#firstSundayinAdventreview
A nuisance? An annoyance? A harassment? Christmas music seldom falls into other categories than those three for me. So me actually buying a Christmas music release is a very rare occasion. Boris made me do it with their Shoegaze cover version of "Last Christmas". And now it's Laibach's turn!
LAIBACH + SILENCE - White Christmas (download) (2024)
Not even a month ago Laibach released the deep and bleak digital EP "Strange Fruit". And a look at the colour scheme and graphic details on the cover of this new EP already shows that the two conceptually belong together.
And just like with "Strange Fruit" Laibach and their long-time collaborators Silence easily overcome any doubt of them being able to succesfully tackle the recontextualization of the material.
A melancholic piano, eery synths and faint war noises define the musical backbone of the piece. The duet between the low rasp of Milan Fras and the exceptional dramatic vocals of Boris Benko has been tested many times and is implemented in touching perfection here.
Once again Laibach interpret the song with the global situation in mind, as an outlook on what more and more Christmas celebrations will look like in the future. In the credits they emphasize that the song had been written by a Russian Jew, who didn't even celebrate Christmas and who dedicated the song to his three-weeks old son who died on Christmas Day. Considering this it probably is no wonder that it immediately feels like something much more substantial than just a jingle for a commercially charged holiday.
The second track "Silence Night" is a different, more ethereal version with less focus on the vocals, which leans more towards the experimental Synth Pop of Silence.
"White Christmas" is a surprisingly profound, beautiful EP, especially if you understand it as the B side to "Strange Fruit".
And just like with "Strange Fruit" Laibach and their long-time collaborators Silence easily overcome any doubt of them being able to succesfully tackle the recontextualization of the material.
A melancholic piano, eery synths and faint war noises define the musical backbone of the piece. The duet between the low rasp of Milan Fras and the exceptional dramatic vocals of Boris Benko has been tested many times and is implemented in touching perfection here.
Once again Laibach interpret the song with the global situation in mind, as an outlook on what more and more Christmas celebrations will look like in the future. In the credits they emphasize that the song had been written by a Russian Jew, who didn't even celebrate Christmas and who dedicated the song to his three-weeks old son who died on Christmas Day. Considering this it probably is no wonder that it immediately feels like something much more substantial than just a jingle for a commercially charged holiday.
The second track "Silence Night" is a different, more ethereal version with less focus on the vocals, which leans more towards the experimental Synth Pop of Silence.
"White Christmas" is a surprisingly profound, beautiful EP, especially if you understand it as the B side to "Strange Fruit".
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