Saturday, December 29, 2018

Laibach - The Sound of Music

This is not a review of an album I expect any of you to like. But I would encourage you to sample a little, for it contains an important lesson.

Our story begins in the beautiful country of North Korea where western culture is frowned upon and only certain set texts are allowed to be used by the nation's musicians. One such text is The Sound of Music.

This is a lesson about creativity. If you tell a musician that they must only use the lyrics of the Sound of Music but are othewise unclear as to the limitations you are imposing, something like Laibach's version is almost inevitable. Click on the link to open in Spotify.

When these guys sing 'Climb every mountain...' it holds such a weight of threat that you seriously consider leaving the house at once. This is The Sound of Music that nobody will ever singalong to and many listeners will want to employ professional protection by the time track 3 is reached. How do you solve a problem like Maria? Laibach know people. I'd call them. They may play tunes from Carousel to drown the screams. So long. Farewell.

They have, I'd bet, managed to smuggle some Velvet Undrground tunes into their country. They have a Nick Cave album. Laurie Anderson would be proud.

A delight in so many ways.

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