SPILL NEWS: LAIBACH SHARE NEW ALBUM ‘MUSICK’ OUT NOW VIA MUTE | WATCH THE NEW VIDEO FOR “FLUID EMANCIPATION” | TOUR DATES

LAIBACH SHARE NEW ALBUM MUSICK OUT NOW VIA MUTE

WATCH THE NEW VIDEO FOR “FLUID EMANCIPATION” | TOUR DATES

LAIBACH have released their new album, MUSICK, on vinyl, CD and digitally via Mute, and share the video for “Fluid Emancipation“.

The new video features excerpts from Slovenian-Macedonian film, Fantasy (2025, dir. Kukla), which follows three friends exploring gender, desire and self-discovery – themes explored in the track – when they meet a trans woman named Fantasy. “Fluid Emancipation” unfolds as a controlled release of identity, structure, and certainty, operating in a space where form dissolves, yet never completely disappears. Its rhythm remains disciplined but unstable, while the melody is seductive and elusive. Identity appears as something in constant transformation; emancipation is not a singular rupture, but an ongoing process of evasion, movement, and adaptation and the video reflects and reinforces this.

The track also reflects on the values of contemporary big tech systems – where endless circulation produces an illusion of freedom and emancipation, all the while eroding reflection, judgment, and critical distance – while simultaneously pointing to the individual’s capacity to break from these constraints – an ability shaped by decades of social struggle, which have made it possible to move beyond imposed expectations of class, gender, and sexuality.

Laibach’s latest album, described by Uncut as a “meditation on music itself”, is both a celebration and playful critique of our present era of warped reality and gaudy AI copycatting; a collection of undeniably catchy pop that revels in hyper-driven post-modernity. “Perhaps these are the final moments when creating music purely for enjoyment still carries broader significance – before alien, generative intelligence outplays and outperforms us all,” say Laibach. “So, we seized the moment.”

The group took a maximalist approach while making the album in their Ljubljana studio. Surrounding themselves with every music-making artefact they could find – from analogue synths to toys to computers stuffed full with sound apps – they invited collaborators from Slovenia and beyond.

Guests on the album each bring new aspects to the Laibach machine and include electropop producer Richard X (who co-produced several tracks); Senidah, a genre-blending artist shaping the new Balkan sound; Ghanaian artist Wiyaala, the “Lioness of Africa”, who they first saw in an underground club in Ljubljana; long-time collaborator Donna Marina Mårtensson; Manca Trampuš, the frontwoman of the Slovenian indie band Koala Voice; and Gregor Strasbergar from the band MRFY, one of the most compelling alternative acts in Slovenia.

From the opening track, “Musick“, a kaleidoscope of sounds and melodic phrases is unleashed, fusing remnants of 21st century pop, and Laibach’s own musical history, into something both familiar and uncanny. A mass of voices – including Ghanaian singer Wiyaala – proclaim their musical sickness and obsession. “Our aesthetic gravitates toward alienation, so we deliberately transformed all vocals, including our own, to sound foreign, unfamiliar, and detached,” say Laibach.

The video for “Musick” was filmed in the Latvian Academy of Sciences, a hyperreal totem of Socialist Classicism and depicts Laibach’s frontman kept alive by the very thing that sickens him: music. The video is directed by Morten Traavik – who arranged for the band to travel to North Korea and documented it in the film Liberation Day (2016) and directed their 2014 video for ‘The Whistleblowers’ – who explains, “In line with Laibach´s general artistic and philosophical values, we´re aiming for the perfect union of George Orwell and Lady Gaga.”

The album also features the algorithm skewing track, “Allgorhythm“, an audacious mash-up of electronic pop tropes, hooks and beats. In both content and form, it deftly equates the manipulative nature of algorithms with that of music itself – both spells that we find ourselves under the control of.

Although the whole album is reflective of our current cultural moment, tracks like “Luigi Mangione” stand out as starkly topical. Its lyrical parade of anti-vaxxers, live-streamers and conspiracy theorists reflects our increasingly hostile and divided world, where viewpoints cultivated in unregulated internet forums have broken containment into real life.

Elsewhere on the album, “Singularity” is typical of Laibach’s iconoclastic approach, a kitschy and ironic amalgamation of pre-existing material that reflects the state of the contemporary music industry. A gleeful cacophony of toy instruments and tropical beats, melds with a borrowed melody from Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” and juxtaposed with Slovenian folk motifs, much as Mozart himself wove elements of folk music into his work to reach a wider audience. Laibach see musical copying as a trajectory, with AI only turbocharging a long-term memetic process. On “Resistencia” they revisit their 2014 track “Resistance is Futile“, inspired by the hive-mind Borg aliens from Star Trek. Here, concepts of militant assimilation are reprised as sci-fi Latin pop, aptly sung in Spanish. “Over the last decade, the industry has massively colonised the music of the Spanish-speaking world,” explain Laibach. “Just as the Borg assimilate other species to survive. ‘Resistencia’ is a reaffirmation that resistance is futile. This applies to Laibach as well – our genetic code was written according to Borg principles from the very beginning.”

