Let It Be

Performer: Laibach
Distributor: Caroline Distribution

Notes: All tracks are cover versions of songs from the Beatles' LET IT BE album. Probably the band's most famous release in the English-speaking world, Laibach's Let It Be -- unlike the Replacements' album -- didn't just name itself after the Beatles' swan song, it full-on covered every last bit of it, with the notable exception of the title track ("Maggie Mae" gets a Slovenian folk tune substituted for it). Having spent some time beforehand drawing any number of parallels of right-wing extremism with their home country's government and the West alike, especially when it came to the resemblance of big rock concerts to totalitarian rallies, all Laibach had to do was tackle what they felt was the Beatles' worst album. In some respects, Let It Be wasn't that hard of an effort -- songs like "Get Back," "I Me Mine," and "One After 909" simply had to have the Laibach elements applied (growled vocals, martial drums, chanting choirs, overpowering orchestrations, insanely over-the-top guitar solos) to be turned into bizarre doppelg�ngers. The sheer creepiness of hearing such well-known songs transformed, though, is more than enough reason to listen in -- "Dig It" in particular becomes a full-on Third Reich chant, only to be trumped by the meta-metal fake-live recording blast of "I've Got a Feeling." In a more subtle way, "Across the Universe" easily trumps the original, only a female choir, harpsichord, and organ turning it into a disturbed anthem of acquiescence. Meanwhile, other efforts like "Two of Us" have a smooth, strong passion to their arrangements -- the sheer appeal of the commanding delivery in its own way helps explain the appeal of stage-managed demonstrations and performance. It's a joke endlessly folded in on itself, a killing joke and then some. Happily, it's just as funny as it is disturbing, and points for the hilariously unsettling cover art as well. ~ Ned Raggett

The Slovenian music and art collective Laibach offer a multi-media experience that is equal parts agit-prop political rally, Wagnerian Gesamtkunstwerk, and stomping industrial-rock show. The band, which was founded under Communism in the early 1980s, is notorious for appropriating controversial images--including both fascist and Christian iconography--to confront and challenge complacency in society. Although Laibach's music is most easily categorized as industrial, they are also considered one of the originators of "martial," a stomping hybrid of rock, classical, traditional marches and other European folk forms. The highly innovative band continued to record, perform, and provoke well into the new millennium.

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