Laibach release brand new album ‘Spectre’ on CD, vinyl and download.

‘Spectre’ follows the band’s widely acclaimed conceptual album ‘Volk’ (2006), where Laibach interpreted national anthems of historically imperialistic nations, and the release of the side projects ‘Laibachkunstderfuge’ (2008) and ‘Iron Sky: The Original Film Soundtrack’ (2012).

Laibach have once again ‘re-invented’ themselves into a newly born, yet polished and solid, formation. And, as is now customary, Laibach call into question all the rigid and cemented interpretations (and prejudices) about themselves, about their music, intentions, philosophy and ideology. Laibach are masters of escape, true escape artists. And yet, despite everything, ‘Spectre’ resonates as a real and full-blooded Laibachian work and nothing else.

With ‘Spectre’ Laibach have created a big, important, and almost dangerous step forward; it seems that this time it has fatally crossed the Rubicon. On this album the group – which has never defined itself politically, but has, nevertheless, constantly analysed politics through its work – comes across as politically engaged as never before. ‘Spectre’ literally sounds like a political manifesto in poetic form. Titles and lyrics couldn’t be more direct. With these lyrics and songs, Laibach, who have always given a controversial impression – or an impression of controversy – especially in terms of its political orientation, is now very clearly taking a position on the political spectrum and probably irreversibly abolishing its own (to some extent quite comfortable) political ‘freedom’ and neutrality.

The album opens with ‘The Whistleblowers’, a contagiously optimistic piece of classic ‘militant and symphonic’ Laibach, sounding like the sequel to Lieutenant F J Ricketts’ 1914 ‘Colonel Bogey March’. ‘No History’ knows no mercy, and leaves no doubt: Laibach require uncompromising action, they demand bravery and boldness and seek heroes “who will be the creed of a new political faith”. And, in one of the verses of this song, listeners can find a mini ‘manifesto’ about the album itself, its sonic expression, and the position of the group in relation to its own history.

In amongst these rallying calls from the band sits a rare Laibach love song: ‘We Are Millions And Millions Are One’ deals with love in today’s impossible times, times which are dangerously close to the fictional reality of classic anti-utopian novels such as Yevgeny Zamyatin’s ‘We’, Laibach’s inspiration for this song.

Ending the album is the elegant utopian song ‘Koran’, a track that shows the possibility of a better and fairer world – on Earth or in the hereafter. Consequently, the album ends with the (in)complete, open, unfinished sound of a piano key.

The LP format includes a copy of the album on CD.

‘Spectre’s release will be followed by a worldwide tour, which includes dates at London’s KOKO, as well as the band’s first foray into China.