Laibach on Hungarian TV

Brief interview with Ivan Novak from Laibach, which - fortunately for us - is in English.
Go to it here.

Preceded by a cellphone commercial that - fortunately for us - is NOT in English.

Boyd Rice

Music, Martinis And Misanthropy
Tesco

Bad boy Boyd Rice as Rod McKuen with anti-social personality disorder. Frankly, it’s hard to take Rice’s schtick at face value. If you don’t, you can both enjoy his music and have a laugh. The seething-with-hatred People shouldn’t be listened to at work on a Monday morning. I’m warning you.
Other highlights include Disneyland Can Wait and the best-ever song by Lee Hazelwood I’d Rather Be Your Enemy, rendered all the more frightening when sung by a pleasant looking man who happens to dress like an occult SS officer. Some other touchstones on this album are Anton laVey, Heraclitus, Ragnar Redbeard and the Carpenters. This is also a meeting of the Death In June/Sol Invictus/Blood Axis glee-club (Douglas P, Tony Wakeford, Michael Moynihan), plus Rose McDowall.

Laibach

M.B. December 21, 1984
Mute/Grey Area

Live album of an early configuration of this mighty Slovene industrial band that - while recorded in 1984, didn’t see release until 1997. It’s also one - like their debut album on Ropot (Noise) - that featured the band’s appropriation of a Malevich cross as a logo rather than their name, due to a government ban on the name Laibach. Noisy and chaotic, most instrumentation consists of heavy martial drumming, metal percussion, electronic sirens and hunter’s horns. Milan Fras is the sole voice on this album (original frontman Tomaz Hostnik being long gone by this time) save for some audio recordings of the late, great Josip Broz Tito.
many songs follow the almost ritualistic form of Ti, Ki Izzivas (You, Who Are Challenging), with pounding drums and Fras’ bellowing, bottomless pit incantations. At times the proceedings approach free-jazz - save for the heavy, industrial pounding and metal-on-metal sturm und drang.

M.B. December 21, 1984 (1997)

1. Sodba Veka
2. Ti, Ki Izzivas
3. Sila / Dokumenti
4. Sredi Bojev
5. Nova Akropola
6. Dokumenti II
7. Tito
8. Dokumenti III
9. Dokumenti IV

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Test Dept.

Pax Britannica
Jungle / Ministry of Power

Another not-too popular album in Test Dept.’s mighty canon that is also one of my favorites. This album is a grand live affair that pairs the band’s martial drumming and industrial clanging with an actual symphony orchestra and choir. From the Test Dept. website:

Part soundtrack to the epic ‘Second Coming’ show which celebrated Glasgow as the cultural capital of Europe 1990, performed at the St. Rollox Railway Works, once the largest producer of trains in the British Empire.

It features a score from John Eacott played by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and conducted by the celebrated scottish composer James MacMillan.

Many regard this album’s concept as flawed or perhaps the execution didn’t jell at this recorded gig. In any event, it is a telling in five movements of the rise and fall of the British Empire, told with spoken oratories by the band, samples of Winston Churchill, Margeret Thatcher and John Major, backed by an epic soundtrack utilizing patriotic British music (most notably Blake’s Jerusalem) . Undoubtably, it would help to see the performance and not having some sort of libretto makes it a little hard to follow and the pace lags somewhat after the third movement. It remains one of my favorites because I like how it utilizes patriotic motifs to serve as readymades to critique the imperialism of England, somewhat in the same way that Slovene band Laibach does. Although not perfect, this album is a chilling look a once mighty nation that ought to serve as a warning about imperial hubris (especially to us yanks).

Pax Britannica - 1990

1. Movement I:
2. Pledge, Jerusalem, Heavens Command, Characters of Light, Agincourt, Accusation
3. Movement II:
4. Territory (The Epic of the Race)
5. Movement III:
6. From the Land (As An Fhearann)
7. Movement IV:
8. God, King and Law
9. The Cracked Facade
10. Farewell the Trumpets
11. Movement V:
12. The Legacy (A Lasting Presence)

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Test Dept.

Tactics for Evolution
Invisible

A departure of sorts for British industrial band Test Dept. Gone is the found object metal percussion and strident political agitprop that made them so famous and controversial - this being a largely instrumental electronica affair. Nice, hip-hoppish, aggro beats throughout. If I didn’t know better, I would’ve suspected the help of Jack Dangers, as the beats are bass-heavy and somewhat edgy. This is also the last proper Test Dept. album (save for a live outing recorded in 1990 that came out in 2002). Although not typical of their total output, this is one of my favorites.

Tactics for Evolution (1997)

1. Enigma of Doctor Dee
2. Unforgiven
3. Voyager
4. Atlantis
5. 2 Ghettos
6. Dark Light
7. Motivation
8. Miotica
9. Vena Cava (Life Blood)
10. Rat

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Pigface

Easy Listening for Difficult Fuckheads
Underground Inc.

A mixed bag from the multi-star-spangled juggernaut that Martin Atkins (PiL, Killing Joke) calls Pigface.
I don’t know what to make of an album that tells me to “fuck conformity, fuck the mainstream” but then contains some of the most ready for Clearchannel Nu-Rock spuzz (Blow You Away, Bitch, King of Negativity) and formulaic quirky Goth-girl pop (Sweetmeat) imaginable. It does feature a cool version of Delta 5’s Mind Your Own Business, a weird turn by Ex-KMFDM’s En Esch and a dreamy track from My Life with the Thrill Kill Cult’s Groovie Mann (Closer to Heaven- which also features ex-PiL member Keith Levene, making it a reunion of sorts), which is heads above anything Thrill Kill’s done in a long time. Chris Connely makes an appearance on Miss Sway Action, a floating, Berlin period-Bowie-esque tune. There’s certainly a wide array of styles and genres represented here, so you’re a little less likely to be completely disappointed. Add to that a calculated faux rant piece by Penn Jillette as the closer that is sure to only shock/annoy/entertain those who didn’t hear it coming.

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