WAT (album)

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WAT
Studio album from Laibach

Publication
(s)

September 8, 2003

Label (s) Mute Records

Format (s)

CD , LP

Genre (s)

Post-Industrial , EBM

Title (number)

12

running time

58:23 (CD); 62:27 (LP)

production

Laibach and Iztok Turk

chronology
Jesus Christ Superstars
(1996) 		WAT Anthems
(2004)

WAT is the sixth studio album by the Slovenian musician collective Laibach . It was released on September 8, 2003. Five titles are presented in German, six in English and one in Slovenian.

In addition to the video, videos for Tanz mit Laibach and The game is out were released.

Track list

  1. B Mashina (Meglič) - 3:50
  2. Dance with Laibach (Laibach / Meglič / Turk / Umek ) - 4:19
  3. You are ours (Laibach / Mlakar / Umek) - 5:38
  4. Attention! (Laibach / Mlakar / Turk) - 4:06
  5. End (Laibach / Turk / Umek) - 3:45
  6. Now You Will Pay (Laibach / Turk) - 6:07
  7. Hell: Symmetry (Laibach / Turk) - 5:02
  8. The game is over (Laibach / Turk) - 4:21
  9. Satanic Versus (Laibach / Umek) - 4:52
  10. The Great Divide (Laibach / Turk) - 5:11
  11. WAT (Avsenik / Laibach / Turk / Umek) - 5:33
  12. Anti-Semitism (DJ Bizzy / DJ Dojaja / Laibach) - 5:39

Music style and lyrics

According to Alexei Monroe, WAT is “more openly militant” in terms of its mood than all releases since Kapital , “with a stricter, darker, electronic sound”. With that, the band, according to Eniz from Mindbreed , "got away from the guitar rubbish of the last few posts". The album "is almost completely electronic and is very suitable for a club", Now You Will Pay sounds like a song from a musical . According to Andras Mikat from Nonpop , the album features a spectrum of ambient industrial, choral compositions and technoid dance music . He describes the work as "Martial Military Dance Music". Some pieces reminded reviewers of DAF . The emphasis is on programmed rhythms that remind Mason Jones of Dusted Reviews of Nine Inch Nails , Nitzer Ebb and Fad Gadget .

According to the band (here paraphrased by Eva-Maria Hanser) the album is "about time, eternity, the West's fear of immigrants or barbarians, God, the attraction of opposites, good and evil and its abuse, as well as the definition of right and wrong, the call to revolution, the concept of anti-Semitism, and the apocalypse that may never happen ”. Monroe points to lyrical references to earlier Laibach publications. According to Hanser, the “own historicization ” is especially evident in WAT and the music video for Tanz mit Laibach, “if the former cites lines like 'from Kapital to NATO , Akropolis to Opus Dei ' and the latter cites its own images”. Oliver von Plattentests.de only mentions a “grandiloquent” preoccupation with the alleged war on terror , which since then “has served for almost two years to act out various Stone Age instincts”.

reception

  • Oliver Ding wrote for Plattentests.de : “The mechanically fed phrase thrashing of the Slovenes throws you down a few chunks of which you can never be sure whether you have missed a bit of irony after all. But the fear that Laibach will once again be completely serious is outweighed. The deadly serious tracks stare unmoved in the eye. Whoever blinks first loses. "
  • Eniz von Mindbreed wrote: “[I] I have to say that I appreciate the fact that Laibach have finally gotten away from the guitar rubbish of the last few posts. […] I may be biased when it comes to guitar music, and ' Birth of a Nation ' and ' Life Means Life ' on the 1987 album 'Opus Dei' are undisputed classics, but the outpourings on WAT can be seen and heard . [...] The only weak point is 'Now you will Pay'. [...] But otherwise I can only say good things about it. "
  • Mason Jones wrote for Dusted Reviews : “Ultimately, Wat ends up as a collection of primarily danceable, electro-industrial beats, reminiscent of the likes of Nitzer Ebb and Fad Gadget, propping up inarguably pretentious words. While some of Laibach's politics and philosophy come through, the fact that they're delivered over such antiquated, discofied industrial beats makes it difficult to take them seriously. Despite Laibach's protestations to the contrary, given their current focus, they are in fact pop musicians, humble or not. "
  • Andras Mikat wrote for Nonpop : “Ultimately, you can say that 'WAT' is a typical LAIBACH album. I can unreservedly recommend this NSK piece [...] to fans who liked 'Kapital'. The rest of them should take a little time with the dealer they trust and listen to it. "

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b Eva-Maria Hanser: Ideotopie . Playing with the ideology and utopia of 'Laibach art'. Vienna 2010, p. 39 ( univie.ac.at [PDF; accessed on February 21, 2020]).
  2. ↑ a b c Eniz: Laibach - WAT. In: mindbreed. October 8, 2003, accessed February 20, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b c Andras Mikat: LAIBACH: WAT. In: Nonpop. September 21, 2003, accessed February 20, 2020 .
  4. ↑ a b Mason Jones: Laibach - WAT. (No longer available online.) In: Dusted Reviews. February 23, 2004, archived from the original on December 10, 2017 ; accessed on February 20, 2020 (English).
  5. ^ Eva-Maria Hanser: Ideotopie . Playing with the ideology and utopia of 'Laibach art'. Vienna 2010, p. 40 ( univie.ac.at [PDF; accessed on February 21, 2020]).
  6. ↑ a b Oliver Ding: Laibach - WAT. In: Plattentests.de. Retrieved February 20, 2020 .