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Atari Teenage Riot was founded as an attack on the Neo-Nazi subculture by fusing hardcore punk views with German techno; it consisted of three Berliners—Alec Empire, Hanin Elias and MCCarl Crack. ATR's early releases (which included the track "Hetzjagd Auf Nazis!"/"Hunt Down the Nazis!") were surrounded by controversy in Germany.
After signing to major European label Phonogram Records in 1993, the band received a large financial advance[3] which they duplicitously used to set up their own record label: Digital Hardcore Recordings (DHR). ATR never delivered a commercially viable demo to Phonogram.[4]
The major label Intercord signed the group in 1995 for Germany. ATR's record label Digital Hardcore Recordings released the debut album Delete Yourself! internationally. In 1996 the Beastie Boys licensed the album and released it in the US with extra songs under the title "Burn Berlin Burn" on their label Grand Royal.
In 1996, ATR was joined by Nic Endo, a noise/soundscape artist, who played her first live show with ATR in the spring of 1997 during the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.[6]
In 1999, ATR released the album 60 Second Wipe Out, which featured a number of guest artists, including rappers The Arsonists. According to Magnet, "Empire's guitar-playing values speed-thrash malevolence, and when paired with Endo's painful skronkage, the album is decidedly denser than its predecessor".[7]
That year the band were arrested in Berlin for "inciting violence" during a performance at a protest against the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. Conflicts began between the 30,000-strong crowd of protestors and police while the band played their song "Revolution Action."[8]
Elias left ATR at the Brixton Academy show in the winter of 1999. The plan had been to tour with Nine Inch Nails in the US during the spring of 2000, but ATR decided to cancel the show to recharge. Crack also needed time to recuperate from his psychosis attacks.[6]
In the autumn of 2000, ATR started working on their fourth album. The song "Rage", featuring Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine, was chosen as an in-between single until the release of the fourth album. "Rage" was part of the recording sessions for 60 Second Wipe Out, but Empire did not feel it would fit the album.[6]
On 6 September 2001, Crack, who had long struggled with psychiatric issues, died from an overdose of unspecified pills.[9] The media hype surrounding Crack's death is disputed by ATR. According to a friend, a few weeks before his death he had spoken about a doctor's report which said his psychosis attacks would worsen with age. According to that friend, Crack said he would rather kill himself than become a "zombie" and not be in control of his life. Witnesses have said Crack tried to reach out to his friends because he felt the psychosis starting again. When his body was found by police with large quantities of medication in his stomach, this suggested suicide. It is still unclear if this happened while he was in a state of psychosis or not (while in a psychotic state, it could be interpreted as an accident rather than suicide).[6]
The other half of the band continue to work together. Endo assisted in the production of Empire's solo recordings, as well as being a key member of his live band. DHR released Atari Teenage Riot: 1992–2000, a collection of the band's best known recordings, on 3 July 2006.
In October 2009, Elias contacted Empire to play some concerts together, but had to refrain because of her voice.[10] When it became clear that Elias would not show up to the first show, the band published a statement 30 minutes before show time.[11]
In January 2010, it was announced ATR would reunite for a few live shows in Europe.[1] Later in the year, they announced additional shows in Europe, North America and Asia. In early March 2010, Empire released the new ATR track "Activate" via SoundCloud, which is the first song featuring their new MC, CX KiDTRONiK. "Activate" was recorded on 3 March 2010 in Berlin at the Hellish Vortex Studios. Female vocals were provided by Endo.
