I keep hearing shit about this band so I went over to their MySpace and was sorely sorely dissappointed.
What the fuck is this crap? Rage Against the Machine white boy rap rock with some lame cookie cutter breakbeaT???
When I heard the term “digital hardcore” I was thinking like some crazy cool shit like The Locust without guitars or something but this is not nearly as cool. Just lame rock with a standard breakbeat and crappy vocals about fighting the power etc.
Am I missing something?
I think it’s okay, but I was into them 10 years ago - when technology kinda limited the possibilities…no, that’s a cop-out. They always had that DIY lo-fi thing going on, even when others were using software to create lush electronic symphonies. It pretty much comes down to the incoherent, “fight the power!” crap like you said. Alec Empire, the “boy” singer, went on to be an interesting name in the techno field, but it’s not much in evidence here. I guess I have to put it down to my being 16. Oh, well.
However, without them to lead the way, there prolly wouldn’t have been acts like Mindless Self Indulgence or Le Tigre, both of whom do Atari Teenage Riot better than Atari Teenage Riot ever did…
Mindless Self Indulgence or Le Tigre, both of whom do Atari Teenage Riot better than Atari Teenage Riot ever did…
ouch, you really think so? to each their own, but le tigre doesn’t do it for me and i don’t find them to be edgy at all, even for lesbian music. But i’d probably love MSI if i was still 17. no disrespect to either any MSI fans or people who are 17, but when you get around 30 you’ll know what i mean. at the time, when i first heard ATR, probably in 95 or so i was blown away. i didn’t love the politics but it was pretty heavy for electronic based music. now i was a dumb ass kid with questionable music tastes but i loved ATR. i think they sound pretty “dated” now, but to me there was nothing like them back then. i also thought acts like Bomb 20 and Shizuo from DHR were pretty outstanding. especially Bomb 20 considering he was like 17 when he made a lot of that music.
good god, when isaw them open it was horrible. how can poeple stand them? i’d much rather listen to MSI. even thuogh i wouldn’t listen to either. ucky.
I liked them when they first came out. A different sound for the time.
To each his own opinion. I also like magic sam (blues)
Yeah, that’s pretty much what I was getting at. I liked it when it was new, but that was a decade ago, before I mellowed enough to appreciate Jazz and ambient soundscapes. Any number of angry 13 year olds would absolutely love ATR, which is what I think it was made for. And it serves that purpose well.
Le Tigre doesn’t do it for me, and I don’t find them to be edgy at all, even for lesbian music.
Yeah, not a very good comparison on my part - Le Tigre is way poppier/more upbeat than ATR, but there are three or so songs of theirs that I can think of that capture the intensity that ATR was going for, only much more skillfully.“Don’t Drink Poison” comes to mind. Le Tigre makes me hop about my house, all retarded-like, with a big grin on my face.
I have to mention, though, that I’ve now had ATR’s “Kids Are United” stuck in my head all damn day. That one really was rather catchy.
ATR is horrible…
Check out Error or Rabbit Junk / The Shizit instead.
Meh. I liked them when I first heard them (1997 or so?). I got their first North American release which I think was the best of their first two European records.
I bought 60 Second Wipeout and really didn’t like it all that much. They were great for their time but became very dated very quickly.
I did try to listen to some of Alec Empire’s solo stuff - I have the Generation Star Wars album and it just didn’t do it for me.
You have to remember that when ATR came out in the mid-90s nobody else was doing anything like that. It may sound boring now, but at the time it was considered quite cutting edge.
Ehh mid-90s? Fusing breakbeats and hard rock?
They might have been the first ones to do it but the idea should have been pretty obvious to anyone and it just sounds like shit anyway.
Yeah Error and MSI do it way better and even then it’s kind of just meh.
I hate breakbeats anyway, just that same stupid boom boom cha chikka chikka boom cha over and over…
I really like Atari Teenage Riot. It was awesome to see them open for Ministry in 1999. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t’ve gone to that concert. Coincidentally enough, though, I became a bigger Ministry fan after seeing the show.
I saw them open for Ministry and it was alright except their only lighting effect was a huge fucking strobe that WOULD NOT STOP. I guess that’s part of being challenging or something.
I love their collaboration with Slayer.
ATR were alot of fun, 60 Second Wipeout was a nice bit of progression from Burn Berlin Burn. My biggest complaint about ATR is that they only seemed to use that James Brown ‘Funky Drummer’ break. By 2006 this beat is pretty played out, and even in '96 that break was wearing thin.
Digital Hardcore is alot easier to make nowadays, but back in the early/mid 90’s that stuff was alot more work to put together. Bomb 20 was great, I was an Ec8or fan as well. Hanin Elias’ solo album was pretty good too, I guess she’s doing more of a new wave type sound now.
My Brother-In-Law and I used to come up with some fairly ATR-esque stuff, a little more Dnb/Jungle influence, more guitars and more Pop sound. Fun, mindless music to do. The Fight The System’ message gets old after awhile, as the Mole/RGB haters know well.
I loved Delete Yourself and other choice cuts, but not much more than that. Not a fan of solo Empire, either.
Wow…think I’m going to have to disagree with you cats, I love the ‘TR and Empire’s solo stuff…that said I’d be listening to their slightly earlier shit like Delete Yourself in with The Prodigy and Altern-8 and what not, rather than say 60 Second Whipe Out with NIN and Ministry, if you know what I mean…sure their ‘anarchist’ message seems more than a little contrived at times ( and yer wan Hanin is a consistently irritating ho’ ) but they’re fun for some cheap, fast vaguely angry music, with a rather contrived political message ( a little like Ministry nowadays, non? 
)…to be perfectly honest they’re one of my favourite bands…
As for Alec Empire, I love his solo stuff…especially that ethereal, funky synthy shit on disc 2 of Intelligence & Sacrifice…
He made a CD under the name Nintendo Teenage Robots where they used Gameboys to make music. Haven’t heard it, though.
He made a CD under the name Nintendo Teenage Robots where they used Gameboys to make music. Haven’t heard it, though.
Now THAT sounds freaking cool! I’m assuming you mean the big ol’ clunky ones, yes? Because that somehow makes it legitimate…anyway, yeah, I need to find this!
There’s this underground thing where music and videogame nerds are using old consoles to make music. There’s supposed to be a CD out there called Nanoloop that uses the Nanoloop program to make the music. Merzbow did a song for it.
haha Merzbow did a song using some old videogame software?!?
fuck man, it just can’t be Merzbow without some white noise!
although he is delving more and more into bleepy bloopy techno noise or something lately…