frugivorous – food for thought

Formed in the former Yugoslavia in the year that Tito died, Laibach took their name from the German version of Slovenia’s capital, Ljubljana, last used during the German occupation in WWII. In 1983 they were banned from using the name but rather than changing it they simply dropped it, temporarily, replacing it with a black cross and continued on. It was not until 1987 that they could perform officially under their own name in Ljubljana.

After the ban was imposed, they formed the Neue Slowenische Kunst (New Slovene Art) collective, incorporating New Collectivism Design Studio and a Department of Pure and Applied Philosophy. NSK ultimately became a virtual State in Time, without borders, issuing its own passports and opening embassies and consulates around the world, from Bejing to Berlin and Moscow to Sarajevo.

Pop-psycholgist Slavoj Žižek leapt to the band’s defence with a Lacanian analyses of the true subversive value of their artistic statements. He offered a view that Laibach’s dalliance with the trappings of totalitarian ritual frustrated the system through over-identification with it. He also argued that Laibach were acting in a psychoanalytical fashion, not providing the listener(/patient) with easy answers, but forcing them to be found within. Žižek, whose writings encompass the critiques of the movies of Alfred Hitchcock and David Lynch as well advertising copy for homoerotic haberdasherers Abercrombie and Fitch, became heavily involved with Laibach, appearing on stage with them and participating in a number of other projects.

This track is taken from their Let It Be album, which is what you’d guess it to be – a cover of The Beatles Let It Be album, minus the title track. In recording the album, Laibach turned songs forever associated with the disintegration of pop’s first supergroup into a statement about the disintegration of Yugoslavia. In not recording the title track, the band were making their clearest political statement. Don’t let it be.