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Laibach live in London 25.11.06

Following the Laibach Kunst performance at RoTr in Birmingham this September, the full new Laibach line up played in London on 25th November. This was the only second date of Laibach's Volk tour following the opening concert in Ghent the previous night. The general view of the shows so far seems to be that the album works much better live, and the enhanced versions seem able to impress even Volk-sceptics. Certainly, Slovanija and particularly Nippon generate new interest in the live setting. Although some people become restless, the lengthy Nippon is very atmospheric. This is also due to the subtle and intricate background video. There are videos for each song, and they vary in style widely, some using more archive footage, some being entirely digital. Other impressive videos include Germania, Turkije and NSK (seen in the first photo here). Italia uses "found footage" to make a very black joke - watch the text on the screen carefully. In each case, the relevant national flag and the Volk logo interact. This means that once you've seen the live version, the album may seem like a soundtrack to the "real" (live) Volk.

After a short break the Volk set is followed by turbo-charged electronic versions of the most aggressive WAT songs plus Alle gegen Alle. There's a marked contrast between the two halves of the show, the first is more visual, static, and conceptual, while the second is much more assertive and ultimately populist. Whereas WAT shows concluded with the Zeta Reticula mix of Tanz mit Laibach, the new shows close with film-style credits playing on the screens, plus a rave-ish megamix of Laibach favourites that builds on iTurk's WAT remix on Anthems.

Volk shows will continue to evolve but they are already contain much new content and detail that will continue to develop. Whatever your attitude to Volk, its live incarnation is definitely worth seeing as much as hearing. Remaing tour dates here.

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