Alexei Monroe

Slavoj Zizek: "Laibach itself does not function as an answer but as a question."

My exposure to Laibach goes back to sitting in a bar in DC in the late Eighties (the fondly remembered old 930 Club) when what comes on the video monitors but these four guys portentiously striding down a hallway like crown princes from a Nazi Germany that never fell; my reaction, to put it mildly, was what the hell!

Since then I've been an enthusiast of the band, and have long appreciated their satirical and critical stance, but had many questions about their origins and influences. You can argue that Monroe doesn't provide THAT many answers either, but he does give a good description of the environment the band and their cultural co-conspirators emerged from in the late Yugoslav Republic. Particular emphasis is placed on Laibach and the NSK as being an expression of Slovenian culture, and as social critics committed to exposing, and then making absurd, the shadowy forces cultivating hegemonic ambitions. If nothing else I now appreciate just how incendiary even their name was at the start of their career.

As for the drawbacks of this monograph, it does read a great deal like the doctoral thesis it was developed from, while assuming a certain level of background in cultural theory and, to a lesser degree, Yugoslav history. This thus limits its accessibility. Still, considering Laibach's commitment to ambiguity, this is likely the best account available of the organization we're likely to see for awhile.… (más)