Laibach have announced a six-track EP, “Party Songs”, featuring unpublished tracks from the repertoire of the band’s 2015 performances in North Korea, as documented by Morten Traavik and Uģis Olte’s “Liberation Day” film (2016). Mute will release the EP on vinyl 12-inch and digital platforms on November 22.
You can watch the video for “Honourable, Dead or Alive, When Following the Revolutionary Road (Arduous March Version)”, the first track to be taken from the EP right below. Filming for the video took place earlier this year at the Cankarjev dom venue in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
“Honourable, Dead or Alive, When Following the Revolutionary Road” is based on an aria from the classic North Korean revolutionary opera “Tell, O Forest” (1972), one of five famous revolutionary operas in the DPRK. The propaganda says it was written and produced under the guidance of Kim Jong Il, but we all know that is bogus of course.
Laibach’s re-interpretation was prepared for the 2015 Liberation Day concert at the Ponghwa Theatre in Pyongyang, but deemed too “confusing” by the North Korean hosts and struck from the concert repertoire. The band later performed a version of the same song at Kum Song Music School, arranged by the students of the school.
Other songs on the EP include “Arirang”, an all-Korean folk song, performed by Laibach in Pyongyang, and “We Will Go to Mount Paektu”, originally performed by the all-female Moranbong band, and again according to the propaganda created under the creative guidance of Kim Jong-Un. They are a very musical family there… not.
“Party Songs” tracklist
- Honourable, Dead or Alive, When Following the Revolutionary Road (Arduous March Version)
- Honourable, Dead or Alive, When Following the Revolutionary Road (Single Hearted Unity Version)
- We Will Go to Mount Paektu
- Arirang (Live at Kum Song Music School, Pyongyang)
- Honourable, Dead or Alive, When Following the Revolutionary Road (Live at Kum Song Music School, Pyongyang)
- We Will Go to Mount Paektu (Live at Ponghwa Theatre, Pyongyang)
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