Laibach – B Mashina lyrics

Laibach is a music and cross-media group from Slovenia established on the 1st of June, 1980 in Trbovlje The name of the band is the historic German version of the name Slovenia’s capital Ljubljana. From the start Laibach has developed a “Gesamtkunstwerk” – multi-disciplinary art practice in all fields ranging from popular culture to art (collages, photo-copies, posters, graphics, paintings, videos, installations, concerts and performances). Since their beginnings the group was associated and surrounded with controversy, provoking strong reactions from political authorities of former Yugoslavia and in particular in the Socialist Republic of Slovenia. Their militaristic self-stylisation, propagandist manifestos and totalitarian statements have raised many debates on their actual artistic and political positioning. Many important theorists, among them Boris Groys and Slavoj Žižek, have discussed the Laibach phenomenon both from an analytical as well as critical cultural point of view. The main elements of Laibach’s varied practices are: strong references to avant-garde art history, nazi-kunst and socialist realism for their production of visual art, de-individualisation in their public performances as an anonymous quartet dressed in uniforms, conceptual proclamations, and forceful sonic stage performances – mainly labelled as industrial (pop) music. Laibach is practicing collective work, dismantling individual authorship and establishing the principle of hyper-identification. In 1983 they have invented and defined the historic term ‘retro-avant-garde’. They creatively questioned artistic ‘quotation’, appropriation, re-contextualisation, copyright and copy-left. Although starting out as both an art and music collective, Laibach became internationally renowned foremost on the music scene, particularly with their unique cover-versions and interpretations of hits by Queen, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, etc.
30 years after the Laibach’s first (and than banned) exhibition, the group set up the multi-day event with concerts, symposium and exhibition, at the same location, Laibach’s home town Trbovlje (in Delavski Dom Trbovlje), titled Ausstellung Laibach Kunst: RED DISTRICT + BLACK CROSS.
Laibach started to create music/film score for one of the most anticipated films coming out of Europe: Iron Sky, a dark science fiction comedy about Nazis escaping to the dark side of the Moon in 1945 and returning to Earth in 2018. The film was inspired in part by Laibach and especially their 2006 album VOLK (Mute/EMI), therefore the film’s director Timo Vuorensola also wanted to have Laibach create the music for it. The Film will be launched on April 4th 2012 and Laibach will present it on selected shows in Europe. Iron Sky soundtrack will be released on Mute Records.