Spectre

Having existed in one form or another for more than 30 years, Laibach have always made music that's deliberately difficult listening. Now they've become “politically engaged as never before,” according to the press materials for 2014’s Spectre. Coming from a collective that have used both fascist and communist ideas (and anything else considered controversial) in their imagery and language, it hardly seems new for Laibach to acknowledge current events of any kind. SPECTRE concerns a global terrorist organization in the world of James Bond, and “The Whistleblowers” is said to allude “to the heroism of the new digital Prometheans of freedom—Bradley Manning, Edward Snowden, Julian Assange.” The music is similarly cold, heavy, and martial. Beats pound, synthesizers signal doom, and triggered sounds add to the sense of the apocalypse. Looking for the musical angle, “Eat Liver!,” “Walk with Me,” “Bossanova," and “Koran” promote Laibach’s female co-vocalist Mina Spiler to the forefront for, if not a gentler worldview, an easier-to-digest sense of melody that suggests it’s not always "All Work and No Play"—or at least it doesn’t sound like it is.