Laibach: zbirka videospotov z Laibach in film o njihovi CD WAT.

I watched a collection of music videos from Laibach. The videos date from 1986 through 2004. The DVD also has a film about the band and their CD WAT (We Are Time). There is only one song in Slovenian, "Država." The other songs are in German and English. The video for "Država" is made up of extracts from performances they did with Michael Clark at his invitation. We see an interesting contrast between the band who stand still during their performances and the movements of Michael Clarke and his dance company. There are several covers of songs by other bands. The first is "Opus Dei" which is their version of a Euro-Pop song, "Life Is Life" by  opus. There are themes in this video that are seen in other of their music videos and performances. Parts of the video are reminiscent of Nazi propaganda, scenes of nature with people with Aryan features. In this video and others there are shots of deer. They recorded Queen's song "One Vision" in German as "Geburt einer Nation." The video was shot on an empty stage or landscape. The video was made with fellow members of the art collective NSK (Neue Slowenische Kunst) IRWIN and Scipion Nasice Sisters Theatre. The members of Laibach are against dressed in what look like military uniforms. AT the end of the video a shirtless man sets fire to the Laibach logo, a black cross. This shot reminds me of the shot of the lighting of the Olympic torch in Leni Riefenstahl's film "Olympia." I prefer their cover of "Sympathy for the Devil to the original by the Rolling Stones. The video was filmed in the caves at Skocjan and the castle of Predjama, Slovenia. The song had been inspired in part by the novel The Master and Margarita (Мастер и Маргарита) by Mikhail Bulgakov. This video reflects this inspiration. There is a feast of people who to some would appear to be barbarians. (Laibach say that they are proud Barbarians.) They had recorded a cover of the album "Let it Be" by the Beatles without the title songs. It is not exactly a complete cover of the album, because other songs are added or left off. This collection includes their version of the song, "Across the Universe." Some people say that this recording is similar to Soviet choral music. No one from Laibach appears in the video except for the lead singer at the end. He appears and says "Om." In the video children who look like they could be in Communist or Fascist era youth group uniforms sing. There is also a woman singing. My favorite song from the collection is "Tanz mit Laibach." This song is about friendship between Germany and the United States. The video has shots of marching feet in boots, people dancing and cartoons of sketetons marching. There is a live performance of "Alle gegen alle." It is striking to me how still the band and the audience stand throughout the performance. I will continue this post at a later time, and I will write about the documentary.