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Laibach, "Volk"
To dismiss Laibach's work as ersatz, corny, fascist, or communist is the easy way out. The group has always let conceptual content dictate formal content. For over the quarter century of the group's existence, their work has been one over-arcing concept: control. Laibach's oeuvre is an exploration of how states, religions, and corporations manipulate our behavior.Explorations of such content is painfully exposed via utilization of the very forms used by the aforementioned matrixes of power. Many listeners find this mirror off-putting to say the least. The revelation of the social constructs which constitute the scaffolding of their ‘heart and soul’ is a little too close to unconscious base camp. For others, this mimicking of the formal trappings of control is perceived as subversive, transgressive, and ultimately liberating. Perhaps we've been duped. Seemingly, Laibach have been trying to make the intellectual content of their work more explicit on their last few albums. In their tour documentary, Divided States of America, they announce that though they prefer to make no moral judgments, the recent actions of the United States government force them to expound a position.
Their intention with Volk could not be more clear. Volk is people. The cover is a paint-by-number watercolor of sheep. (Connect the dots,...) Each track is a radical reinterpretation of a national anthem of various countries spanning the globe, including the Vatican, and NSK (Laibach's self-created microstate). Laibach's delicious ambiguity is here in heaps. As dismissive as the cover art is in regard to the proletariat, all the songs are heartfelt in their defense of the dignity and value of the citizens of their respective nations.
Specific tracks are anything goes goulash of ethno-muzak, techno, folk songs and church choirs. Utterly tasteless sound is mixed with the aurally sacred. Song structures are totally asymmetrical: it's never predictable if a boys choir will suddenly join in or the piece will abruptly end. Splattered throughout the album are washes and ruptures of electronic textures and noise, even recalling those bubbling squelches found on Coil’s Musick to Play in the Dark series. It is hard to conceive of two more diametrically opposed aesthetic figureheads than Laibach and Coil. If the term "postmodernism" signifies anything, that anything defines the cross-cultural currents and conflicting formal paradigms that weave to create Volk. Indeed, the asymmetry of individual tracks, coupled with the ubiquity of sonic elements spread throughout the album, renders an allover effect making Volk unified tapestry.
Some tracks lay their emphasis on folks songs ("Italia"), others the floor-stomping techno ("Espana") that Laibach seem to finally have perfected on their previous album WAT. "Vaticanae" is pure medieval beatitude. A past / future split is present in the lyrical content. Most of the tracks fit into two categories: those criticizing the past actions and policies of the nations in question ("Anglia," "Espana"); or those sympathizing with citizens and encouraging them towards more constructive future ("Rossiya," "Zhonghua"). Laibach are definitely more sympathetic to communist or post-communist nations. In "Slovania," they make it explicit: "for all communists / out of the feudal darkness / away from the nameless ones / we stand alone in history / facing East in sacrifice." This is not to say they've went and gone polemical on us. "Francia" addresses current social tensions within the country, but whether Laibach are attempting to inspire nationalists, Muslims, Basques or all three remains blissfully murky. Best of all is "Yisra’el" which skirts painfully close to Zionism, and therefore gives hemorrhoids to the minority faction of racist Laibach fans. Most telling is the digital / analog, scratchy LP / laptop processed neutered retake of Laibach’s own NSK anthem.
Volk is one of Laibach's most concise statements of how matrixes of power manipulate the populace, and how perhaps by becoming aware thereof, said populace can have more of a voice in controlling their own future. It is also one their most musically complex and rewarding albums. My own sociological constructions lend myself to their cause. A leaning towards socialism and a family tradition of coalmining primed me for Laibach’s vision. My favorite record of 2007 so far, and I know why I feel that way, I think.
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