Laibach — WAT

'Does humour belong in music?' It's an old question and many people seem to disagree with Frank Zappa, the man who made an album by that name. I think it does, like it belongs in life, as music reflects life. Not necessarily real life: imagination is life as well. Fantasy, history, future or the current, it doesn't matter.

The Slovenian band Laibach, named after the German name of Slovenian capital Ljubljana in former Yugoslavia, has been using the imagery of totalitarian regimes like the German Nazi's and Tito's regime in Yugoslavia but also questioned Western values like democracy. Not that they gave any answers, but at least it made you think about these things by showing unexpected parallels and less obvious side-effects of social and political structures. And any structure seems to get stuck in dogma eventually. The aversion against fascist symbols that most people have seems as irrational as the attraction it exercises on neo-Nazi's. The 'freedom' that the neo-conservatives of the current Bush-administration want to force upon the Middle-East as scary as any dictatorial regime forcing their way on the people. All this on the tyranny of the disco-beat.

In early works by Laibach humour wasn't very obvious. The atmosphere was very industrial, dark en brooding with anger and fear. With their cover of Opus' Life Ist Life (Leben Heißt Leben as Laibach called it) suddenly irony and humour came to the surface. When they translated One Vision by Queen into German, it revealed fascist connotations that even Freddy Mercury didn't think of when he wrote it. In the late '80's Laibach covered many songs by Western pop-idols like The Rolling Stones and The Beatles turning them into icons of heroic proportions. To use irony and humour in combination with fascist, Nazi and communist symbols, to emphasize Germanic elements that most people liked to forget, paved the way for a band like Rammstein who used it to liberate themselves from the collective guilt that the Germans still feel about the Second World War. Laibach's goal wasn't emancipation though. I think they are way more into reveal ambivalent feelings and double or hidden meanings.

On their most recent release WAT they left the industrial metal path of its predecessor Jesus Christ Superstars. They return to an updated version of the disco-terror of their debut. Only with an updated beat that's closer to techno. At times the pompous orchestral elements are there, some popreferences and choirarrangements. But generally there's the beat and the compelling voice of I. Turk who's more prominent than ever. Keysong to the album is the first single, Tanz Mit Laibach (Dance With Laibach). They invite us to 'Tanz mit Faschismus' (dance with fascism), which I can only interpret as ironic, especially when you watch the video that's included. To make fun of fascism is of course tasteless, but also liberating. It was a terrible regime, but there are many of them that are easier to joke about in Western Europe. Nobody cares about Asterix' interpretation of Ceasar's empire but throwing Christians for the lions basically isn't much better than the extermination of Jews. Not to mention all the terror happening everywhere in the world today. Be it the dictators of South America and the Middle East or the 'War Against Terrorrism' of the Western countries, we should use our Western freedom to question these things.

WAT sounds up-to-date and very electronic. It leaves the industrial metal to Rammstein again. The balance between tasteless humour and serious questions is delicate and not everybody will be able to handle it and actually see the irony, but I think Laibach-fans are used to that and I'm sure most will like this album. I think I do, can I?