I am so, so confused by the two videos of their performances.
In their official music videos of the events, they include all these shots of the audience looking bored out of their skulls, or just wishing it would stop?
But then going to the comments of the videos, particularly the second, there are hundreds of people saying that these are the most beautiful, chilling concerts they have ever seen, and are claiming Laibach is performing some kind of amazing peace negotiations.
Available to rent or buy on Vimeo:
Are they peace negotiators? No. But they have a long history of playing with fascist, socialist, and capitalist imagery to make a point about the role of popular music in these kinds of societies, to make it clear how much these types of government actually share in reality with regards to how they propagandize to their population. Rock music, their argument goes (IMO) is just as much propaganda as anything fascists or socialists put out, because of the role in plays in making capitalism seem rebellious, despite being a product of a corporation (often times, not always, of course)…
Given that… I imagine playing in NK, considering one of the most closed, propagandized, and secretive societies in the world by many in the west, would be irresistible to them, given their general approach to art and politics.
In the late 80s, when Milosevic had been making speechs in favor of Serbian nationalism, they did this in Belgrade:
And at the very end of the Siege of Sarajevo, they did this:
They’re not everyone’s cup of tea, but they are bringing important questions about music, mass production, and state power to the masses… Plus, they have an awesome cover song game…
Covering Queen’s One Vision…
And they make funny as hell videos of their originals… this is some kind of Wes Anderson meets Lemi Riefenstahl nonsense…
I do have to say, having gotten to see them on their last tour of the states… Laibach is fucking hilarious… they act so pretentious, but they’re not to be taken seriously. There was a deep edge of humor in what they did, despite the fact that they played it all so straight.
A little different because he was a civilian who was arrested for a minor offense (not a military defection) but pretty awful how it ended…
You are correct, but given that he was just released from jail and was being outprocessed I expect his low rank is a result of disciplinary measures previously taken.
Regarding secrets, some MOS’ are privy to more sensitive information even at lower ranks. Not this guy though who was a 19D (cav scout). And since he was incarcerated any operational info he may have had would be old and useless now
Not only that, but the totalitarian aesthetics that Laibach love to play with are still alive and kicking in North Korea.
By the way, Laibach’s anti-imperialist stance made them very unwelcome in Ukraine recently.
In further remarks to the Guardian, the group lamented the conflict in Ukraine as “a cynical proxy war for the geostrategic interests of the superpowers and financial capital (of the military industry, etc). In this war, the Ukrainian people and Ukraine as a country are most at risk, and the disastrous consequences of it will be felt by Russia itself and also by Europe and other regions. Peace can and must be achieved only and exclusively through intensive diplomacy, serious talks at the green table, especially between America and China, who are the main players on the chessboard, and the two protagonists of the immediate conflict, Ukraine and Russia.”
https://sloveniatimes.com/laibach-concert-in-kyiv-cancelled-over-stance-on-conflict/
Hey Ukrainians, stop fighting for a bit! We’ll just get the US and China to the negotiating table, and they’ll decide how much of your country Putin can have!
If I know anything about Laibach, it’s that everything that they say and do is meant to be understood as a piece of propaganda. We should take their comments on the war in that light, especially since so many on the tankie left is pushing this line.
Then cosplaying as tankies lost them a real gig in Kyiv.
Not all bands are in it for the money. This is a band who got banned for performing under their own name in their own country for a few years in the mid-80s, after all. Laibach has never been a highly commercial band. Last time I saw them it was to an audience of less than 50 people (though they can pack a mid-sized venue in many parts of Europe.
I wasn’t saying that they were in it for the money, only that whatever game they were playing blew up in their face – unless getting cancelled by irate Ukrainians who take their words at face value was the goal. If they genuinely wanted to perform in Ukraine and demonstrate solidarity with the Ukrainian people, they went about it the wrong way.
It’s the same thing they’ve been doing for 43 years now… I don’t think it’s a game. There are plenty of people who criticize them for what they do, and that’s more than fair enough, but it’s not like people don’t know what their deal is by now. 
But Laibach announcing a real concert in Kyiv when no other foreign band was willing to do so would have attracted attention from people who were completely unfamiliar with Laibach. Then they put out a statement that could have been (and was?) designed to infuriate Ukrainians and, to top it off, declared that their love of Russian culture remained strong despite the war.
Poe’s law surely applies, because this was reaching people who didn’t know Laibach and had already had enough of “anti-imperialists” and “peace” campaigners who were telling them to negotiate with Russia.
The entire country of North Korea was unfamiliar with Laibach… And yet they persisted.
I’m aware of that. It’s still Laibach, though, and whether or not people get their thing, doesn’t mean they’re gonna modify their methods for the audience. I’m sure this was probably an expected outcome, and was most likely in service of highlighting that type of rhetoric that dismissed that kind of rhetoric coming out of the mouths of some leftists.
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