The band played most major festivals throughout Europe in 2010, including Reading and Leeds, and headlined the Fusion Festival in front of approximately 20,000 people. In the same year, ATR headlined a stage at Japan's Summersonic Festival, returning the following year to play at Fuji Rock Festival.[12] The band had the headline slot on the electronic stage at the Berlin Festival, which is held at an old military airport in the centre of the city. Enthused, the band decided to add more dates. The live line-up of ATR, as of June2011[update], consisted of Empire, Endo and CX KiDTRONiK.[13]
On 12 October 2010, Steve Aoki and Dim Mak Records announced the release of Atari Teenage Riot's new single "Activate", with the full-length album Is This Hyperreal? released in 2011. While the record was described as "redundant" by Pitchfork Media,[14] in what Empire called "probably one of the dumbest reviews I've ever read about any record.",[12] other magazines gave it great reviews. New Musical Express wrote: "Few bands have ever detonated as powerfully in the underground as Atari Teenage Riot. Put simply, they were the conscience of electronic music. They were a band that sounded the way you always wanted The Prodigy to sound. A band akin to Black Flag if that outfit had existed in an age where every home had a computer. And their influence burned big and bright". Artrocker Magazine put them on the cover in their May 2011 issue and wrote: "Make no mistake, 'Activate' is the most exhilarating, futuristic and punk rock single of the month. (...) ATR aren't like any other band. They're the only group that could have cut a record with Rage Against the Machine and have it be their meekest recording. They're the only group that iTunes have censored on the grounds that their music could create riots! Ten years and several line-up changes makes no difference to tonight's immediate onslaught of rave, punk, screaming and pounding gabba. The finale consists of the fiercest white noise squall of the evening, and the audience's reaction (moshing, screaming, crowdsurfing, shoes flying through the air) seems to indicate they don't care either".[citation needed] That month the band headlined the Bang Face Weekender festival in the UK.[15]
Their album Is This Hyperreal? was celebrated as "the ultimate protest album of the google age," dealing with WikiLeaks, Anonymous, hackers, the freedom the internet brought to the suppressed, censorship, the surveillance state, cyber terrorism and digital decay, a term which describes the disaffected masses abandoning the internet when they realised that it was not free but infested with government controls.[16] The campaign for Is This Hyperreal? took a turn when the "Black Flags" viral video was taken up by Anonymous whose members and supporters sent in clips from the Occupy Wall Street protests last autumn. Remixes, mash ups and alternate versions created by fans to represent their own dissatisfaction proliferated and captured the mood so accurately it was played in a CNN broadcast to summarise the zeitgeist behind Anonymous' cyber attacks.[17]Dangerous Minds were calling it the first anthem of the Occupy movement: "While personally I would have thought it would be a new act to break through representing a new generation, no-one can doubt ATR’s credentials when it comes to this kind of thing. In fact, maybe in this age of ultra-commodified music it would HAVE to take a more veteran, established act to represent OWS and Anonymous so as to avoid claims of false appropriation? You have to hand it to ATR though; "Black Flags" is a pretty great tune. I'd say it's one of their most accessible yet while retaining all that dark techno-punk scuzzy energy we know and love."[18]
In Spring 2012 the music video for "Black Flags" was nominated for the MTV O Music Awards in the US in the category "Best Protest Song of the Year".[citation needed]
In advance of a December 2016 concert in Tel Aviv, Israel, ATR used Facebook to declare their opposition to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, calling it "a support mechanism for Palestinian terrorist groups in their efforts to de-legitimize and ultimately destroy Israel", accusing Seeds of Peace of promoting "anti-Israel activities", and proposing that "working together is the best way to create a better future."[19]
"Sex Law Penetration" on Orgazmo (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (Nickelbag 1998)
Related Research Articles
Hanin Elias is a Syrian German industrial/techno artist. She was a member of Atari Teenage Riot and is now a solo artist.
Carl Crack was a Swazi-born German techno artist best known for his membership in the digital hardcore band Atari Teenage Riot from 1992 to 2000.
Digital hardcore is a fusion genre that combines hardcore punk with electronic dance music genres such as breakbeat, techno, and drum and bass while also drawing on heavy metal and noise music. It typically features fast tempos and aggressive sound samples. The style was pioneered by Alec Empire of the German band Atari Teenage Riot during the early 1990s, and often has sociological or leftist lyrical themes.
Alec Empire is a German experimental electronic musician who is best known as a founding member of the band Atari Teenage Riot, as well as a solo artist, producer and DJ. He has released many albums, EPs and singles, some under aliases, and remixed over seventy tracks for various artists including Björk. He was also the driving force behind the creation of the digital hardcore genre, and founded the record labels Digital Hardcore Recordings and Eat Your Heart Out Records.
