REVIEWS

Buy this album from iTunes

Ambassador 21
Justified Thirst for Blood

Vendetta Music

Posted: Wednesday, February 18, 2009
By: Vlad McNeally

Like power noise, punk, and old-fashioned noise thrown in a blender, Ambassador 21'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 Einstürzende 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.