Monday, July 11, 2016

Borghesia - "No Hope No Fear" [1987]

Artist: Borghesia
Title: No Hope No Fear
Genre: Old School EBM
Country: Slovenia
Release date: 1987

Track List: 
  1. Ni Upanja, Ni Strahu / No Hope No Fear
  2. Na Smrtno Kazen / Sentenced To Death
  3. 133
  4. Blato / Mud
  5. Lovci / Hunters
  6. Mi Smo Povsod / We Are Everywhere
Borghesia, formed in 1982 in Ljubljana, were among the first industrial projects from Slovenia, along with Laibach. Like Laibach, they have evolved from a contemporary art group ("Theatre FV-112/15"), and they also have flirted with various political imagery for shock value. However, they never got as internationally famous as Laibach, although they did have some successes (such as their appearance on Swedish national radio in 1988). The band split up in 1995, but re-united in 2009.

While early Borghesia recordings are said to be new wave/disco (not sure about that, because I haven't listened to their first two cassettes), this one is pure old school EBM in the vein of DAF and Front 242. The "totalitarian disco" label, which is often applied to many Laibach works, is quite applicable to late-80s' Borghesia too. I also like the pixel-style cover art which has a very old school and "cyberpunk"-ish feel to it (the earlier Borghesia albums featured mostly fetish/BDSM imagery on their covers).

Sunday, July 10, 2016

Laibach - "Spectre" [2014]

Artist: Laibach
Title: Spectre
Genre: Industrial Electronic, Martial
Country: Slovenia
Release date: 2014

Track List: 
  1. Whistleblowers
  2. No History
  3. Eat Liver!
  4. Americana
  5. We Are Millions And Millions Are One
  6. Eurovision
  7. Walk With Me
  8. Bossanova
  9. Resistance Is Futile
  10. Koran
Laibach already were mentioned on my blog numerous times before, and that's for a good reason: no one would deny them the place among the biggest classics of the industrial scene. While they rarely release anything new nowadays, they did manage to record an excellent album a couple of years ago. I didn't like it that much after the first listening (mostly because it reminded me too much of such Laibach albums from the 90's as "Kapital" and "NATO", which aren't among my favourites), but it grew up on me after few more listenings. Not sure if I can put it on the same level with "Opus Dei", "Jesus Christ Superstars", or "WAT", yet it's certainly better than their previous work ("Volk", 2006), which surely had an interesting concept, but its execution was far from perfect: