"A strange and bitter crop..."
Laibach knew exactly why they released this digital EP on the day before the election in the Divided States of America.
LAIBACH - Strange Fruit (download) (2024)
It doesn't flatter mankind at all that one of the most critically acclaimed and culturally significant songs of the last century is about racist lynchmob killings. And even when Billie Holiday or Nina Simone sang it, its meaning went beyond the direct initial meaning to a bitter universal truth about the human condition.
Today "Strange Fruit" sounds cold, minimal and bleak. The heavy expressional grand piano of Sašo Vollmaier, ominous Ambient noises and the sonorously snarling voice of Milan Fras define Laibach's version. There is no redundant meat, this is Laibach reduced to their bare bones. Every note is effective, meaningful, draws you in. You cannot flee from the hopelessness of this vision.
"Racism is a virus that mutates, taking on different forms as it adapts to a changing environment. Its mutation is made harder to observe by it being deeply embedded, not only in our traditions and institutions, but also in our unconscious lives" explain Laibach themselves, continuing that their interpretation "is aimed at this new context of eternal but ever-changing and adpative racism."
Ultimately this "Strange Fruit" is a soundtrack to the failure of humanity. To the hatred, pain and destruction it brings. To the anti-social dystopia we are spiraling into faster and faster every day. To the crippling disappoinment in our terribly stupid race, which is eating me up from inside today.
I knew this rendition of the song was powerful since I experienced it live in Hanover two weeks ago. But I couldn't have anticipated how much I would need this work of art right now for my emotional balance and staying sane in the face of global decline of societal dignity.
So of course I'm gladly taking it thrice on this EP, in two alternate studio version and one live recording, even if all three tracks sound very close to each other. After all this is peak Laibach at their most theatrical and real, combined with the quiet elegance of modern Einstürzende Neubauten.
Today "Strange Fruit" sounds cold, minimal and bleak. The heavy expressional grand piano of Sašo Vollmaier, ominous Ambient noises and the sonorously snarling voice of Milan Fras define Laibach's version. There is no redundant meat, this is Laibach reduced to their bare bones. Every note is effective, meaningful, draws you in. You cannot flee from the hopelessness of this vision.
"Racism is a virus that mutates, taking on different forms as it adapts to a changing environment. Its mutation is made harder to observe by it being deeply embedded, not only in our traditions and institutions, but also in our unconscious lives" explain Laibach themselves, continuing that their interpretation "is aimed at this new context of eternal but ever-changing and adpative racism."
Ultimately this "Strange Fruit" is a soundtrack to the failure of humanity. To the hatred, pain and destruction it brings. To the anti-social dystopia we are spiraling into faster and faster every day. To the crippling disappoinment in our terribly stupid race, which is eating me up from inside today.
I knew this rendition of the song was powerful since I experienced it live in Hanover two weeks ago. But I couldn't have anticipated how much I would need this work of art right now for my emotional balance and staying sane in the face of global decline of societal dignity.
So of course I'm gladly taking it thrice on this EP, in two alternate studio version and one live recording, even if all three tracks sound very close to each other. After all this is peak Laibach at their most theatrical and real, combined with the quiet elegance of modern Einstürzende Neubauten.
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