as well.

I highly recommend this DVD, and urge you to look for more Laibach releases in the coming year.

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