Avant-garde | Industrial | Metal
60%
Laibach—Volk Tour London CC Club (2007)
Details
A special limited edition 2 CD live album by Slovenian industrial/techno music group Laibach. The album is a full recording of the band’s live show in London at CC Club on 16 April 2007. CD 1 contains the first part of the concert with songs from Laibach’s new album Volk (2006) except for track ‘Vaticanae’, CD 2 contains a mix of other songs (mostly from album WAT (2003)).
Recorded by Will Shapland for Live Here Now & Will Shapland Mobiles. Assisted by David Loudoun, Chris Goddard, Joe Adams, Andy Rana, Saxon, Noggin, Iain Forsyth, MJ.
Band (pseudonyms)
- Eber
- Saliger
- Dachauer
- Keller
Tracks
CD 1
- Germania
- America
- Anglia
- Rossiya
- Francia (part 1)
- Francia (part 2)
- Italia
- España
- Yisra’el
- Türkiye
- Zhonghuá
- Nippon
- Slovania
- NSK
CD 2
- Tanz mit Laibach
- Alle gegen Alle
- Du bist Unser
- Hell: Symmetry
- Achtung!
- Das Spiel ist Aus
- Turbo-Volk Mix (by iTurk)
Review
A couple of years ago I attended a web conference (IWMW) for university web teams where I made friends with a cheery Welshman, Kevin Mears, who draws the most incredible graphical notes during talks. Soon our conversation turned to music and Kevin most heartily recommended that I listen to Laibach, a Slovakian industrial/avante-garde band I had never heard of Laibach before.
As chance would have it, a few months later I took delivery of this batch of 195 CDs and amongst them was this double, live album.
I usually don’t look up an album that I’m reviewing, in case it influences my opinion of it. I’d much rather draw my own conclusions. But after a few listens I was struggling with this one.
It was enough, however, to simply understand that this is the live version of Volk Laibach’s 2006 concept album inspired by thirteen national or pan-national anthems, including the anthem for NSK, the virtual state to which Laibach belongs. It all began to make a little more sense now that I had a little more context.
The second CD, it turns out, contains a mixture of other Laibach songs, mostly from the album WAT (2003).
The first CD is on the whole a very acoustic album. It is quiet and subtle; ponderous even. There are a few exceptions. ‘Yisra’el’ (track 9) has a bit of a bite to it, for example; and ‘Türkiye’ (track 10) has a nice groove. ‘NSK’ (track 14) has a triumphant-but-lamentful, marching soviet feel to it.
The second CD sounds almost like a completely different band. Like a club-thumpin’ Rammstein pounding out their bangin’ tunes! I rather enjoyed it to be honest, as mindless, background noise to some repetitive copy-and-paste task that was consuming me at the time.
Conclusion
My opinion of this album got better the more I listened to it, and the more I read about its concept. I imagine if this album started while WinAmp was set to random play I would likely listen to it again. But I couldn’t see myself hunting it out to put it on, to be honest.
Review score: 60%