Moonlee Records is quickly gathering a reputation, in my mind at least, for releasing good, solid eastern European garage punk-rock. Apparently, according to the press release, apathy and a lack of infrastructure kill most bands in the Balkan music scene, a trend Analena are looking to buck. Carbon Based, the band's second release, is certainly not an apathetic album.

Garage punk-rock - if that's what this is; apparently this album is considered to be punk or power-punk by some, but it sounds more garage rock to me, and Analena prefer not to worry about labels themselves - is not my natural genre stomping ground, so it took me a couple of listens to really get into this release, but as soon as I did I was immediately brought in mind of the Superjesus, not because Analena sound like the Aus rockers - other than superficial similarities, they don't - but because Carbon Based has the same hard-to-find combination of punk energy and polished performance that made Sumo such a great album.

A few things to note about Carbon Based. Firstly, and most remarkably, this is one of the few times I have ever heard the 'screaming hard rocker' voice executed so well by a woman. In fact, Ana's voice is so effective and it seems so natural that you don't even realise how perfect her vocal style is until you try to find someone to compare her to. The plaintive screaming of "Cut me up, cut me" at the end of In Theory And Practice is shiver-inducing. If Analena ever play in Australia, I will be in attendance purely to hear Ana sing From Automatic To Manual in person. Her voice is simply remarkable.

Another noteworthy point, this one a negative, is that Carbon Based, at under thirty-five minutes, is exceedingly short even for a punk album - short enough that if I had bought this album at the full album price, I would feel a little ripped off. Carbon Based feels short, like a ten-track EP, and while this would make a fine EP, it is too slim to be a full album for Australian release. I know how much it costs to make an album, and I usually cut real indie bands a bit of slack when it comes to album length, but thirty-five minutes is just too short. On the upside, there is no filler on this album, each track is a potential single, which is a sign of a very well written punk-rock album, so Analena do get credit for not trying to pad their very short album by including some dud songs.

Analena are quite chummy with fellow Croatian rockers Lunar, who helped produce Carbon Based, and this link is clearest on the closing track, Rainy Night in Warsaw, the only quiet, post-rock instrumental on the album, a wonderful mood piece with the sound of a telephone and a quiet woman's voice talking in what I presume is Croatian (it is a Slavic language of some description, at any rate), which brings the album down wonderfully and is not nearly as incongruous as you might expect.

It is difficult to pick the stand out tracks on Carbon Based. In Theory And Practice and From Automatic To Manual are definitely highlights for me, largely because of the exceptional vocals; musically all the tracks are equally as good, though Wiederholungszwang is quite a driving ballad and Spilt Milk makes use of some interesting harmonies. The lyrics themselves are well written, though brief: a lot of repetition is used, though you wouldn't notice since the repeated words are usually sung differently each time. As always I'm a little disappointed that a band from a country with such a beautiful language still decides to sing in English, but on the other hand the English does work quite well on this release.

Like Lunar's Turbo, what there is of Carbon Based is brilliant, but there just isn't enough of it. Musically Analena are on a par with any generally garage punk-rock band I know, and Ana's vocals lift them several rungs clear of the pack, but Carbon Based is still only half an album, even if it is half a very good album. Still, Analena are a very talented band, and they are doing it tough in a difficult scene and doing what they can to foster their region's struggling music scene, so you could consider that half the money you pay for Carbon Based is for the tracks on the album, while the rest is paying to support the true spirit of indie music.