savages versus banshees

Funny post from Tendenzroman on Savages that echoes Adam Curtis's remarks:

Do you like Siouxsie and the Banshees? Then you’ll love Savages!*

*Subject to terms and conditions. Savages do not accept responsibility for listeners feeling that they are trapped in a nightmare reality where they are doomed to listen to music that sounds like a carbon copy of music their parents listened to, and that they live on an exhausted husk of a planet which has nothing new or surprising to offer any more. If symptoms persist consult a doctor. Side effects of medication may include but are not limited to: Nausea, loss of appetite, feelings of hopelessness, lack of awareness, dizziness, shallowness of breath, compliance, apathy.

Funnier thing, though, is Tendenzroman is this dude Curtis I had an interesting dialogue with a couple of years ago about Retromania, in which he took dispute with its thesis (before having read the book!) and in fact one of his arguments was that postpunk groups had been often quite derivative and retro-pastiche oriented. (Actually the dialogue was me responding to an earlier post of his).

I disagreed with that "postpunk just as retro argument as music today" naturally (as I vehementally disagreed with people who tried to make out that the Beatles and the Stones were derivative and "retro"). When postpunk groups were derivative it was a second-division group copying a first-division one (eg Red Lorry Yellow Lorry vis Joy Division). And retro-eclectic Orange Juice and The Specials were the bridge out of postpunk into New Pop aka postmodernism aka the Dawn of the Era of Retromania.

But it does raise the question of what is it that makes the leading postpunk groups's relationship with their precursors and inspirations (in Banshees's case, glam, Krautrock, Doors, Velvets,  I would say a bit of Jefferson Airplane, etc) different from Savages-type bands's relationship with their precursors/sources/inspirations? Is it something to do with a narrowing of the musical gene pool, or a degree of precision that makes the effect more replication than evolution?  How much is it to do with the spread of the notion of curation, which is not a self-conception that postpunk groups would have had of themselves?

What takes place, in terms of actual musical practice as well as guiding outlook/approach/sensibility, that results in the former (postpunk) being so much more generative than the latter (neo-postpunk)?

Because Siouxsie and the Banshees were literally genre-ative - they gave birth to Goth, a huge and longlasting musical-style movement-subculture. Savages are not going to lead to anything. In the same way that the early-2000s neo-postpunk wave - Interpol, Franz, Rapture etc - hasn't led to anything.

At the same time, Banshees were not averse to showcasing their influences in a vaguely postmodern way, although truthfully really in a glam way (in 1987 they did that whole, rather dispiriting treading-water album of covers, Through the Looking Glass, in the mode of Bowie/Pin Ups and Ferry/These Foolish Things).  But  very early on they covered "20th Century Boy" by T. Rex, and their biggest hit was "Dear Prudence" off the White Album. 

But a cover version made from a position of aesthetic strength (the state of having already innovated) is different from the disavowed cover versions, the all-but-a-cover-version of the Savages-type bands, who write putatively new, "original" songs in an older, other's style. With the Banshees (or Ferry), it's s just a gracious tip of the hat to ancestors that you have in some sense equalled, pulled up alongside in the pantheon. It's saying to your fans, "you want some more greatness? Go check out what nourished us when we were just fans too, like you".

Saw Laibach for the first time in 24 years  at Incubate 2012 in Tilburg (and they've come a long way since those days, when their stage props consisted of a set of antlers; they've picked up some hi-tech tricks from their buddies-in-bombast Rammstein). And I found myself oscillating between "what a load of cobblers" and "imposingly preposterous".



What tipped me finally into the pro camp was when they wheeled out this cover version, which so drastically undoes the original artist's phrasing that it was only when the chorus came in that I realised who the victim was.

Another highlight was their version of "Warm Leatherette" --a nice tribute to Mute man Daniel Miller, who has been endlessly supportive to them as to his other artists.

They played some  things from their soundtrack to Iron Sky, which sounds a bit like the missing link between Propaganda circa "Mabuse" and a shite-y  Eighties-era James Bond score

  

ex-Roxy chaps obsessing over the Sixties

there was a lot of it about 1975-78

even some punks got in on the Sixties ten years on nostalgia wave

following their Monumental Retro-Avant-Garde show at the Tate, Laibach continue in the retro-repro zone with new compilation-not-compilation Reproduction Prohibited

from the press release

Opening with their interpretation of Mute’s first release, The Normal’s Warm Leatherette (here translated as Warme Lederhaut, Laibach premiered the track at the Short Circuit presents Mute festival, Roundhouse in May 2011), the tracklisting demonstrates Laibach’s unique take on the cover version.

