It would be easy to think that the Slovenian provocateurs from Laibach had played through the entire musical gamut in the almost 40 years of their band history. After all, in the bandwidth ranging from industrial rock to disco and military marches to techno, the »Rammstein for adults« have already ploughed through many a genre with their ideologically critical over-affirmation of totalitarian symbolism. But apparently working on the soundtrack to »Iron Sky – The Coming Race« inspired Laibach to create their own little space adventure. The EP »Love Is Still Alive« describes the journey of mankind’s last spaceship in eight parts, combining synth-pop and folk. The Earth and even the Moon have been destroyed, the only hope is a new life on Mars, and the all-important force is – of course – love, which simply cannot be defeated. Despite the rather lengthy playing time of over 37 minutes for an EP, the whole thing is entertaining, even if individual musical elements repeated on several tracks do wear out quickly in parts. From a thematic perspective, of course, the sci-fi scenario fits the »retro avant-garde« wonderfully to which Laibach, as members of the New Slovenian Art collective, have always dedicated themselves. And even though the pop world has seen much weirder things, connoisseurs of the band in particular will enjoy »Love Is Still Alive«.
Metronomy
Posse EP Vol.2
Ninja Tune