Described by Sounds magazine as the “First Dangerous Album of The Eighties” Laibach’s seminal 1986 Album revisited and expanded. Curated, remastered and Re-designed by The Laibach Organisation. Complete With 2 CDs of live versions of ‘Nova Akropola’ songs from the band’s own archive, with sleevenotes by Alexei Monroe.
For the uninitiated this might easily be mistaken for the sound of Jabba The Hut fronting Industrial karaoke in a Tatooine dive bar in Return Of The Jedi. Easy listening this is not!
Few bands stand apart from the crowd as distinctly as Laibach. Their idiosyncratic outlook and philosophy was formed against the backdrop of post-Soviet socialism in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and the band has continued to follow an individual, often controversial path for over forty years, taking them into places few other artists dare to go. This is a band whose very existence flies in the face of Soviet Bloc era repression and artistic suppression. Formed in the mining town of Trbovlje in 1980, Laibach represents the musical wing of the Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK) collective, a group which Laibach helped found in 1984. NSK is a political art collective that formed in Slovenia, when it was part of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. NSK’s name was chosen to reflect the theme in its works of the complicated relationship Slovenes have had with Germans. The name of NSK’s music wing, Laibach, is also the German name of the Slovene capital Ljubljana. The name created controversy because some felt it evoked memories of the Nazi annexation of Slovenia during the Second World War. It also refers to Slovenia’s previous seven centuries as part of the Habsburg monarchy.
Originally released by Cherry Red in 1986, ‘Nova Akropola’ (‘The New Acropolis’) remains a masterpiece of politically-informed industrial expression, and signalled the beginning of Laibach’s breakthrough onto the international scene, at a time when restrictions imposed on them in their homeland were beginning to be lifted.
Curated, remastered and designed by the band and their organisation, this new 3CD edition includes two discs of vital live recordings of ‘Nova Akropola’ songs spanning the years 1985 to 2020, captured in England, Slovenia, Serbia and Macedonia.
Packaged in new artwork and accompanied by brilliant sleevenotes from cultural theorist Alexei Monroe, author of ‘Interrogation Machine’ and associate of the band, this new edition demonstrates the longevity of both the songs and the philosophy behind them, and is a vital new addition to Laibach’s catalogue.
TRACK LISTING
DISC ONE
‘NOVA AKROPOLA’ REMASTERED
Vier Personen
Nova Akropola
Krvava Gruda – Plodna Zemlja
Vojna Poema
Ti, Ki Izzivaš (Outro)
Die Liebe
Država
Vade Retro
Panorama
Decree
DISC TWO
LIVE IN EUROPE 1997-2020
Vade Retro (Live In Ljubljana, 1997)
Nova Akropola (Live In Zagreb 2019)
Vier Personen (Live In Ljubljana, 2019)
Krvava Gruda – Plodna Zemlja (Live In Serbia, 2021)
Ti, Ki Izzivaš (Live In Serbia, 2021)
Die Liebe (Live In Skopje 2018)
Država (Live At Ljubljana Castle, 2020)
DISC THREE
LIVE IN LONDON 1985-1987
Vier Personen (LONDON, 1985)
Nova Akropola (London, 1985)
Vade Retro (London, 1985)
Krvava Gruda – Plodna Zemlja (London, 1986)
Die Liebe (London, 1985)
Ti, Ki Izzivaš (London, 1985)
Država (London, 1985)
Vojna Poema (London, 1985)
Država (Let’s Make United States Of Europe First Again!) (London, 1987)