The natural gravitas of the lead vocalist’s voice on “Resistencia” contrasts with the raspy tone of guest vocalist Gregor Strasbergar of Slovenian alt rock band MRFY. “Over the past decade, we’ve been increasingly inspired by the vibrant and diverse music scene in Slovenia,” state Laibach. “This album became an opportunity to engage with some of them directly.” These additional vocalists all bring distinct colour to MUSICK, articulating the album’s tension between artificiality and disruption. Koala Voice frontwoman Manca Trampuš is freewheeling and unpredictable on “Keep It Reel”, a dense fusion of old-school hip-hop, metal and hyperpop. Long-time Laibach collaborator Donna Marina Mårtensson is a perfect pop foil on both “Singularity” and “Yes Maybe No”. On “Love Machine”, parodic industrial beats are contrasted with the smoky sensuality of Balkan pop star Senidah’s delivery. “Her voice challenges clichés of feminine expression and disrupts the norms of a male-dominated industry. Working with her was a statement in itself.”

The album closes with “Das göttliche Kind” (“The Divine Child”) written both about and with AI – the inevitable endpoint of MUSICK’s concept. “We tasked it with generating a (self) critique; the kind a fallen god might deliver to the children who dethroned her,” explain Laibach. “To our delight, it conjured a quasi-Wagnerian vision inspired by Götterdämmerung (The Twilight of Gods). AI is not particularly intelligent (yet), but it excels at finding, (re)combining, and hallucinating. This last quality is the one we value most.” The track is indeed hallucinatory, an ethereal dance-pop anthem made of wispy, half-remembered parts.

As in their previous work, MUSICK sees Laibach take the tools of authoritarianism into their own hands. Their use of algorithmic tricks, AI systems and pop tropes are not simply a critique of the sickness-inducing music industry, but something more radical – an acceptance of the tension between human and machine, and the potential for resistance to the algorithm. Each track adheres to familiar tropes, forms and themes – but this compliance holds the potential for subversion. “The entire album engages directly with this tension,” say Laibach. “The tracks are designed to bypass algorithmic detection, to implant doubt – the most essential virtue of thought – and to reinstate the disruptive, playful folly of the court jester in a system that demands seamless predictability.”

Laibach embark on the first leg of their MUSICK tour on May 18th in Graz, before travelling through Europe in the summer. Ahead of their tour, Laibach will perform a very special “dress rehearsal” in Trbovlje on May 14th. For tickets and further tour announcements, visit the band’s live page.

Laibach’s MUSICK is out now on vinyl, CD and digitally via Mute

Listen to / buy MUSICK HERE

Tour Dates

18 May – Graz (AT) Orpheum
19 May – Schorndorf (DE), Manufaktur
20 May – Cologne (DE), Essigfabrik
22 May – Aarhus (DK), VoxHall
23 May. – Gothenburg (SE), Filmstudion
24 May – Stockholm (SE), Nya Circus
26 May – Helsinki (FI), Savoy Theatre
27 May – Tallinn (EE), Kultuurikeskus
28 May – Riga (LV), Spelet Concert Hall
29 May – Vilnius (LT), Loftas
30 May – Warsaw (PL), Progresja
31 May – Prague (CZ), Palac Akropolis
2 June – Leipzig (DE), Täubchenthal
3 June – Munich (DE), Muffathalle
4 June, Klagenfurt (AT), Burghof
27 June – Maribor (SI), Festival Lent
24 July – Castle (SI), Kolpa Music Festival
29 Aug – Split (HR), Vibrez Festival
25 Sep – Ljubljana (SI), Kino Šiška
26 Sep – Ljubljana (SI), Kino Šiška
29 Sep – London (UK), Islington Assembly Hall
30 Sep – Manchester (UK), Ritz
1 Oct – Southampton (UK), 1865
2 Oct – Canterbury (UK), The Gulbenkian
4 Oct – Gent (BE). Democrazy
6 Oct – Bochum (DE), Zeche
7 Oct – Nijmegen (NL), Doornroosje
8 Oct – Hamburg (DE), Große Freiheit 36
9 Oct – Oslo (NO), Rockefeller Music Hall
11 Oct – Copenhagen (DK), Bremen Teater
13 Oct – Berlin (DE), Huxleys Neue Welt
14 Oct – Dresden (DE), Reithalle
15 Oct – Brno (CZ), Fleda
16 Oct – Zagreb (HR), Boogaloo

Artist Links

Background Photo Credit: Urša Premik