The Laibachian ExegeteNov 18, 2024
On the eve of the US election, Laibach posted a desperate, devastating rendition of "Strange Fruit", written by Lewis Allan [Abel Meeropol] and better known through the voices of Billie Holiday and Nina Simone. A song so deeply laden with the history and suffering of Black America that nobody should/could cover it... except maybe Laibach, who strike a surprisingly effective balance between a faithful respect towards the original and the addition of new, gripping layers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9ittNTLZWw
LAIBACH : STRANGE FRUIT

Directed by Urška ŽnidaršičDOP : Sašo ŠtihSteady Cam by Rok MissonEditing by Jaka TeršekDesign by Blaž RojsFilmed at Delavski dom Trbovlje, 2024STRANGE FRUIT...

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Show threadThe Laibachian Exegete
Laibach treats the #jazz song as a classical #Lied (sung of course in the trademark vocal fry of Milan Fras), with #atonal piano reminiscent of the post-WWI Second Vienna School or the post-WWII Darmstadt School, and only slight and subtle touches of electronics. This creates a striking musical bridge between the horrors of war-torn Europe (to which expressionist and atonal music was, in part, a reaction) and the racial darkness of the segregated US South.
Nov 18, 2024 at 1:18pmWeb
Show threadThe Laibachian ExegeteNov 18, 2024
In typically Laibachian fashion, the accompanying visual of a stylized watermelon (with let's say rather "strange" seeds) creates yet another (and equally disturbing) bridge, or short-circuit, between the history of US racism (which used, and still uses, the fruit as a derogative stereotype of Black people), and the current situation in Gaza (as Palestinian activists use the fruit as a symbolic proxy of the Palestinian flag colors).
Show threadThe Laibachian ExegeteNov 18, 2024
No-one can make sense of these "strange" connections if not you, the listener: there is no ready-made, definitive interpretation of those symbolic layers. It is, once again, a mirror reflecting the state of the world, and your own position within it. This Laibachian Exegete will never claim to possess and exhaust the whole truth of Laibach! "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully even as I have been fully known." (1 Corinthians 13:12)