Laibach, Love Songs and Lego
Laibach takes over Legoland, found here, via Paul Komoda.
Fun fact! Laibach’s original concept for the Kapital record was that it would be a collection of love songs. The idea was to parody romantic pop melodies and how pathetic most of them are, but that album never happened. Instead, they ended up releasing the more enigmatic Kapital that we all know and love, which proclaimed that the economy is dead and memorably included a hip-hop song about astrophysics. Laibach released three different versions of the album, each with a different mixes of the songs; one on CD, one on tape and one on vinyl.
Buried deep within the vinyl and tape versions of Kapital, one song from the lost album of love ballads survived! That song is Steel Trust, and it’s performed by the beautiful Anja Rupel, who also sang Laibach’s cover of Across the Universe and performed in their subgroup, Germania.
And someone uploaded this song (no video) on YouTube. Here it is, in all its Euro-disco glory. Enjoy!
[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/oJHGD0gGjmU" width="400" height="330" wmode="transparent" /]
February 26th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
When first I got this on cassette, I thought something was wrong. Perhaps an Army of Lovers song had somehow accidentally slipped in mastering. Especially since it wasn’t on the CD version.
Eventually, though, I figured it out, and now it’s one of my favorite Laibach songs.
February 27th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Great…now I really wished that love song concept came out…if this one track is any indication it would have been hypnotic. Kind of like when you stare at a car crash.
@Michael…why did you have to mention Army of Lovers??? Now I have that damned “Crucified” song in my head…I may as well watch the video now :P
February 27th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
I think that the album was actually completed and exists… somewhere. Kind of like the lost Cocteau Twins album, half of which exists but was never released. There are some vaults I want to break into!
April 14th, 2008 at 3:31 am
It was me who uploaded the song at YouTube :) nice to hear that you like it. They never made a video for this song. It seems like Steel Trust was the last song ever published by Germania, Laibach’s subgroup. It’s a pity… I prefer Germania to their other subgroup, 300.000 V.K. By the way, if you can’t understand Steel Trust’s video info at YouTube, the reason is that most of it was written by me in my mother tongue, Finnish.
June 25th, 2010 at 2:52 pm
I disagree with the suggestion that “Steel Trust” is a “parody” of “pathetic” pop melodies. In my mind, a parody must mimic the thing it parodies, and “Steel Trust” sounds nothing like any love song I have heard before, either in terms of musical content (chugging industrial beats blended with symphonic flourishes, techno choruses, and Burt Bacharach horns), song structure (no choruses), or lyrics (“I wish I’d never seen your face before” not exactly suitable for a Celine Dion ballad).
I would not be surprised if Laibach had advanced the “parodies” idea publicly in order to save face with narrow-minded fans, but internally were genuinely afraid of the melodic direction and emotional territory of the emerging album. The other-worldly beauty of “Steel Trust” coupled with the scrapping of the Paris project suggests to me that something more sincere was in the works. Perhaps the effort began as parody but evolved into something tenderer–and then they lost their nerve. Maybe sacrilege to put it that way, but I believe those guys are human. And maybe “losing their nerve” was the right thing to do in this case, in order to protect the legacy of the Laibach name. But the perfection of “Steel Trust” will always have music nerds like myself wondering what was lost.
Also: Videosex (Anja Rupel’s band)–what a fabulous group worthy of exhumation!
April 11th, 2012 at 5:04 am
The Laibach “love song” album was indeed completed but was not released because of a dispute over ownership of the recorded material – laibach vs the producer (who’s name I can’t remember) that they worked with.
He wanted the resultant album released bearing his name (feat Laibach) or something like that. Needless to say, it’s never seen the light of day.
Hope this shed some light.