This is another excursion into Eastern European music efforts, this time published by the Lithuanian / Latvian based label Zona Records. This label is already active since 1991, first of to serve the USSR market with Independent music. After the fall of the iron curtain and the join of the Baltic states to the EU, they redefine their structures now to introduce Independent music to the Western world. Their label program features a huge diversity featuring styles like Hard-Rock, Hip-Hop, Alternative, Ska-Punk, Electronica, yes, and this very extraordinary Russian project named NEC PLUS ULTRA. NPC is the solo effort by Leo Botzmann and hails from Perm, a city based in the Ural mountains (!!!). Life there must be hard, because so is his music. Leo’s music features definitively ideas and structures out of the EBM/Electro scene, but he combines it with several noises taken out of Experimental/Field Recordings sessions. Machines, noisy Industrial areas, driving trains – almost everything can be an inspiration for Leo. He seems to be one of the very few artists on this world who seem to see music still as a kind of art. So this whole album is filled with extremely noisy sounds, which easily can lead a track into a total climax ("Morgen" for example). The other strange point: when Leo integrates vocals into his tracks, he "sings" in German. I don’t know how, when and where he has learned my mother tongue, also it’s mostly quite funny for me to hear his accent and grammar, but I mostly understand what he tries to express. "Der Mensch kaput" gets my vote for the best track, it reminds me a lot on a classic old-school EBM piece, but of course well done with an own authentic touch. If you wanna discover something really unknown and new, then make sure to purchase this release from the growing Zona Records label. I hope the best for Leo and his cool project, that he can earn some international recognition which he surely deserves. Weiter so, Leo!

Minimal-industrial music - minimal electronics? To be or not to be?!...differently from Hamlet, the matter this time remains the same. I think the main source for the opening track is a cable connected to an amplifier and than manipulated with a naked hand or with any possible human conductor in general, add some distortion effect, a reverb, a flanger and you probably have it. Sometimes it gets more rhythmical, sometimes it could be the acoustic and ultra-minimalist answer to Panasonic’s debut, but it’s a bit too "to the bone" to be realisticly compared. The sound is not bad at all, but it’s a bit vague so vague it’s hard o get the real point in most of the track (shapeless or not). Probably Djenjer is into few weapons/instruments but used as much as he can, but it sounds a bit incomplete. I think if he would had some more samples/sounds the future will look brighter... but maybe he will pursue this "reductionist" path demonstrating I’m completely wrong.

Straight out of the Czech Republic, Noize Punishment landed on Toronto-based D-Trash records to release his debut (only a matter of time, since he had previously released remixes on D-Trash). 60 minutes of broken up noise-breakcore with a straight in your face punk attitude and sample commentary (the record starts with some reporter commenting on what probably was one of the anti-G8 demonstrations that took place in Europe in 2k). Violent, aggressive, relentless and never letting go, Noize Punishment drags you through 16 tracks of disfunctional and chopped up extreme rhythm-noise mixed and maxed with elements of distorted drum'n'bass, noise, digital hardcore-techno and breakbeats. If you happen to like stuff that comes out on Hive records or Daft records, you will certainly have a blast with this CDR. This self-titled debut also features remixes of (not by) Public Enemy and Satisfucktion. Noize Punishment has a pretty vast discography under all sorts of different labels all around the globe and he also makes music under the Unsane Virusez, Forbidden Society and Mental Output monikers and runs Hardliner Recordings himself. Check this dude out. You can listen to the entire album online at the label's site.

Damn – this is some heavy stuff. Let’s start there. I loved the 3" disc "A Letter that will Never be Sent." This continues where that disc left off. From the very first track, "The Turning," you know that you are in for a heavy listening experience. Distorted vocals, some screams, and heavy synth lines bring in some of the best elements of the previous offering. This is a lot more varied than the previous disc though. The album has some moments of respiteparts of "Happy Ending?" and "A View From Afar" bring in elements of noisy ambience and are a bit less aggressive. "The Waste That Was To Be" has a nice beat that may even work on the dance floor (imagine if Skinny Puppy was a bit darker and more distorted). Weighing in at 17.24, "A Moment of Reflection" is the longest song on the album and probably the most blatantly personal track with spoken word interwoven throughout. This is by far the most powerful song on the album. With the words that he speaks on this track, you have to wonder just what it is that he felt needed to be obscured on the other ones. This is absolutely entrancing and hypnotic. It is difficult to imagine power electronics that engenders a sense of empathy for the performer, but here it is. If you are looking for feel good music, this is not it. This is some dark stuff, but not in the "power electronics songs about murdering hookers" kind of way. Loss explains that "Loss is a project created out of need for an outlet. A very personal experience for the man behind it, all material is forged from life experiences built around the concepts of love, hate, sorrow, or death." Perhaps it is the authenticity of emotion in this music (for the most part, the lyrics are unintelligible) that makes the darkness more palatable. After all, Loss is drawing on experiences that are fundamental to the human experience. Loss is quickly establishing himself as a rising star in the experimental scene, and rightfully so.

There’s no need to introduce Eric van Wonteghem to the interested audience of Electro/Industrial music for sure, maybe I should mention that he is more active than ever before? Also with his main and classic EBM project INSEKT he just released a new CD at NTP/Dependent besides this already sixth studio album of his solo effort MONOLITH. With this project Eric always tested the audience with his more experimental side of music, mostly the music of MONOLITH is based in the genres between IDM, Electronica, Tribal up to some real Powernoise efforts. So also this new CD features a lot of stuff to break out through some genre boundaries. You’ll get a full dose of never heard before sounds, complex rhythm programmings and strange structures generally. It is definitively a piece taken from the intelligent side of music, although I miss maybe a bit a "composition" and the human touch behind this music integrated through some vocals. Some repeating voice samples in between do never replace a vocalist, so the music of this release has to speak for itself. Eric’s musically activity lately with harder acts like SONAR is best transmitted here through tracks like "Indigo" or the title track "Machinebreak", and I definitively prefer this side of him. The global album is well done and good produced, like usual, what has ever left Eric’s very own Prodam studio. Please note that also from this release – like on almost all Alfa Matrix releases – there’s existing a special packed set with a bonus disc in limited edition of 666 pieces for the die-hard fans.