Digital Hardcore Recordings (DHR) is a record label set up in 1994 by Alec Empire, Joel Amaretto and Pete Lawton. Most of the music is recorded in Berlin, though the label is based in London where the records are mastered and manufactured. The funds for setting up the label came from the payment which Atari Teenage Riot received for their aborted record deal with the major UK record label Phonogram Records.
Nic Endo is a Japanese-German-American noise musician who plays with the German digital hardcore group Atari Teenage Riot. The daughter of a Japanese mother and a German father, Endo was born in Wichita Falls, Texas.
EC8OR is a German digital hardcore band founded in 1995 by Patric Catani and Gina V. D'Orio and signed by Alec Empire's Digital Hardcore Recordings record label. The music was in the same vein of Atari Teenage Riot's style of early Breakcore and hardcore techno with a punk edge, which led to EC8OR been overlooked by fans of digital hardcore recordings, but EC8OR employed more low-res ideas as the first album was entirely composed on Amiga 500 and with a microphone.
Delete Yourself! is the debut album by German digital hardcore band Atari Teenage Riot.
Burn, Berlin, Burn! is a compilation album released by Atari Teenage Riot in 1997. Initially released in the United States by the Beastie Boys' record label Grand Royal, the album is a collection of tracks from their first two albums Delete Yourself! and The Future of War. After Grand Royal Records went defunct, the album was later remastered and re-released on Digital Hardcore Recordings.
60 Second Wipe Out is the third studio album by Atari Teenage Riot. It was originally released through Digital Hardcore Recordings in 1999. It peaked at number 17 on the UK Independent Albums Chart, as well as number 32 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart.
Alec Empire vs. Elvis Presley is a recording by Alec Empire which incorporates Elvis Presley samples.
Death Favours the Enemy: Live 2002 is a video recording of four songs from live shows in London and Berlin, featuring the recently formed Alec Empire band performing material from the album Intelligence and Sacrifice. It was directed by Philipp "Virus" Reichenheim, and released on DVD in 2002. The DVD also features the promo video for "Addicted to You", directed by John Hillcoat.
Atari Teenage Riot: 1992–2000 is a greatest hits compilation by the seminal digital hardcore band Atari Teenage Riot. The album was released on band member Alec Empire's Digital Hardcore Recordings on 3 July 2006 and features 18 tracks from the band's back catalogue.
The Future of War is the second studio album by Atari Teenage Riot.
The following is a list of known recordings by or involving Alec Empire, excluding his work with Atari Teenage Riot.
Miss Black America is the sixth solo studio album by German producer Alec Empire, originally released through his Digital Hardcore Recordings label as a part of its DHR Limited series of single pressing albums. Recorded throughout August 1998 in between sessions for Atari Teenage Riots 60 Second Wipeout, the album was produced in response to the political climate of Germany at the time.
Live In Stuttgart is a rare live album by Atari Teenage Riot. Initially released on cassette, the album predates the infamous Live at Brixton Academy noise-fest, and features a bizarre blend of live instrumentation and spoken word pieces from various songs.
Rage E.P. is a release by Atari Teenage Riot. Although the title of the release is "Rage E.P.", it only contains versions of the song "Rage", so it is similar to a single. The CD versions are enhanced CDs which contain the single file of the music video "Too Dead For Me" in MPEG format. A 12" vinyl edition also exists.
Revolution Action E.P. is an extended play by the German digital hardcore group Atari Teenage Riot, released in 1999 on 12" vinyl and CD formats to promote the album 60 Second Wipe Out, where the title track originates. Two music videos were produced for the track, one of which was actually banned by MTV. "Revolution Action" was also the name of a tour and live various artist release titled Revolution Action Japan Tour 1999 EP.
Is This Hyperreal? is the fourth studio album from Atari Teenage Riot, and their first album since they effectively disbanded in 2000. It is the first ATR album featuring CX KiDTRONiK, and the first album without former vocalists Hanin Elias and the late Carl Crack.
↑ Sansone, Glen (24 May 1999). "Atari Teenage Riot Arrested"(PDF). CMJ New Music Report. 58 (619). Great Neck, NY: College Media, Inc.: 3. ISSN0890-0795. Archived from the original(PDF) on 11 June 2024. Retrieved 22 December 2021.
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