CoC : Laibach - M. B. : Review

Laibach - _M. B._
(Mute Records, 1997)
by: Andrew Lewandowski (6 out of 10)

Long before Laibach dabbled in techno, covered an entire Beatles album (_Let It Be_), remixed two Morbid Angel songs ("Rapture" and "God of Emptiness"), and released a metal album (_Jesus Christ Superstar_), they created extreme - from an early '80's vantage point, at least - industrial noise. _M. B._, a collection of nine live pieces originally performed in 1984 and 1985, documents Laibach during one of their most lugubrious and aggressive moments; harsh anarchic percussion is layered upon a desolate ambiance generated by monolithic waves of dissonance. Blasts from a clarinet and screams poisoned with vitriol occasionally augment an aesthetic akin to that of not only early industrial demiurges such as SPK or Z'ev, but, more importantly, improvisational free jazz performers. Yet "Sila/Dokumenti" - an archetypal example of industrial percussion - is the only piece which conveys the impetuous chaos generated by a live performance of improvisational noise; all of the other eight tracks are surprisingly refined as Laibach apparently focused on the vicarious thrust of an exorbitant amount of low end dissonance, which is impossible to authentically translate to a home stereo, and a visual presentation instead of musical quality.

(article published 1/1/1998)

ALBUMS
7/27/2003	X Hoose	7	Laibach - WAT
1/2/1997	A Lewandowski	8	Laibach - Jesus Christ Superstar