Published by Alessandro Violante on November 29, 2016
If we would be asked to identify, in the current electronic scene, a band perfectly suiting with the meaning of digital hardcore music, a label coined by Alec Empire in 1995 (think about the “Capital Noise Manifest”), we would choose Ambassador21, the project of Belarus-based Natasha A Twentyone and Alexey Protasov, instead of the Berlin trio Atari Teenage Riot. Listening to their music, the listeners will understand why.
There’s no doubt Human Rage is their most mature and varied album, a work released on 31th october and premiered two weeks before during Maschinenfest. They’ve worked hard on their sound, learning both from the Dutch and the German hardcore and industrial sound. They’ve decided to release their new album with their own label, Invasion Wreck Chords, without any pressure. Who’s been following their path during these years knows they’ve been strongly influenced by Lenny Dee and PRSPCT crossbreed music, rather than by nostalgic ’90s breakbeat, and we were sure the new album would have been linked to the sound of their project Illegal Trade and different from that of their previous album X, which was more connected to their early sound. This hits the listener, who maybe expects a more rhythm-oriented and uncompromising release.
Natasha and Alexey seem to be telling us it isn’t strictly necessary to constantly use a very fast tempo on each track, in order to express rage and invite the listener to start riots. It can be done also using a slower tempo and more 4 / 4 oriented rhythms, while screaming very effective lyrics expressed, as in the early punk tradition, using the imperative tense. Let’s think about the title track, slowly growing in a solid electronic crescendo with a synth line recalling ’90s sound. It achieves that without sounding nostalgic, until the climax is reached.
Fear level red is an explosive fast tempo in which the direct influence of Dutch hardcore techno can be perceived, a modern Power rage riot death similar to it even in its energetic lyrics. Revelation has a slower, but not less incisive, tempo with electric guitars inserts and an electronica mood, as well as tribal-like rhythms. Metal has a hardcore techno rhyhtm on the background, an instrumental crossbreed song influenced by Illegal Trade music, without its rave atmosphere. Cannibals is built upon the main riff of Survivor‘s Eye of the tiger, and it’s a protest song against the system, disapproving meat consume as an expression of their food choices.
Scream your name is the song in which ATR’s lesson can be perceived the most, always interpreted with their own style. Breakbeat, synthetic synth lines and almost rap vocals by Alexey are the main ingredients of this song. Do or die is a faster and heavier episode, a result of the meeting of sampling, electric guitars samples, and powerful syncopated beats. It could be considered closer to their older sound, with lyrics anticipating in some way the election of Donald Trump as the President of United States. The following track, Empire must fall, is made of very fast rhythms, unstoppable beats and screaming vocals. The quintessence of their crossbreed approach.
When it seems the rest of the album will follow the same direction, Before we die comes with its slow tempo, its heavy, industrial-influenced beat and its almost dubstep influence. The album is closed by another kaleidoscopic song, Black dot; it has a slightly distorted Dutch hardcore techno rhythm put in the background, then opening to a purely noise sequence with an ethereal end. The calm after the storm, we could say.
In its deluxe version, the album is accompanied by a second cd, including some remixes and “updated” versions of old songs, showing in an even better way how their sound evolved through time, becoming more influenced by hardcore techno. With Human Rage, Ambassador 21 have made a new step in the evolution of their sound, demonstrating they have fully understood their Zeitgeist.
Label: Invasion wreck chords
Score: 8, 5