Ambassador21

INV044 (C)&(P) Invasion / Vendetta Music / Kovcheg

CD / Digital album

Digital version available on Bandcamp and all the rest best digital stores

With the success of the 2007 release, Fuck All Systems, Belarus’ own Ambassador21 decided to revisit their works of the past five years. Gathering together a collection of songs that have appeared on at least eight different releases and also including two live tracks from last year’s Fuck All Systems tour of Europe, Justified Thirst for Blood is an introduction to the history of Ambassador21 and also serves as a greatest hits collection. Ambassador21 successfully creates nightmare waves of sonic artillery that straddles the vicious genres of digital hardcore, power noise, and industrial metal. Not all of the tracks make for the easiest of listens since it seems that the motif for each song is to be as aggressive and abrasive as possible, while still adhering to unwritten conventions of melody and song structure. With ample doses of distortion and obscure sampling, as well as the occasional classical music track perverted to meet their needs, Ambassador21 creates powerhouse dance music meant for the cyber punk and wayward metal head. It is interesting to hear how the band has morphed from an Atari Teenage Riot digital hardcore act to a genre crossing entity in the realm of intensity driven industrial over the past five years. And by all accounts, they are getting better with age.

This retrospective offers the American market its first domestic taste of this crazed power electronics meets punk noise cult act. Like power noise, punk, and old-fashioned noise thrown in a blender, Ambassador21’s mix of erratic instrumentation, heavy rhythmic loops, and almost always-unintelligible vocals is all over the place. In fact, despite its occasional moments of rhythmic clarity, this chaotic brew in some ways has more in common with the anti-music roots of the industrial genre than its modern permutations.
With a few live tracks and remixes in tow, this compilation adequately sums up their overall sound, although admittedly at times, it’s tough to guess which tracks came from which era. That said, the latest pieces from 2007’s Fuck All $y$tems boast a bit crisper production and polish that the rest. From its malignant background hum to its cyclical engine beat, “In Love” scrapes and thumps against Natalia’s snarls, while occasionally taking breaks to vaunt symphonic sighs. Hailing from the same album, “Megeneration” bears a typewriter beat, whose static chatter is matched with chugging guitars and a heavy bass undercurrent. Coalescing in almost a Ministry-style metal/gabber stomp, it’s a perfect soundtrack for Natalia and Alexey Protasov’s conjoined nihilism. While both are audio locomotives, they seem polite and organized when compared to older works like “The Nerves.” Thunderous drums rain down in a galloping fury, their rolling beat nearly lost in a noisome blizzard of buzzing guitar dissonance and Natalia’s possessed ravings. Amazingly, despite this noise, there’s a rather anthemic bass guitar refrain buried within, though like the complex drumming, it’s rather lost in the fray. Outside of such punk-fueled noise attacks, the simplistic grinding machinery, guitar solos, and aloof junk pipe drumming of “Light My Fire” is evocative of Einsturzende Neubauten meets P.A.L., while “I_Wanna_Kill_U.com” manages to bring down the piercing tones in favor of tribal bass-heavy drumming and murderous shouts. As for the live and remix portions, Converter’s “New Doctrine About Trinity” reduces the vocals to a bubbly gurgle, locking its wet presence into a consonant pace to a lumbering rhythm. Though still quite harsh, it’s probably the only moment here that could be classified as danceable.
In short, Justified Thirst for Blood is astoundingly aggressive and musically unforgiving. Still, if one adores Ant-Zen Records, can sit still through more than five minutes of Japanese noise, and has a healthy anarchist’s appetite for Atari Teenage Riot, Ambassador21’s unique sound is indeed well worth checking out.

Diese neu gemasterte Werkschau auf die Jahre 2002 bis 2007 des weissrussischen Electro/Industrial/Punk-Duos Ambassador21 bietet einen perfekten Einblick in die Arbeit von Alexey und Natasha Protasov. Chronologisch unsortiert, dafuer thematisch perfekt aneinanderhaengend, finden sich auf Justified Thirst For Blood Tracks von Dogma, Akcija, People vs. A21, A21 vs. The World, I Wanna Kill U.Com, Weight Of Death und Fuck All $y$tem$ sowie zwei Live-Songs aus Paris 2007 (Winter Trip 2) und Florenz 2007 (Ambassador). Die neu gemasterten Stuecke, insbesondere die aelteren, tragen den wuchtigen A21-Spirit mit ungehobelter Wut nach draussen, die ausgesuchten, meist rhythmischeren Tracks aus dem Repertoire ballern mit ordentlicher Kraft aus den Boxen, und das wilde Zugemenge (unterstuetzt unter anderem von CTRLer und Mark Kammerbauer) schiebt einen wundervollen Noise-Pegel auf volles Volumen, was nur noch durch das wilde Geschrei der beiden Hauptprotagonisten uebertroffen wird. Fettes Programm fuer aktionistische Stunden!

Comme s’il n’avait deja pas fait assez de degats avec son precedent album “Fuck all Systems”, le duo Bielorusse Ambassador21 revient effriter ce qui nous reste d’oreilles avec un “Justified Thirst for Blood” particulierement bien nomme dont le but avoue est de nous faire saigner les tympans a mort. L’ultraviolence sonore de Natasha et Alexey se double d’une intelligence dans la gestion des sons et des beats la ou on pourrait, au premier abord, ne voir que du chaos. Les textes tranchants, pretextes a de veritables joutes verbales entre les deux protagonistes, surnagent a la surface d’un mur sonique compact, sans failles malgre l’assaut incessant de samples et de beats saccades deferlant sur lui telle une lame de fond. Au milieu de ces “morceaux”» composes entre 2002 et 2007, deux titres live donnent un bon apercu de ce que Ambassador21 est capable de donner de visu, comme le “Winter Trip 2” enregistre lors de leur passage memorable au Kata Bar, a Paris, l’annee derniere. Alors, la Bielorussie patrie du trashcore? Il y a des chances…

Shortly after the release of their most recent album Fuck All $y$tem$ another new release of the industrial duo from Belarus , Ambassador 21 is out. It is a compilation cd with tracks from the period 2002 to 2007. From ‘New Doctrine About Trinity’ to ‘Revolution is a Business’ and ‘Dogma’, from ‘Legalize Death’, ‘Smith & Wesson’ and ‘Light My Fire’ to ‘In Love’, they are all featured on Justified Thirst for Blood. Add to this the two live recordings of concerts in Florence and Paris during their last tour, and you’re in for a real treat. The nice thing of this compilation is that it does not only show Ambassador 21 as one of the most explosive eclectic industrial artists, but also how they developed from a digital hardcore focused style towards a rhythmic industrial style, whilst grabbing back on influences from all sorts of electronic genres, like breakbeat or techno and covering an overall style with massive distorted beats, heavy breaks, sharp guitar riffs and of course the trademark vocals of the punk duo with lyrics that get shouted like a salvo of guns from an AK47. Justified Thirst For Blood shows where the band is at and it gives a nice overview of highlights from Ambassador 21’s discography. Essential.