From the sublime, Laibach’s interpretation on The Beatles Across The Universe would melt even the toughest of hearts, to their bombastic cover of Europe’s Final Countdown, this is a window into Laibach’s own view of pop music, and to the humour that permeates their work.

Reproduction Prohibited features two tracks from Volk (2006), Laibach’s album of reinterpretations of national anthems which uncovers the violence and the pop intrinsic in the national anthem, surely the ultimate pop song. Here Germania reinterprets Das Lied der Deutschen, originally written in 1797 and used after World War I as the national anthem of the German Empire at the time of the Weimar Republic, while Anglia uses John Bull’s God Save The Queen as its inspiration.

Mama Leone, perhaps not familiar to many in its original version, sold over 20 million copies when it itself was covered by Bino in the late 70s. B Maschina, written and performed by popular Slovenian rock group Siddharta, who asked Laibach to remix or remake their song, was originally released on 2003’s WAT. An additionally remixed version is also featured in the soundtrack to IRON SKY (directed by Timo Vuorensola), a dark science fiction comedy about Nazis invading earth in 2018, after escaping to the Dark Side of the Moon in 1945.

Pop references itself when Laibach take on Juno Reactor’s God Is God, which was itself influenced by Laibach’s cover of Austrian group Opus’ Live Is Life, included here in English ‘symphonic’ version (titled Opus Dei), and in German version, translated as Leben Heisst Leben. Laibach’s version of God is God was also released before Juno Reactor’s released their own, so many people still believe that Laibach’s version is the original one and Juno’s version a cover. 

Elsewhere on the album, Laibach tackle The Beatles and Queen. Taken from Laibach’s album Let It Be, Across The Universe and Get Back both feature, and Queen’s hit song One Vision is here translated into a German Geburt Einer Nation (The Birth of the Nation). The choice of a language, title as well as the genre of interpretation here all reveal themselves as powerful instruments!

Bruderschaft, written by Laibach is included here as a double twist cover. Laibach were invited to cover a Kraftwerk song for a compilation. But instead doing a straight Kraftwerk cover, the band decided to rearrange Laibach’s own - original - song from 83’, known as Brat Moj (Brother of Mine) in German, with the carefully reconstructed Kraftwerkian sounds.

The CD cover art of the ‘An Introduction To…Laibach’, titled ‘REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED’ was painted by member(s) of the group in 1981 as the interpretation of the famous Rene Magritte’s work, ‘Not to be Reproduced’, from 1937. 

The mirror, a fragile and sometimes distorted reflection of reality, was of great interest to Magritte, as it is to Laibach.  When viewing one of his images, or when listening to Laibach’s covers, there is a sense that a content, placed within a frame/the context, might, by a twist of perception, be seen as a reflection in the mirror, a perception that suddenly turns the space of the picture/song inside-out. 

By quoting and interpreting this significant work by Magritte, Laibach offer a clear tool, if not a perfect key, how to solve the riddle of understanding their method, their philosophy and their humour in cover versions, as we hear them on this album.

REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED TRACKLISTING

WARME LEDERHAUT – cover of The Normal’s Warm Leatherette

BALLAD OF A THIN MAN – cover of Bob Dylan

GERMANIA – Version of German national anthem, from the album Volk 

ANGLIA – Version of British national anthem, from the album Volk

MAMA LEONE – originally recorded by schlager legend Drafi Deutscher, made famous by Bino  

B MASHINA – remixed version featured on Iron Sky OST, written by Tomi Meglic (Siddharta)

BRUDERSCHAFT – Laibach composition, from Trans Slovenia Express Vol. 2

GOD IS GOD – by Juno Reactor, originally inspired by Life Is Life, from Jesus Christ Superstars

FINAL COUNTDOWN – classic Laibach cover, originally recorded by Europe

ALLE GEGEN ALLE – originally recorded by labelmates DAF

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE – originally recorded by The Beatles

GET BACK – originally recorded by The Beatles

LEBEN HEISST LEBEN – cover of Opus’ Live Is Life, from Opus Dei

GEBURT EINER NATION – cover of Queen’s One Vision, from Opus Dei 1987

OPUS DEI – cover of Opus’ Live is Life

“The cover version can be seen as a cynical populist tactic by artists lacking in originality, a gesture of contempt or as a respectful example of good taste and seriousness. Laibach's open rejection of originality makes the first view irrelevant and the new originals are too ambivalent to be either entirely contemptuous or totally respectful. A Laibachised song is sometimes more kitsch, sometimes more serious and sometimes more emotional than the “old original” it is based on. Laibachisation re- and de-animates a song, reviving it for long enough to dispatch it again.” – Alexei Monroe, author of Interrogation Machine: Laibach and NSK, from the Reproduction Prohibited sleevenotes