Laibach (industrial music) to play in Pyongyang, North Korea

For a lack of a better word to describe this, a few months ago a band from my country, Laibach, has announced that they will be playing in Pyongyang on the 19th and 20th of august.

Laibach are one of the biggest and internationally most well known acts from Slovenia, known for their "martial" industrial musical style, provocative totalitarian imagery and pop-music covers. Formed in the former Yugoslavia, they quickly gained notoriety for various acts that culminated in the banning of their music and performances in Yugoslavia. One of the better known of such acts was projecting a pornographic film over a film of Tito during one of their concerts, resulting in their arrest. They are also the "musical wing" of the Neue Slowenische Kunst art movement and state.

To the best of my knowledge this is the first ever concert conducted by any foreign popular music groups in North Korea, and is even more unbelivable considering Laibach's history. Their totalitarian imagery is the result of the heavy "Nazi paranoia" that was still heavily enforced in Yugoslavia druing the 1980s - the provocative almost Nazi image was used as satire to provoke comparisons with the then current totalitarian system. Overall their image is more or less satire and parody of totalitarianism, which I suspect North Korean leaders have totally missed - or they have alterior motives.

One bump on the rump before this thread takes a dump

Weren't they responsible for the "Iron Sky" soundtrack?

Meh, their music sounds like...

Yeah they were, the trailer also uses their "cover" of another major Slovenian bands song - B Machine.

I really wonder how this will go down, plus the concert is on my birthday lol.

Yes, if Laibach parodies totalitarianism and militarism, as opposed to extolling them, then their invitation to North Korea does seem puzzling. Perhaps Pyongyang hopes that its citizens will see the exaggerated, "over the top" depictions of hyper-nationalism and say: "We're not THAT bad! We must be an enlightened democracy after all!" :-)

Ye I was thinking in a similar way, for Pyongyang to show to their people how "corrupt" and "militaristic" the West is because their popular music groups dress like Nazis and play this style of music :D